Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-03-17

long held the field in most Latin
| American countries.
| One exception to this is Chile. where
large percentage Of all the furniture
| in use 10 American
| U. S. Furniture made. which fact is
Used in Chile. s aus Largely zs v 20 ' an
American Of irish descent, who had
gone to Chile when a small cn1io.
| had married a Chilean woman and
gone into the furniture business at
Santiago. He made fortune selling
furniture, mostly of French and AUS
TRAN make, and when about forty
years of age decided to return to the
United States. where he had never
could find some of his relatives.
At the first metropolitan hotel he
visited In this country his profess
sional attention was i HnI,e d an, az
stanriaI quality of the lobby furniture
He asked the hotel manager in what
European country 1t had been manu-
featured. as he did not recognize the
can make he was almost !ncredulous,
but Immediately decided to let his rela-
tfyes go until he had visited q rev
American furniture factories.
The result that he ordered a
large stock of American furniture. and
1t Immediately achieved tremendous
vogue in Chile, for the excellent reason
that 1t was better stuff for the money.
grades goes from this country to Chile
In pieces and unvarnished. Most OF
the larger dealers keep expert men TO
put the goods together and finish them.
elS.a n-
ished with English stains and varnishes.
Before leaving the matter of goods.
word should be said about packing for
the Latin American
How to Pack market The diff
for the Trade. been greatly esag-
serated. Not onc-half OF 1 per cent
of all the goods sold in Latin America
ever has to travel or the back OF
mule Generally speaking, the export
er will he perfectly safe if he follows
the directions for packing that come
with the order. Occasionally, special
precautions are necessary in packing
certain goods, so that they VIII with
stand the effect of the tropical climate
encountered in some parts or south
America.
construction camps in some of the hot,
moist Brazilian valleys must be packed
in steel drums, for il sent in sacks 1t
will be set before It reaches Its destf-
nation, and, therefore, OIL couise, /
worthless
matter of equal Importance about
which q gerat deal less has been said
Is the varying standards OF measure
ment in Latin America. The conti-
mental or metric system of MEASURE
ment Is the accepted one in most Latin
American cities. and such informa-
tion as the sizes of clothing must De
set forth in millimeters and centime-
ters. not inches and feet For example.
most of the collars sold in Rio de
Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Santiago de
Chile have the sizes marked upon
them in both systems. NO mistake Will
be made IL only the metric system was
used But the English system means
nothing to most Latin Americans. Cloth
a yard wide is very confusing to
Latin American woman. because She fs
used to meter widths. and neither by
logic nor by mathematics can sne
calculate how much stun yard wide
it will take to make her dress.
With regard to statesmen for Latin
America, it is certain that. there are
none better
Saleemen f)uoht than Americans,
provided they
to Speak Spanish. can speak the
language and are willing to stay in
the country. but these requirements
seem to be hard to fulfill, and what we
need above all things Is more statesmen
in the Latin American field Just at
present we are outnumbered about Ave
to one by other nationalities. Sixty
a
town Of Guayaquil on a single train.
and just five of them were from the
United States.
The plain fact of the matter is that
although Americans have more aptitude
for selling goods than any other ma
tionality on earth. they are not gen
orally accomplished linguists. and they |
do not care to live anywhere except in |
the United States. This state of affairs |
has led to the suggestion that Ameri- |
men of other nationalities, and this has |
been done to some extent with ex- |
cellent results.
One advantage Of employing foreign |
ere is that they will work for a great
deal less than Americans. German and |
English commercial agents in Latin !!
America draw salaries that a good |
salesman in the United States would |
consider about enough for cigar money. |
And they are usually willing to Jump"
for small raise. Germans and Eng
lishmen, however. do not make the best !