The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-07-18
(By w. w. Finley, President of the
Southern Railway

(By w. w. Finley, President Of the
Southern Railway
Washington, ID. c., July 13.-Re-
ferring to my letter of December IA,
1908, to editors of Southern newspa-
pers, on the interest of the South in
the expansion of our export trade
with the Latin-American countries, 1
take the liberty of addressing you on
the great Importance Of direct and
regular steamship communication be-
tween the South Atlantic and Gulf
ports and those countries.
| II is obvious, of course, that if the
products of the southern states are
Ito be sold in Mexico, Central and
South America and the West India Is
lands they must be carried to those
countries. Mexico is the only one
| with which we have rail cOmmunica-
| ton, and to a great part of that cOun-
| try, especially from our territory south
| of the Ohio and Potomac rivers and
! east of the Mississippi, traffic can be
moved efficiently by water as well as
! by rail. There are direct and regular
| lines from some of the South Atlantic
| and Gulf ports to some of the MeXi-
can, Central American and West In
/ dian ports There are no such lines
/ to any South American port. New
|
! coast from which there are regular
! steamship sailings to ports south of
| Venezuela. There are four regular
| steamers per month from New YORK
/ to Brazil; seven to the River Plata,
and three or four to the west coast,
making a total of seventeen or
! eighteen. From European ports there
are fourteen to BRAZIL eighteen to the
/ River Plata, and three to the west
total of fhirfU The
inferiority of the service from the
/ United States is even greater than is
! indicated by the comparative number
of sailings, as the steamers from Eu-
ropean ports are generally faster and
have superior passenger accommOda-
lions.
/ BY Tramp Steamers.
From cur South Atlantic and Gulf
ports there is occasional cOmmunica-
! ton by tramp steamers with ports
I south of Venezuela, but as a rule such
/ of the. products of the Southern states
as Ind their way into the markets of
/ South America are sent through
Northern ports. In fact, a considera-
/ BILE proportion of the exports from
/ the United States to the east coast OF
| South America, south of Para, Brazil,
go from New York across the Atlantic
! to Europe, and across the Atlantic
again to South America For in
stance, in a report on trade condi-
lions in Brazil by Special Agent Lin
coin Hutchinson, published by the
| Bureau of Manufactures, it is stated
| that at least so per cent of the Amer
| lean hams sold in Brazil are shipped
by way of England, and considerable
/ proportions of other kinds of traffic
move by the same route.
Sufficient Volume of Traffic.
It is sometimes argued that If our
merchants and manufacturers would
devote sufficient attention to cultivaC-
| ing Latin American trade, and would
| develop a sufficient volume of traffic,
| there would be no difficulty about Sc
curing adequate transportation facili-
! ties. To a certain extent this is true.
| There are large numbers of So-calied
/ tramp steamers constantly looking for
! traffic wherever it is to be found, and
any shipper in any American port
| who had a. full cargo for South Amer
| lea would doubtless have little diff
Guilty in finding a ship to carry it.
| The difficulty is that our merchants
/ and manufacturers, in their efforts to
| build I'D trade with the Latin-AmeTi-
can countries, come into competition
with European rivals, who are gen
| orally receiving aid, either in the form
| Of subsidies or of liberal payment for
| carrying the mails, from the countries
whose flags they fly. Vessels from
| these countries sail on regular sched-
ules. The South American merchant
| ordering goods in Liverpool or Ham
! burg by mail knows when his or
4 der will be received, by what steamer
it will be shipped, and just when he
may expect it to arrive If he sent
! his order to the United States, unless
/ il was from one of the comparatively
few points having regular sailings,
| he could have no idea when it would
| be received by the American shipper
or when the goods would be shipped.
| Therefore, while it is true that, after
/ trade has once been developed, there
would probably be no difficulty in OBJ
| tanning all the ships needed to carry
| it. the difficulty Of building up such
| a trade is greatly increased by lack
| of direct and regular steamers carry
| ing the mails and passengers as well
| as freight. In the report on trade
/ conditions in Brazil, above referred
| to, Mr. Hutchinson tells Of instances
/ in which it took twice as long to get
/ mail orders from the United States
as from Europe and says: In a
| very large part of our Brazil trade
4 the mails are an important factor,
| and there can be no doubt that many
orders which might otherwise go 90
our manufacturers go to Europe in
! stead" In a similar report on trade
conditions in Argentina, Paraguay,
and Uruguay, Mr.. Hutchinson says:
There are some direct mails to the
/ River Plata, but they are carried on
| slow freighters and the service in
general is greatly inferior to that
! from Europe, both in dispatch and in
| frequency. Constant annoyance and
| delay results, and merchants who
have no direct American ties will,
other things being equal. place or
ders in Europe rather than in the
| United States"
There are differences of opinion as
| to the methods which should be
L n nj fnrrr-