Arizona republican., 1899-08-10
LANDS LYING SOUTH
Continued from First Page.)

!
 fraction above 1G per cent, and in
 1898, but : cer cent of our total ex-
 ports.
 An examination of our list of pur-
 chases from the Central and South
 American countries seems to increase
 the anomaly presented by their small
 purchases from us.Of Brazil. we are by
 far the largest single customer in her
 chief articles Of export, coffee and
 rubber; while from Argentina and Chile our purchases of wool and hides
 are also heavy, and for the tropical
 products of the other countries of
 South America-sugar, spices. fruits, dyewoods, cabinet woods, textiles, and
 chemicals--the United States offers 9
 constant and rapidly increasing mar
 ket From the South American
 countries fronting upon the Atlantic and Pacific the United States in 1897 purchased goods valued at $S8, ,4O8, ,199, while her safes to them in that year ! were but S24, ,4S0, ,013, or less than one third of her purchases from them; in 1898, despite the fact that to the whole ! world our sales were double the amount of cur purchases, those to the South American countries beyond the Caribbean Sea were still but about one-third of the amount of our pur-
 chases from them.
 A study of the map Of the world,
 and especially that which shows the
 relation of South America to the Uni ted States and Europe, seems to offer a
 partial exp.anation of the anomalous
 condition with reference to the trade of ail the countries lying south of the
 easternmost point of South America and stretching up it's westerly coast.
 The commerce of the world reaching
 Brazil (south Of the Amazon), Uru- quay, Paraguay and Argentina on the Atlantic coast; and Chile, Peru,
 EqUador and the interior state of BO- livia, on the west, must reach them by water and their sales to other parts of the world must also go by water An examination of the map and routes of steamships, the sole vehicles of trans pOrtation for these countries, shows that the markets Of Europe are prac- tica,ly as near to all of South America fronting on the Atlantic and Pacific as are those of the United States. The easternmost point of South America extends 2600 miles farther east than New York, and the sailing distance from that point to New York is ac- tually greater than that to the cities of Southern Europe and but slightly loss than to the principal commercial cities of England and Germany, our greatest commercial rivals This fact of itself would place the United States upon practically an equal foot ing with Europe in the matter of prox- unity alone; but when it is considered that nearly all of the steamship lines entering South American ports are controlled by European capital and European interests, it is not surprising | that a large share of their commerce should be diverted to Europe. | Naturally a considerable share of their | exports goes direct to Europe. and i to that extent, it would be quite | reasonable to expect that their pur- chases would be from that part of the | world.
 The fact that the exports from the United States to Europe greatly exceed | the imports from Europe makes it practicable for the vessels which bring the rubber, coffee, hides and wo1l of South America to the United States to readily load at our ports with grain or provisions for Europe, and there lead again with goods for the South American markets, thus making the tour of the triangle, of which the line from New York to Liverpool forms the base and the ports of Brazil and Argentina the apex. That this should occur under ordinary cor ditions is not surprising, and that 1t should occur with lines of steamships almost exclusively in the interests of European capital and trade is to be Added to this is the lack of banking and business facilities for direct intercommunication with the United States, neglect of American merchants to closely study the trade methods and requirements of the in question, the absence Of direct solicitation of trade relationship and in the language of the country where business is sought, all of which are valuable aids in increasing our sales to the countries in question.
 That closer, more frequent, and di- rect steamship communications is an important factcr in obtaining the com nerce of countries which can be reach U only bY steamship lines is evidenced