Evening star., 1915-05-23
BY CHARLES M. PEPPER.

-HE pan-American financial con-
ference Is causing comment
over the small part which it IS
q assumed that the United States
has had in developing the countries to
the south Regrets are expressed for
the past. with hopes for the future
Regrets are uncaIed for. The United
States. through it's people. has done
great deal of pioneer work in develop
ing all the southern countries. That
the trade is relatively so small is due
to other causes The conference, While
not cure-all for unsatisfactory trade
conditions may prove a remedial agent.
The personnel of the conference as
shown in the delegates from the other
countries demonstrates that there are
a number of what would be called in
this country representative business
men with Yankee blood in their VEINS
This is reminder of the pioneer work
which was done by North Americans in
Central and South America.
There were three distinct classes of
these pioneers. One class was the sci
entists chiefly explorers Among the
most distinguished of these was Prof
William Orton. who half century
ago made important contributions to
the geographical and other knowledge
of South America. Prof. Orton died on
the scene of his labors.
second class OF the pioneers was
that which engaged in mercantile at
fairs. Some of these were captains OF
the old clipper ships who rounded the
Horn and who gave UP seafaring lie
to engage in trade. On the west coast
there are a number of very familiar
New England names. and these are OF
the descendants of Massachusetts and
Maine shippers.
others of this class went out the
representatives of big mercantile
houses in the United States A number
Of them settled at the mouth OF the
Plate or in Buenos Aires. In Monte
yideo today the American colony draws
much of its vigor from the third gem
Grafton of Boston wool merchants
Buenos Aires. as the commercial CEN
ter of a great undeveloped aericui-
tural country. drew to itself a number
of enterprsing young men for whom
commercial careers were marked out
In the days when the United States had
q mercantile marine.
One of the Argentine delegates. Senior
Samuel Hale Pearson. is the grandson
OF Samuel B. Hale, a Boston merchant.
who established his firm in Buenos
Aires more than eighty years ago.
Senior Pearson is a director in the Bank
of the Argentine Nation. and is fdenti-
fed with numerous corporations and
business enterprises He also has been
president OF the famous Jockey club.
The name is so distinctively not Span
ish that most of the fellow -countrymen
of his grandfather find il difficult to
call him by the Spanish term for MT.
and think of him simply as Mr.. Pearson.
but in Buenos Aires he is Senor
thing to do with big business.
Another of the Argentine delegates,
John E. Zimmerman. is. by nationality.
of the United States, although he has
lived in Buenos Aires for half cen
tury. One grandfather was Robert
Hamilton, the United States consul in
Montevideo for a quarter of century.
beginning his term of Office as far
back as 1926. His other grandfather
had settled in Buenos Aires few years
earlier.
Mr.. Zimmerman was vice president of
the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange. and
Is identified with the chamber of COM
merce. but he is also known as the
president of the North American So
ciety of the River Plate. 1t was this
society which. in 1910, in commemora-
tion of the centenary of Argentine in
dependence, presented to the Argentine
nation the statue of George Washing
ton. This monument occupies promi-
nent place near Palermo Park.