Evening star., 1915-10-03

l 49,
The peculiarly American notion that
business is business" and that polite
ness. consideration and
Politeness and the social amenities
! p: in general have no
D"siaoss connection with it Is
dying hard. But the bureau of foreign
and domestic commerce, and especially
the consular and commercial agents as
| signed to Latin American posts, are do
! ing all they can to bring It to its death.
Over and over again the agents OF the
Department Of Commerce have asserted
that the principal reason that the Eu-
. ropeans dominate the South and Cen
tral American markets is that in their
trade relations the old world shippers
! take scrupulous care to accommodate
| themselves to the conditions and ideas
ana even to the prejudices Of their
| customers and prospective customers,
while shippers Of the United States IN
| sist on doing business according to the
methods OF their own country: The dif-
| ference Is brought out forcibly by a
agent in Colon, Panama, of an incident
occurring there.
| Shortly after an extensive fre which
burned many business houses in Colon
merchant received letters in the same
mail from English and American firms
with which he dealt. The English firm
expressed the hope that it's correspond
ent had not suffered from the fire and
stated that in spite of war conditions
, 1t would extend the same credit terms
American firm was short and made no
| reference to the calamity that had be-
fallen the city of Colon. 1t merely In
formed the merchant that. owing to
| Nf rnA{ Of
be curtailed and terms that were prac-
tically cash substituted.
| 1.-THE contrast between these letters
was striking" said the commercial
the effect they produced on the mind
Of the merchant receiving them can
easily be imagined. It is obvious that
| American trade with Central America
will not supplant that of European
! competitors until such details as these
from Europe"
Failure Of shippers in this country
to comply with the complicated details
| of Latin American governmental regu-
reason for the failure of our Arms to
| take first place in their commerce, the
bureau of foreign and domestic COM
| merce points opt. This Is empha sized
by a recent report from Costa Rica. A
| citizen Of that country was attracted
| by the catalogue of a United States
| firm, and sent an order amounting to
$19. Because Of the carelessness OF the
shipper in overlooking cu-toms reg
| ulation. the purchaser had to pay duty
amounting to $40 In spite Of its fault
the firm refused to refund any part OF
the charges its carelessness had inn
posed, and as a result lost many pros
pective customers who heard OF the In
cident.
Because of the continual recurrence
of such Incidents, and in order to assist
shippers to comply with all require
ments in the countries of pan-Amer1ca.
the bureau of foreign and domestic
commerce has just issued what Is pc
ing popularity called guide book Tor
pan-American traders"
It contains a complete description OF
the shipping documents required IN all
latin American countries and canada.
and calls special attention to pecul,ar
features of the regulations which
might be overlooked. To make the ac-
curacy Of the booklet doubly sure, the
chapter for each country was submit
ted to the consular representative OF
that country assigned to the United
States.
Because the waste Of coal under ordi-
nary methods Of combustion constitutes a
tremendous drain on
Conservation American transportation
and manufacturing in
oi NOal dustries. tfTe Depart
ment of Commerce is greatly interested IN
the plans of a steamship line on the
Pacific coast to test the possibilities or
using finely powdered coal in air blasts
for heating marine boilers. method by
which. 1t is claimed, practically every
notential heating unit of the fuel can be
utilized. An agent of the department in
the west is planning to observe closely
the series of elaborate experiments WIN
the pulver zed fuel that will be conducted
on board tug on Puget sound. ..,
The experiments with pulVer1zed Goa,
O. re- also Of interest to the governmental
f,,el experts of the bureau of mines, ana
II is probable that the bureau Will uesiii
investigations on it's own account When
funds for the purpose are aValla Die IL
hos had numerous inquiries from all parts
of the country as to the practicanl1ly OF
burning pulverized coal under various CIR
cun1stances, but because or numerous
OTHER projects under way ana iack ol
funds has been able only to re1er lhquirers
to the experiments OF others
The bureaus experts point out that the
finely ground coal has already been used
with gratifying results IN cement kfhs
and in certain me4allurgical processes
Few experiments have as yet been made.
however W. tn the powder as I've! Tor
generating steam-an entirely d'fferent
HeId and one of perhaps the greatest
economic Importance. 1t is even believed
nv some persons that the method can be
aGapted advantageously to the use OF the
navy. -, 80 +,-.,
so-called coal dust" This is entirely
too coarse. The coal must be ground
instead to an almost impalpable powder,
so fine. In fact, that it can be t~eated
practically as a fluid. 1t is then forc'piy
blown from burners like those for
handline oil. and is burned in blasts
mmch as the liquid fuel is burned.
According to the data collected by the
bureau of mines the advantages OF US
Ing pulyerized coal are good combus-
tion and resulting economy IN ,ue,' r
easy Temperature regulation. the pre-
yanfion OF smoke and the elimination
~ ash handling. The present disad-
vantares are the expense and comp1-
nation of the processes for finely pull
verfzing the coal. the breaking down
Of furnace Innings by the unnsnaily
high temneratures. the accumulation
OF ash and slag In fiue passages ana
the danger Of explosions.
Investigations into the use II pulver-
ized coal as a fuel are now being mace
NV the Railroad Fuel Association. an
0rranfxation maintained 10y Amer lean
railroads to take advanatge of all pos
sihle fuel economies. The results OF
these Investigations have not yet been
sstno,, that the roads desire to bring
the process practically to success II
tbat ia possible before mailing definite
announcements Besides the problems
involved in the general use of pul yer.
lied coal the railroads have s"ec'al
problem to solve The 1ol-ine 10 wh.cn
me uulverized coal wouli be subjected
~. ho,,lad along the roai " 1ui1