Evening star., 1899-04-01

good manufacturers,
but bad sellers. We
make the best machines, the best eottons'
the best tools and best drugs, but we don
know how to dispose of what we make
I have found that the Germans. the Eng
lish and the Beigians are beating US III
every one of these cities. The same con-
dition exists in Montevideo. We don't get
our share of the foreign commerce OF uru-
quay This country bought s2o.ooo,oo
worth of goods last year and less than
S2CNOtS0 worth of this was furnlsned py
Yankees The bulk of the remainder came
from Europe 1t consisted in large part Oh
American goods, reShipped to TINS point:
Much of it was made up of tnltatons Oh
our machinery manufactured IN GefIHdhy'
Sut,h things are sold down here as o1 Amer
lean make for the Germans are bound 10
hold the market if they can This IS es-
pecially so as to sewing machlnes- Ier-
many does the most of the business supply
ing poor limitations OF our pest hno"h
American machines
Th,. situation here in regard to American
trade was well described TO me the other
night by Mr. Crocker. the manager OF one
of the biggest importing firms OF Moh.e-
yideo He has been in business here for
years and deals especially in American arti-
cles. Said he:
Tnilz with an Importer.
There is no doubt that American
goods are the best. The people here
want them. and notwithstanding the oppo-
sition 1 find the sale of them steadily in
creasing. We have taken $50 tons of goods
from New York within the past two
months and We expect an increase II is
hard to get the people To try new thlneS,
but when they get a good article they SUCK
to it. Take for instance. blue denims Ne
had great trouble in introducing them.
but We now sell them by the hundreds OF
pieces. We have many orders for VIM
chester rifles and We sell all kinds or Amer
lean articles There are imported into Cru-
quay every year more than one hundred
and fifty different varieties of things from
America Nearly every one OF lnese seiis
at a big profit, and the amount sold might
be greatly increased. What our people need
to do is 20 study this market and to look
upon il as their own.
Il think our merchants are beginning 10
do so" said ].
THAT NAV be-" replied Mr.. Cocker. but
If so We have no visible evidence of it. The
exporters at home lose thousands of dol
lars by not understanding what these peo-
pie want. They lose vast amounts by bad
packing. The Uruguayan importers are as
sharp as the Yankees They take advan-
tage of every fault. and if they can claim
rebates on any ground they do So Take
kerosene. We get it from the United
States. II comes in cans. put up in
pine boxes. II the outside boxes are at all
stained by the weather or damaged by
jures the goods and want rebate. 1t
makes no difference whether the kerosene
has leaked out or not. Why, upon lot
of such goods received q few weeks ago
rebates to the amount of more than $1,000
were demanded, and have no doubt they
were allowed.
Another trouble is the matter of credit.
The Germans and English will give SIX
months all orders, and the Americans
want spot cash. They Will not send goods
on consignment. There should be a large
warehouse here for the display of Ameri-
can goods, and the big institutions of our
country should have goods here on consign-
ment. to be paid for and delivered as they
are sold
American Machinery.
During my stay 1 have gone through
many of the MOntevideo stores which are
handling American goods. 1 see that quite
a number OF our agricultural implements
are sold. but am told that we have nothing
like the trade in such things we should
have We lead now as to plows, but we
are behindhand in threshers. Our reapers
are Just beginning to make headway. We
should send the most of the hoes, rakes,
threshing machines and galvanized roofing,
but Great Britain has the monopoly in all
these lines II has also the lead in iron
and lead piping, and it stands first in wind
mills
found one make of American windmills
in Chile and the same make scattered all
over lnS Argentine II was universally
conceded that the mill was far better than
the English mills. and / see no reason why
such windmills should not be sold in Uru-
quay. The trade should not be confined to
one make of windmills, for we have many
other mills which are equally cheap and
equally good
How a Yankee Drummer Got an Order
Then as to reapers. We ship reapers to
all parts of the world, to Japan, South
Africa, to Russia and other parts of Europe
There is no reason why we should not have
the bulk Of the trade here If the reaper
agents will work the country. An instance
occurred recently which proved the su-
periority of the American over the English
machines One of our reaper drummers
had a sample machine here in Monteyideo
He was told that he could not get orders
because the English machines had the rur
Of the trade. Through the aid of Consu
General Swain he secured connective
trial of the American and English machines
1t was held on one of the big farms The
two reapers were placed side by side Then
before hitching up. a boy was asked by tht
American TO lift up the tongue of the En-
glish reaper The boy tugged and pulled
but was unable to raise IT. The American
then told the boy to lift the tongue of tn,
American machine with one hand III,
tried II and the tongue rose up as though
10 were a broomStick. The agent thereupor
put his little finger In the ring in the end o
the tongue and thus raised 1t from the