The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-06

few pertinent facts relative to the wonderful trade opportunities offered our manufacturers of cotton goods in Latin America were given In The Age-Herald of Sunday, July 30. This article proposes to deal with the present opportunities and future possibilities opening to Alabamas coal. iron and steel products in Latin American markets
 Lest the reader doubt the authenticity Of the facts presented and deem the writer hereof merely an idle visionary, l beg to quote from the address of Mr.. J. A. Farrell, president of the United States Steel Corporation, to the Pan- American Commercial Congress held In Washington, D. C., last February.
 AS any one who studies the progress of nations can perceive, the producing capacity of the United States has reached q point far exceeding the consumption, and the ratio of excess Is assuming great CT proportions each year. It is therefore imperative for the manufacturers of the countryato look beyond it's borders for markets wherein they can profitably dis pose of their manufactures, and naturally our geographical position points to the vast country lying to the south of Us as U market which should enable us to se cure a portion of the trade commensurate to our position as one of the foremos. producing nations. Since the establish ment of the Pan-American union much has been accomplished to develop trade with these countries Our neighbors have always found in the United States the greatest and best market for their prod ucts, statistics showing that we give them more in trade than we have received; the reason for this being that, until eompar- etively recent years, we, as nation, have been largely interested In the in- ternal development of our natural re- sources and have given little thought to the development of foreign trade, except as our requirements or necessities im- lelled us''
 Again, ''The completion of the Panama canal will give a wonderful impetus to Pan-American trade. It is impossible, at this time, to fully estimate the benefits that will accrue to the manufacturing ano industrial interests of the United States }. and Latin America. We are justified in believing that it will undoubtedly prove yone of the most profitable investments ' ever made by our government, aside from it's being a national necessity"
 The president of the United States Steel Corporation is not visionary, take it. sJust one little paragraph, dealing with the product he is personally interesten III, speaks volumes: Tn 1910 the manufacture .ers of the United States exported 10 the .Pan-American states steel products of an aggregate value of $2lOOO,O00 as against q total of $35, 1000, exported by Euro iIean manufacturers to the same coun. tries"
 While addressing this same Commercial Congress MT. John V. Noel, editor of Peru Today, Lima, Peru, was asked . What is the demand for rails and steel products, bars, plates, steel for bridges and buildings, etc.? To which he re- piled; I cannot find words to describe the importance of the steel industries in ithe Argentine Republic. It is so immense that it is beyond my powers of eloouepce to tell you how it is. We have at the present moment open to the public about 5 17000 miles of railroads, and good rail- roads. This we have to thank the English rfor, because they have opened the coun- f try, and it is only fair that they get a 2 good dividend. Our government has reai- sized the fact that the future of our coun- 4rtry, in order to get as great as we want Ito make It. like the United States, we Ahave to open up the country. In the tEouthern part are all kinds of wood, which Els just as good as any in the world. We Lreaize that we cannot get the wood if we do not have the means to transport it. 2 You know that about 250. .0O000o acres 2 of our ground is fit for agriculture. We sioannot expect a man who comes to .Buenos Aires to go down here to Rowson and cultivate and compete, if he does not have the opportunity to transport his