The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-07-26


ed pasodas where the people native to
the soil are Buddhists who think
| more OF acquiring merit than riches,
Rangoon, with Its remarkable record
for recent growth and its great future
as an Asian metropolis, is as ana
chronistic In appearance as an English
made coat upon a Burman still wear
Ing q flaming silk skirt adorned with
embroidered peacocks. More than any
| other city east of Suez. It suggests q
rapidly blossoming boom town of the
steam crane has not yet entirely sup
planted the elephant piiing teak logs
In the saw mill yards. and the pune
tuality of the West 10 not yet q fea-
ture of business negotiations In the
great commercial houses, Rangoon Is
much buster looking than any other
city in the Indian Empire. The har-
Dor, filled with ships from all quarters
of the globe. loading and unloading
cargoes, presents q spectacle novel to
the eye of everyone who has thought
of the first city in the former domin-
ions OF King Thebaw as being DUH.
A reflection of the Rangoon spirit
is found in the makeup of the lead
ing morning newspaper. printed. Of
course, in English. This journal COM
monty publishes 100 columns Of adver-
of Rangoon merchants upon the power
OF printers ink as promoter Of pros
perity may be judged from the fact
that the jewelry stores publish half
page and sometimes full page display
advertisements illustrated with pic
lures of articles of jewelry.
The value OF the private sea borne
trade Of Rangoon is about 100000
900, and 1000 steamers enter and clear
the port each year. Much less than
one-third of the 100000 population is
Burmese, and from the number of In
dams seen in the streets the appear
ance of the business section 10 quite
similar to Calcutta. on the other side
of the Bay of Bengal. Rice. lumber
and oil constitute the principal arti-
cles of export from Burma, and around
,Rangoon are situated rice mills, saw
mills ana oil works through which
these products are handled. The
country imports finished products of
many kinds and these are at present
handled chiefly through large British
| and German firms which maintain
| trading houses in Rangoon and the
other leading cities.
The United States IL as yet but lit
| tie represented in Rangoon COM
rnerce, but the field, in the opinion of
! everyone who has Investigated condi-
tions. lies open to such American es-
Establishments as will enter upon its
development with sufficient vigor.
There are two ways OF building up
trade in the Orient. The British way
is to get on the ground first, in the
wake of a conquest whore the terri
tory is British, and make the natives
buy what English manufactures turn
out. The German method Is to get
upon the ground, usually a little la
ter find out what tho natives want,
manufacture II to meet the demand.
and overcome the British by extra ef-
fort in the direction of pleasing the
customer by both prices and methods
of dealing. Both British and German
methods entail the establishment Of
trading houses that carry large stocks
of goods. The theory is of piece
with the military maxim that an in
vasion Is likely to fail when the van
guard is too far from the base.
The American method, SO far, has
been to send travelling representatives
into the Orient with large stores of
samples. 1t has not prospered be-
cause of the necessarily great delay In
| filing orders A drummer" from a
large American house recently arrived
In Rangoon with twenty eight trunks
J full of samples. A mail order requires
a month or more for transmission. an
other delay is caused by the shipment
/ OF the article OTueFeos anu IL IL iS
| found unsatisfactory the something
little different" which may be found
| in stock in a local trading house usu-
ally gets the second order. II Amer
| lean manufacturers would establish
trading houses as bases of supply they
might claim q fair share Of the trade
| in Burma.
In expectation of it's attainment of o
larger growth Rangoon has been laid
out in the European quarter. upon the
liberal lines that characterize the
greater Indian seaports. Bombay and
Calcutta, but II IL without the vast
and lonely spaces OF Madras Road
building, fetch of the British In all
| of their foreign possessions. has made
Rangoon a city of fine boulevards. and
her parks are the most beautiful in
the Indian Empire. One OF them in
cludes a lake of sufficient area to af-
| ford good sport for boat club boast
ing a fleet of sloops and knockabOuts
| as well as a flotilla of rowtoats and
| canoes.
The weather in Rangoon varies from
warmth somewhat trying to the con-
stitution, to heat altogether trying to
the disposition. In all seasons 1t is es-
sentially tropical. Europeans who are
permanent residents have adopted a
plan of house building radically differ
ent from that in India and most warm
countries where the thickness Of
brick or stone walls is relied upon to
give house cave-like GOODNESS de-
! spite the assaults of the sun. Most Of
the pretentious Rangoon homes are of
wood Many Of them are not frame
houses in the commonly accepted sense
of the term but merely OF box" con-