Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-03-16
LATIN AMERICAN TRADE.
Misunderstanding Our
Neighbors.
By Frederic J. Haskin.

America there has been an almost in
credible degree OF mutual misunder-
standing. To tho average American
citizen Latin America has been q great
tropical wilderness full Of monkeys and
parrots and fevers. and quito unin-
habitable for a Yankee. And Latin
America long regarded US a. lawiess.
mercenary people, bent on exploiting
every one for our own advantage.
One CT the most promising signs Of
tho times Is tho tremendous progress
which Is being N de in clearing up this
mutual ignorance. In the last few years
the Pan-American Union has grown
into q great bureau Of slt American
Information in four languages. and ITS
efforts are being ably seconded by other
commercial organizations.
Few Americans realize what q
strange impression our southern neigh
bors have obtained Of US. nor at what
parison with the European nations.
There have been several causes for
this. In the first place. many Of the
hrst citizens OF the United States who
had excellent reasons for leaving home,
and they did much to mako the name
OF Yankee anything but respected.
Then. too. for many years. only the
country reached the Latin American
cities. They heard Of violent and
startling happenings in this country,
but learned little Of our constructive
seem. Latin America is just beginning
to realize that there is a cultured class
in the United States.
Hopelessly disparate points OF view
have contributed largely to the mutual
misunderstand-
Hopelessly Differ ing. For exam
in Points of View. PIE. La :. t. IN n
solutely unable to appreciate the phil
osophy of work for its own sake. They
have heard that In the United States
old gray-haired men are .-ept in the in
dustrial harness. and to them this Is
little short of barbarism. The first duty
Of every South American is to support
his parents. and he cannot realize that
in the United States the only way to
keep father from working would be to
handcuff him.
While North and South America have
thus been living in dense ignorance of
each other. Europe and South America
have been making friends at a great
rate. When a citizen of the United
States goes to Latin America he goes
to make his pile and get out. The
Italian or Frenchman goes with his
family to open a retail store and live.
The Englishman also goes to stay. as
the representative or manager of a
British firm. The German takes a
stronger hold upon the country than
any Of the others. for he very often
marries the daughter OF some South
American family with a good CONNER
cial rating. and thereafter does BUSH
ness with his father-in-law and a few
hundred cousins
AS a natural result of these intimate
relations, 1t was European ideals and
institutions that first became dominant
IN Latin America 1t Is only within the
last few years that our neighbors to
the south of US have been learnin 6
what we really are through the efforts
of various organizations in this coun-
try. Among these the Pan-Amer'can
Union has been the leader. Under an
international franc. 1t sends to hun
dreds of newspapers in all OF the Latin
American countries a weekly article
about what great Americans are doing.
Through this agency Latin America has
learned that Yankees invented the
aeroplane and perfected the telephone
and were the first to speak across a
continent. The articles sent out by the
Pan-American Union are In Portu-
guese, Spanish and French, and they
are invariably published.
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