The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-03-10

| of utilizing this occasion for pushing American-made goods into the markets | of Central and South America, which | might easily be done if our manvfactur- CTS would adopt the same means that | they have adopted in extending their trade at home.
 Unfortunately the eccentric manner in which we have treated the Latin-Ameri- can market has not been beneficial to our export trade and we only sell little more than s6.0o0000 annually in Central America and about s4O.OOO.oOO annually in South America. Indeed during the last three years our exports to South Amer lea have fallen off considerably, although the purchases of our neighbors in Eng land and France continue to increase at rapid rate. This Is due to a number of reasons,
 In the first place no American ship sails between the ports of the United States and those of any South American coun- try except Colombia and Venezuela. We are entirely dependent upon foreign steamship lines for our transportation facilities and they take very little inter est in building up our trade. Nor will this condition improve much until we have direct and regular steamship com munication.
 A second reason Is that the manufac- turers of the United States are spasmodic in their efforts to build up a market in Central and South America and only take the trouble to push their goods down there when trade Is dull at home. Dur ing the period from 1885 to 1895 an earn est effort was made to introduce Ameri- can merchandise. and it was generally successful. If you will look at the fig ures for those years you will notice that hl1t crease in the exports. This was due to the invasion of the Latin-American coun- tries by an army of drummers sent down there to sell the surplus output of our factories for which there were no buyers in the United States. If this spasm of en- terprise had been continued until now 1t Is very likely that we might have had our share of those markets. but as soon as business began to pick up at home and the demand was as great as the supply our manufacturers dropped the Latin American market and would not bother with 1t any longer. They had all they could do at home, and what was the use of bothering with the foreign trade? This short-sighted policy will be regretted when the pendulum swings back and we have another period of commercial de- pIession.
 English and German manufacturers generally have permanent agencies in all the cities of Central and South Ameri- ca which not only introduce their goods but make the personal acquaintance of their customers study the peculiarities of the markets and make frequent reports to their principals at home. On every steamer up and down either coast. In ev- cry hotel, on every railroad train and on every stage coach you will find German commercial travellers, who adapt them selves to circumstances better than those of any other nation.
 These commercial travellers take Ger man merchandise right into the shops kept by people of all nationalities and solicit orders. whereas almost all the trade of the United States is done on commission and includes only such things as lumber, petroleum provisions and oth- CT artices that cannot be purchased any where else.
 The retail trade of South America is rapidly passing into the hands of Ger mans. The business streets of the small CT towns as well as the large Aties are lined with signs bearing German names. The English stick to the wholesale and commission business, but you find Ger man retailers in every line of trade and naturally they are interested in pushing German goods.