The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-30

have adopted as a prominent and valu- able feature of their campaign work the business mans excursion. Every year hundreds of special trains loaded with wholesale merchants and business men make tours through the country adja- cent to the large distributing points with the sole object of becoming personally acquainted with their customers, and bringing into the cold praeticality of an established business relation that inti- mate touch of frienship and mutual un- derstanding so necessary to the continu- ance and growth of sound business. Naturally when the Spanish war brought about the great awakening in American commerce, and manufacturers began dimly to realize the immensity and im- portance of the great markets of the far east and south, they turned to the business excursion as proven weapon. with which to force entry into the citadel so strongly garrisoned by English Ger man, French, Spanish Italian and Bel gian adventurers of commerce.
 Committee after committee represent ing manufacturers associations and chambers of commerce. usually composed of high officials of industrial enterprises, make hurried trips to South America.
 Hitting with the rapidity and enthusiasm of Cooks tourist on a $500 ~splurge in
 Europe rom country to country and
 from capital to capital, arriving home with vague kaledeoseopic memory of customs difficulties, American consulates,
 banquets, where they listened to inter-
 minable orations in a language they could not understand. and replied with
 a md ,tra ,ul ,fnh hla
 idioms to bored audience of local poli-
 tfcians, representatives of European
 banking houses and diplomats, with
 slight sprinkling of genuine business men
 of cities with flat roofs, multi-coored
 soldiers, hotel bills with the date added
 in. second rate museums, going without
 breakfast, etc.--but in the vast majority
 of cases without even a glimmer of un-
 derstanding of the conditions to be en-
 countered and the difficulties to be over
 come in a struggle for commercial su-
 premacy. where strength must be meas
 ured with the very best that Europe
 produces. and certainly without having
 left behind that favorable impression tho
 making of which is the excursions prime
 object.
 The writer is certainly not foolish enough to deny that in order to ob- t. III our fair share of South Amer ican trade ft Is necessary for our bus mess men to understand thoroughly the conditions which prevail on the south ern continent or that the only way to obtain such a knowledge Is to go down
 there and find out, but he is willing
 70 say right out in meeting that 1t is his firm conviction. based upon years Of observation that the average jun keting trip made by Chamber of Com r,erce committees or manufacturing as sociations is not only waste of money
 but source of positive harm to Amer ican interests The Argentine for in- stance is a very large country produc- ing within its borders almost every staple food product, with a population varying according to climate and po- litica1 and ethnic history. It's business c istorls, its laws, it's general outlook upon life, its very methods of think ing are radically different from our | OWE. A years residence is hardly ade- quate to obtain anything like a thor ouRh understanding Of the steps nee
 essary to divert its trade into our chan nels-yet this Is the usual routine of a visiting committee to the Argentine: They arrive, say on Monday, and are met at the docks hy a representa- l tive of the American legation and are conducted to their various hotels. Short l ly afterward they arc called upon by a committee of welcome from the local stock exchange and loaded into auto mobiles They visit the port. of which Baenos Aires is inordinately proud. and are there served with the "copa de champagne" without which any South American function is incomplete. They r1ctor up the Avenida de Mayo and out to Palermo, a handsome park on the outskirts, ard are given a glimpse
 of the ralatial residences which line Cordoba. Charcas and other streets. | They are then entertained at a welcome luncheon. listen to and make | speeches and drink q "copa de cham pagne." In tEe afternoon another com msttee shows them the new subway
 ana the management invites them to
 take "copa de champagne" Imme- dately after a visit to the Congress l hall, fondly termed the Palace of Gold" because 1t has cost about four
 times the original estimate and the
 end is not yet. there being contractors in the land where the president of the | Senate or the House regales them to a
 "copa de champagne. This is followed | hy vif>t to the stock exchange and
 more champagne. Then the Jockey club. wealthiest and most exclusive in South America. where they admire the solid onyx staircase and consume a "copa de
 champagne" In the evening they arc entertained at a banquet, probably mu- nicipal, where there is much oratory,
 
 of international exchange of soft soap with a "copa de champagne" for ev cry toast--toasts being numerous
 The next morning. delivered to the tender mercies of another committee relay system-they visit the pack ing houses where most of them are on familiar ground. These establishments are not located in the midst of an arid desert Then to the foreign office. where the secretary for foreign af- fairs. or a representative. receives them with formal respect. effusive compli- ments relative to the greatness of the "Coloso del Norte,' and--well, they do lit even there. Then another luncheon. more oratory and more champagne. Should Tuesday happen to be feast day they go out to the hippodrome and
 watch the ponies run around one of the finest tracks in the world. acquir- ing familiarity with. the mutual sys- tenn of betting, if they have not all ready made its acquaintance In Paris. It there is no racing, quite probably they will be asked out to the Outlines brewery. the largest in South America, like everything else in Buenos Aires
 where for a change they drink copa de cerveza In the evening another ban- quct, more toasts and more champagne
 On Wednesday morning they prob ably have few hours to themselves As most of them have brought wife or daughter along. the morning Is spent in opologizing for previous neglect and assisting the fair sex in the purchase of picture postcards, the taking of snapshots. and the discussion of the dress and bearing of the ladies of the Argentine Luncheon. toasts and cham pagne cannot. however, be escaped. Nor