The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-13
FOREIGN TRADE
 BUREAU PLANNED Chandler Made Speech on
 Subject Yesterday WHAT CANAL MEANS
Says English, Germans and Other Countries Are Already Hard at Work Promoting South
 American Trade


 Work Promoting South
 American Trade
 The local Chamber of Commerce will have a foreign trade committee. whose duty it shall be to assist in every way possible the manufacturers of this dis trict in extending their foreign trade. The committee will keep in touch with foreign ports. United States consuls and the foreign trade department of the department of commerce at Wash ington and will have all the necessary data on tap at the call of local man ufacturers. This was decided at the regular monthly meeting of the Cham Der of Commerce at o'clock yester- day afternoon, when the members ex- pressed unanimously their desire to have such committee. President Shook will appoint 1t within few days. c. |. Chandler was the speaker of the day yesterday. MT. Chandler is South American agent for the South ern railway and allied lines with head quarters in Chattanooga He is an ex- pert on lO1tlSn lTdue. fie tOIO nlS hearers how best to go about extend ing their trade into South America and laid particular stress upon the fact that Americans have not as yet began to take cognizance of the fact that the Panama canal will be potential trade builder. He pointed out the sev- eral European countries had seen the advantage to be derived from it and were even now organizing steamship companies to operate through it. Foreign Trade Bureau The Chamber of Commerce has been talking for sometime of establishing a bureau on foreign trade. MT. Chand- ler's coming yesterday has hastened the matter somewhat and it is the belief of local manufacturers that it will result in a wide extension of trade for them.
 MT. Chandler's speech in part fol- lows:
 Practically nothing has yet been | done in the south to take advantage of the Panama canal as compared with the efforts now being made by Eng land, Germany and other European countries. The Spaniards have started a steamship line through the canal and the Japanese are about to do so; yet I do not know of any southern cor poration which has started any such line under the American flag. Again, the English technical papers have paid great attention to this matter and one of them, the Hardware Trade Journal, has sent a special commissioner to | investigate the new markets to be opened by the canal. Germany has more than doubled her appropriation for the l 6 n in South America since l907 as was point ed out by Congressman Cline in his splendid speech in the House of Rep resentatives on May IA last, while our appropriations have only been increased by about $So,000 during the past six years
 Needs Co-Operation
 My most important duties are to ad- wise southern merchants and manufac- turers as to where their products can best | be sold in Latin America and the West | Indies generally, in order to aid them in extending their trade in these rapidly de- veloping countries. In other words, am here to help you, Birmingham people, without any expense to you, but can do lnothing without the cooperation of intel ligent, far seeing trade bodies like your selves. am glad you are to add to your list of committees, one on foreign trade
 know of city in New England which has less than one-eighth of the population of Birmingham which has foreign trade committee in its chamber of commerce. Through their constructively energetic sercetary. who is almost as busy as your lexcellent MT. Radcliffe. That committee of that New England chamber secured over $400 900 worth of various orders in the first year after it was founded.
 There are 43 sugar mills in Argentina. Over $50, ,000.000 is invested In the Argentine sugar industry, and the Argentine gov Iernment and people are making every ef- i fort to promote it. Here our European competitors have found a good market for sugar machinery, which is admitted free of duty in the Argentine republic. Now that the Louisiana market is not what it once was for sugar machinery, why not turn to other worlds to con- quer?
 l According to official statements is- I sued by the Argentine government in 1911, STA, ,360, GOO Is to be spent on developing the sewer systems of the city of Buenos Aires alone. This does not include the sums that are to be spent on the interior cities of Argentina, although the supplies of all of these are bought by the general bureau of sewage and waterworks. sit uated at Calle Charcas 1S40, Buenos Aires.
 Germans Busy
 While you Birmingham people have cee'i c.ieine aHu tnihhihs dDout ehis puSi- ness the Germans and English have been very active. Last year English firms se- cured over <500,000 of this money, which IS being gradually spent for sewer pipe of various kinds. and the Germans have also secured substantial orders. All of this might have come to Birmingham If you had done what the English and Ger mars did, and sent highly trained Spanish speaking representatives to Buenos Aires who submitted bids after a close study of local conditions. Now, don't want any of you to send down a few price lists or catalogues to Buenos Aires on tfffs sewer pipe matter. If 1t is worth going after at all, 1t might as well be done right At the start, because the game is cer- tainly worth the candle Furthermore, many of the tenders call for bids in s dnys, and this cannot possibly be attended 
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