The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1914-07-09
COUNTRY EDITOR IN PANAMA
Commercial Aspects of the Panama
Canal

Canal
What will happen when the cana. il
opened?
This question is agitatins the mind.
of the great majority at the presen
time.
Those who are not in a position t
know exactly the situation as it is are
somehow of the opinion that a grea.
commercial awakening will at once b,
manifest.
Those in a position TO know are o
the contrary opinion.
| have talked with harbor masters
sea captains, shippers and engineers
and they are not looking for a grear
upheaval in the paths of commerce
In time, yes. But not at once. The
country will have to be developed first
and lines of trade opened up.
South and Central America are as
yet unacquainted with the United
States. There are in these countries
thousands and thousands of acres oil
~undeveloped land which car be made
to produce a%bundantly. All the way
down the Pacific coast extends a vast
desert, backed up and screened from
the rainfall by the Andes mountains,
This desert only lacks water to make
it the richest producing ground in the
world. The mountain streams at the
back make possible all kinds of irri-
eating schemes. 1t has been found
that cotton will grow in paying guam
titles on this land and Of a staple
which at present is one of the most
valuable on the market.
No region in the United States can
feel the immediate benefit of the new
route to the same extent as the South
ern States and the vast valley of the
Mississippi. The latter territory, the
richest in all the world, one and a
quarter million square miles in extent,
intersected by five thousand miles of
navigable waterway, with prolific soil
and energetic people, will find new
markets and a new outlet for its varied
products other than expensive railroad
transportation. Chicago is nearly the
same distance from New Orleans as
from New York, but st. Paul, Omaha,
Dubuque, Evansville and Denver are
nearer to the former than to the lat
ter. 1t is quite probable that the pres
ent generation will see ocean steam
ships coming down from Dubuque
through the great lakes, an inland
canal, and the Mississippi river, to
the Gulf of Mexico and passing on to
the Pacific and Asian ports.
But all this will take time. There
will be no immediate increase in trade
for the route will be new and it Will
take time to attract the attention of
shippers to the advantages of this
route. Another thing which will him
der is the evident disregard of Ameri-
can exporters of the advantages of
South American trade. The average
American is as ignorant of true con-
ditions south of the equator as he is
of the laws of the Hottentots. We
will have to learn that If we get their
good will we will have to approach
them in a different manner than We do
now. We must study their ideals and
learn to approach them on a common
ground of understanding. We win
first of all have to learn to speak Span
ish and how to approach these people
and show some common understanding
of things as they are, and be able to
talk 1t over in their own language.
Germany and Great Britain have
learned this lesson long g and they
are enjoying a fine trade with South
America. We send our children to
school and learn them Latin and Greek
and possibly . little French II we de-
to be real fashionable and when
they get all through they are about as
useful as q golf stick at the. break
FAST table. II we followed the German
idea We would learn the language Of
the fellow who could do Ne Tie most