Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1900-06-20
OBSTACLE 70 rRApggxpANsloN
Lack OF Direct Steamship Lines TO
Leading South American Ports.

ID AZ JSN Ouly III 3 INFANCY. NOl uhlh
our people supply South America and
Asia with the larger part of their !m-
ports will the United States have
reached the position In the worlds for
eign trade to which it ~ entitled both
in the quality and in the prices Of its
productions. One Of the greatest OBJ
stacles to our trade expansion is the
lack of direct lines of American
steamships to the leading ports of
South America. This is matter
which cannot be explained too often,
nor can too great emphasis be laid up
on the consequences of our neglect.
Scores of lines of fine steamships reg
ularly ply between Europe and South
America. These ships carry to the
Republics of the South Infinitely more,
In value, than they take from them.
The United States, on the other hand,
buys infinitely more from South Amer
lea than it sends there.
For a dozen years the Republic of
Argentina offered a subsidy of hun
dred thousand dollars year for di-
rect line of American steamships with
Buenos Ayres. if the United States
would pay an equal amount. Congress
paid no heed to this long standing of
fer, and it WIS finally withdrawn. Even
the resolutions adopted at the conclu
sion of the Pan-American Congress-,
held in 1889, pledged the RePaolics of
South America to pay subsidies to
American-built steamships !. establish
ed in lines trading directly with them.
Nothing has been done by Congress to
secure the gifts thus lavishIy prof
fered US by our good friends to the
South.
1t is not surprising to find the new
Minister to the United States from the
Argentine Republic pointing out the
lack of direct steamship communica-
ton between the United States and his
country as the real reason for the
smallness of our trade, and the large
ness of European trade directly trace
able to the many lines Of steamships
plying between Buenos Ayres and
Europe.
Argentine's Minister to the United
States, DIR. Wilde, in a recent interview
said that al a eonfc1 ence lctween the
Presidents oe Erazil and Paraguay,
held while he was on ilis way to the
United States, "they agreed with me in
acknowledging the necessity of a closer
intimacy between the two continents,
who an be accomplished in one way,
the establishment of direct lines of
commerce" Here we have the chronic
obs tacle to our trade expansion Brought
clearly to our attention.
Minister Wilde makes it infinitely
clear in the following statement. well
deserving the attention of our peorl5
who are so interested in inc securance
of new foreign markets FOR our sur
plus products:
My government will gladly join
with The United States in extend
ing a subsidy to one or more regular
lines of steamers between the Rio de la
Plata and some important port of the
United States. AT present we must
ship the greater part of our commerce
with this country to Liverpool for re-
shipment to the United States. Under
such unnatural circumstances there
must of necessity be lack and diff
Guilty of imports not favorable to the
parties interested"
Tue conclusion, based upon the fact
stated, is undeniable. 1t is notori-
Gus fact that American manufactures
shipped to the Argentine by the way
OF Europe have been placed in ware
houses and kept there for months, in
the meantime foreign merchants send
ing to the Argentine the very things
which the Argentine merchants had
ordered from the United States. An
noyed at the delay they have taken
the European goods. and when the be-
lated American manufactures arrived
they were not accepted. Our eonsuls
have pointed out that our manufac-
tured articles pay twice, and sometimes
three times as much freight to South
America as the Identical things pay
when shipped from Europe if Amer
lean goods were laid down in South
American ports at the same freight
rates that European goods are, In a
short time our manufacturers would
supplapt the Europeans in supplying
South Americans. These conditions
loudly call for the early passage of the
Shipping Bill ut the next session of
Congress.