New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-03-10
Our Chance in Latin. America.


Congress had happy inspiration
when it voted $4,000 to be used in de-
fraying the expenses of conference IN
Washington next May between leading
bankers of this country and the finance
ministers of the Latin American repub-
lies. The rupture Of financial relations
between Europe and South America, due
to the Great War, has given the United
States the best opportunity 1t has ever
had to become an important factor IN
South American development. Mexico.
the West Indies and the Central Ameri-
can states have drifted more or less
within our sphere of influence. But we
have never made sufficient efforts to
strengthen our position with these Gus
toners. and so far as South America is
concerned we have never really competed
with Great Britain and Germany in sup
plying commodities or in furnishing cap
ital for the promotion of local enter
priscs.
Now the way is cleared for the entry
of the United States into the South
American market. The Southern re-
publics have been made to realize that
their natural community Of interest Is
with us rather than with Europe. Our
stability is not menaced by the rivalries
which divide and weaken the great
powers of the Old World. We are a
people devoted to peace and industry,
and with resources which will soon
greatly outrun our own needs. We have
a surplus Of manufactures TO sell TO
South America and are in position to
displace Great Britain and Germany to
a large extent as maker OF South
American loans.
The greatest obstacle to an extension
Of trade relations with our Southern
neighbors has been the lack of banking
exchange facilities. Our bankers must
work together with our exporters in get
ting a firm foothold in the South Amer
lean market. Fortunately, the reserve
system banks are now authorized to es-
tablish foreign branches, and our bank
ing relations with South America can
easily be made as intimate as Great
Britains and Germany's are.
Secretary McAdoo put the cart before
the horse in his statement when he said
yesterday that the passage of the ship
purchase bill, of which he and President
Wilson were the chief hackers, should
have preceded the assembling of the
financial conference. Mr. McAdoo knows
as well as anybody else that ship pur-
chase bill affecting American trade only
could have passed Congress Mr.. Wilson
and he refused to make that limitation,
and the bill failed because its passage
would have dangerously complicated our
relations with the warning nations of
Europe. There can be little objection to
government aid in establishing South
American lines, and Congress will I'M
doubtedly give such aid if it is sought
in a proper manner.
But without the facilitation Of ex-
change and credit more shipping would
only tide over a temporary emergency.
We want to keep the market which the
European war has tossed into our lap,
and we cannot keep it unless we create
proper banking facilities. American
bankers could not do more patriotic
work at present than to divert their
capital available for foreign use to South
American countries. Loaning money to
European belligerents will not benefit the
United States. But money loaned to
Latin America will do work from which
the whole country will eventually profit.
1t will help to break down the artificial
barriers which have shut us off from our
South American neighbors. 1t will make
practicable that permanent increase in
trade which we have long talked about,
but never really worked for.
When credit facilities for that larger
commerce are furnished, there will be
little trouble about finding additional
cbinc