Omaha daily bee., 1911-09-24

to Latin America and more than s5.oOOOOO to
Mexico.
Congress has made an appropriation of $780,
900 for these commercial travellers this year, and
the time will come when the scope of their work
will be much wider than it is now; they are doing
much that their number will be increased, and
it is the intention of the department to have each
Of them spend part of his time in the United
States coming in actual contact with exporters
and manufacturers and giving them suggestions
to foreign trade and how to develop 1t. The
experts cotton will visit the cotton centers and
those on steel will go to the steel mills and steel
shippers. 1t will be the same with every branch
of business. Each industry will be told where and
how 1t ship its goods to the best advantage and
the faults which prevail to dealings
with foreigners will be pointed out and corrected.
Late Information as to Packing
Among the important things which the bureau
of manufactures has been recently doing is the
gathering fresh information as to how goods
should be packed. About year ago a pamphlet
of this kind published and it created great
deal Of comment since then am told that our
shipments have been improved and that something
like 80 per cent Of the goods now sent abroad
properly packed. The worst work is that done in
the export OF raw cotton The bales are poorly
put up; the burlap is iron and great deal of cot
ton is wasted. Our consuls say that the Russians.
Egyptians and East Indians have much better cot
ton bales than have It is claimed that alto
gether something like $40 100000 worth of dam
ages is lost to railroads through improper packing.
From the consular reports which have recently
come / find many comments as to the improve
ments in packing. Consul General Mason, at
Paris says French exports very much bet
put up than they have been in the past but that
our packages often too heavy, and that the
goods should be arranged that they cannot move
inside the boxes. Consul General Skinner, at
Hamburg, says that our packing is as good as that
of any in the world, and that bad packing usually
comes from new firms that do not understand the
market
Other consuls and especially those OF Asia
and South America, urge that the goods be packed
in waterproof boxes or bales, and that they be so
fastened that pilfering is not easy. The Chinese
consuls say that the knot holes in boxes should be
covered by pieces of tin nailed on the inside and
that all packages for the interior should be made
so that they could be carried on wheelbarrows or
by porters
Animal Transports
Many of the consus urge the packing of goods
In small parcels In Arabia and Africa much Of
exports go inland on camels, and the ordinary
beast will carry only about 400 pounds that the
boxes should be of 200 pounds. to fit each
side of the hump. In interior Bolivia American
goods carried on llamas, the loads of which
restricted to 100 pounds, but there the load is
fastened upon the back that there be that
much in one package A donkey will carry from
so to 100 pounds, mule about 200 pounds, while
from fifty to seventy-five pounds is good load
for a man, If he has to make long journey. In
Siberia all boxes which weigh 500 pounds
should be fitted with skids, there is way of
handling freight in the eastern part of that
try, and the marks the packages should be
EAglish and Russian, metallic paint being used
In my talk with Mr.. Baldwin he referred to
ness in the leading cities and ports outside
the Trade Directory which has Just been issued
by his bureau. This is volume big as a die
tionary which contains the names of 1885, 900 bust
tn eUnited States. These names have been sent
in by the consuls and they should be of value TO
all those who sell goods abroad. The book is for
sale at S. which about the cost Of publication