Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1912-12-08

to the Isthmus of Panama.
Americans own the shipping which comes
to Guatemala. The United Fruit company
has steamers twice week to New Orleans,
and it frequently sends ships to New York.
Its steamers fly the English flag and they
have English commanders. but they are
bought with American money and they car.
ry little else but American freight and pas
sengers. The reason why the fruit company
uses such steamers is because under the
navigation laws all steamers sailing under
the American flag must be built in the Uni
ted States, and ships can be bought more
cheaply in England.
3 The English steamers are not always sat
isfactory to the American passengers. The
English captain is sometimes inclined to be
cocky and to show his preference for his
own country On voyage few weeks ago
an American woman took the American
flag which was hung at one side of the side
board in the saloon and raised it up little
higher than the British flag which decorated
the other side. She thought this joke, but
the English captain did not see it that way,
and he thereupon ordered the steward to
pull down the American flag and leave up
the British.
American Trade
II the trade here were rightly handled it
might be monopolized by the Americans,
but as it is the Germans have more than
half as much as we have and the English are
very close to them. Our exports to Guate-
mala run between two and three million dol
lars year, and Germany and the United
Kingdom each sends over million. Ger
many buys great deal more than we do
and the United Kingdom almost half as
much.
Our trade is not properly worked We
should do as the Germans. We should send
drummers here who know the language and
who have lived long enough in Latin Amer
lea to know the people. We should send
out our catalogues in the language of the
country and not in English, as we are now
doing.
Speaking of this, heard story yesterday
from woman who had been travelling on
one of the river steamers. She was standing
near the furnace when she asked the native
engineer what sort of fuel he employed. He
replied Eve use some coal and a little
wood, but the most of the fuel is composed
of catalogues sent by American business
firms printed for the Guatemala trade in
language the merchants cannot under
stand
Underpaid POSTAGE.
Another fault with Americans trying to
do business in Guatemala is thai they do not
understand the postal rates. They know
that 2 cents will carry letter to Mexico
Canada or Panama, and suppose the same
sum will carry it to any part Of Central
America This is not true. Letters coming
here require five-cent postage, and every
letter sent with just a two-cent stamp is sub
ject to fine of 80 cents or more, which is
paid by the man who receives it. Cata-
logues underpaid have similar fine. The
result is that a merchant gets an advertising
catalogue with from so to 80 cents due on it.
He pays this amount, and then finds that he
cannot read the catalogue, for it is printed
in English.
About half the business letters which
come here are underpaid, and those who re-
ceive them must pay extra postage before
they will be delivered. One Of the leading
bankers here has just told me of his expert
ence with bank in ST. Louis. The ST. Louis
bank sent letter requesting information
bearing two-cent stamp. The man paid
80 cents extra postage to get it, and then
wrote courteous letter to the banker and
pointed out the mistake and the annoyance
such mistakes caused. In reply he received
an apologize letter from the president Of
the St. Louis bank inclosing 80 cents worth
of American stamps which he could not use.
The letter inclosing these stamps also bore