Evening star., 1903-10-24
SELLING OUR GOODS
A Branch of Business in
Which We Are Weak.
DRUMMING UP TRADE
MANY OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED
THAT ARE OVERLOOKED.
If We Had Better Statesmen Our Ex-
ports Would Be Vastly
Greater.
DRUMMING UP TRADE
Copyright, 1908, by Frank C. Carpenter)

(Copyrig4t, 1908, by Frank C. Carpenter.)
Special Correspondence of The Evening star.
HAMBURG, Germany.
Uncle Sam is the best manufacturer and
the poorest salesman on earth. He knows
how to do business at home, but he tags
along at the tail of the procession in his
business methods abroad. He makes great
sales because his goods are better than
any others, but his trade is conducted in
a slovenly manner and it might be in
creased a hundred fold. Nevertheless, it
astonishes the nations We are now sell
ing billion dollars worth of goods every
year to Europe, and our total foreign sales
amount to something like three millions a
day. Our profits are about million dol
lars day and might do twice as much
and make double the money.
What we need is live men on the road,
We want Simon-pure Americans who are
educated for the trade. We should copy
the Germans. They send their statesmen
abroad to study the languages and coun-
tries where they are to work. They study
the people and make and pack their goods
to suit them.
L have just come from Russia. The Ger
mans are doing more business there than
any other nation. l met their statesmen
on every train and found their commercial
agencies In every city. The most of my
interpreting was done through Germans
who spoke Russian. l found that nearly
every man had large acquaintance and
that he knew the standing of the differ
ent merchants. Several of them told me
they had set aside the Russian trade for
their life work. and that they expected to
stay with it until they had made their
fortunes Some of these men are also
handling American goods, but they always
put the German goods first. 1t is one word
for the United States and two words for
Germany, and as a result the American
product has to be by far the better to
make a sale.
Our Statesmen in Russia.
Indeed there is not a better field in Eu-
rope than Russia for the American drurA
mer. The market there is beyond concep-
ton, enormous. Its imports are close to
million dollars day, and they will double
within few years. Russia is in the in
fancy of it's development The wants of the
people are like ours, and our goods please
them better than any other. They are our
friends, and they would rather deal with
Americans than Germans, English or
French.
Any bright young American with good
commercial instincts can go to Russia and
make a successful life business of handling
American goods. He will have to learn the
language and study the market and try to
supply it. He might get chance at the
government business, which alone would
give him a respectable income and he
could build up a trade which will net him
a fortune. There is room for scores of our
young men there, and especially in the
ASiatic provinces.
l met number of American statesmen in
Russia. The most of them were handling
reapers and mowers, threshers and heavy
farm tools. The opening there for such
machines is enormous. The Russian empire
is the greatest farm upon earth, and is
now century behind the times. Steam
plows, steam thresherS and steam
gines of all kinds can be sold. There is
q big opening for American pumps, wind
mills and gasoline engines. Heavy plows
are needed, for the country is now only
| scra tched, and where deep plowing is done
there is little danger of drought Our goods
are popular and the drummer who speaks
Russian will have no trouble in making
sales
The Yankee in Siberia.
Another important field is Siberia. That
southern part of it compares with our
wheat lands of the northwest. 1t is rap
idly settling and the openings for Ameri-
car goods are very great L have told Of
Enoch Emory, the Cape Cod boy who, ma de
million dollars in working the territory
III the past. He tells me the opportunities
for building up a business in Siberia are
enormous. The Germans are attempting
1t and succeeding. They have big houses
at Vladivostock, Irkutsk and other places,
and there is one German firm which has
eighteen branches selling everything, from
a needle to a threShng machine, and from
a seidlitz powder to a steam engine. Amer
lean machinery is already well known in
Siberia Many of the locomotives on the
railroad came from the United States.