The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-12-31
AMERICAN COMMERCE. IN THE FAR EAST
Plain Talk About the
Mistakes That
Are Made.

SINGAPORE. = Inquiry concerning
American interests in the Far East
always brings out two conclusive
points: first, as yet few of our business
men have made any serious effort to
get trade here; secondly, that those
who have earnestly attempted to en-
ter this market are succeeding. The
American who comes to the Orient and
pitches his tent nearly always gives
good account of himself. But the
one who tries to get business by what
might be called the absent treatment
method" rarely ever accompl1shes
anything The American has greater
adaptabiIity and facility than either
can beat either of them if he will meet
them on the ground and apply him
self, but the trouble is that he nearly
always wants to compete with them
from his coy office in the States,
which is impossible.
AT the present time Singapore is
selling the United States about seven
teen million dollars worth of goods a
year, while the amount of our products
coming here for the same period is
less than two millions. There is only
one American house in Singapore.
It is composed of H. j. M. Ellis,
formerly a salesman for Armour &
Company at Kansas City, and Fred
erick Eddy an ex-newspaper man OF
New York. In less than four years
these Yankee hustlers, fighting single
handed against the combined compe-
tition of the place, have taken the lead
in the trade. Their sales are now
greater than any other individual
firm in Singapore They are reaching
out to Rangoon, Bangkok and Co.
Iombo. A half dozen straight, clean
American firms residing in Singapore,
and bidding for the trade like they
really wanted it, could control the
business inside of five years.
AN AMERICANS EXPERIENCE.
I asked Mr.. Ellis for some of his
experiences in Singapore during the
four years he has been exploiting
American goods. I also asked him
for suggestions that might lead to a
more intelligent understanding of local
conditions and a broadening of Amer
lean commercial interests in this ter
ritory. He replied: "Our territory
extends TO Cey1on, Burmah, Java ana
Siam, and we travel in each of these
countries in order to keep in close
touch with the requirements OF the
trade. When we came here we decldeu
to handle nothing but American stuff,
and to work only for the development
of the commercial interests of our own
country We have made a careful
study of the methods of the English
and Germans, and we find that they
are doing nothing that the Americans
could not do if they were willing, but
as vet the methods of our manufac-
turers are very crude in comparison
with the Europeans Generally speak
ing our exporters are in kindergarten
class I will point out some OF the
shortcomings of our own people, arts
ing mainly from ignorance and in
difference.
1--WE sometimes get letters addressed
sSingapore, China Singapore, India,
and even Singapore, Zanzibar. Ere
ouently we get two or three letters
following close after each other, the
latter ones asking why we had not
replied to previous inquiries. Cen
orally the last letter was Written WIiiS
the first one was only half way to US.
MANY of our manufacturers do not
know that it takes thirty-two days for
a letter to reach New York from sing
apore. and thfrty-six from Bangkok
or Java It is not unusual for US TO
pay sixty or seventy cents excess
postage on a single letter, and this
even occurs with firms after we have
called their attention to it. Some OF
the European concerns here refuse 10
receive such letters. Hardly any other
thing tends to make the Americans
appear so ridiculous as their universal
ignorance in regard to foreign postage
rates.
FOLLOW SHIPPING DIRECTIONS
sour people at home often increase
our trouble by side-tracking orders
for two or three months in favor OF
their domestic trade. After we nave
introduced line it is imperative that
we fill our orders promptly. A de-
mand for any line of goods cannot