Evening star., 1916-02-27
at-Salesmen Drum Up Trade for United States

the great American tinplate industry
will find ii a great convenience to he
able to buy from nearby domestic
smelters. II will be a satisfaction to
know that we are no longer paying
foreign concerns for smelling our s50,
100000 worth of tin. Probably half of
our total consumption will be smelted
at home now. But there is a larger
view to take. The boats that are to
bring ore from Bolivia will take down
American goods for South American
markets Bolivia. for one. will buy
goods in this country that she never
thought of buying here before. Prob
ably in the end we shall he doing a
hundred million dollar business with
Bolivia. counting exports and imports.
where we formely did very little.
The material contracted for in Bo-
livia is not exactly raw ore. tn
crude ore is concentrated mechanically.
and the concentrates, or barilla. as the
Bolivians call it. are then shipped. The
barilla is smelted and then further re-
fined. The Bolivian ore is more dim
cult to manufacture into product
suitable for the tinplate industry than
Straits tin. but the plant at Perth Am
hoy is equipped to do electrolytic re-
ining that will turn out a tin 1926 per
cent pure. which will be quite equal
to the best Straits
There are now ten commercial at
taches. with Offices London. Paris.
Berlin. Fetrograd. Lima. Peking. Santi-
aso. Rio de Janeiro, Melbourne aud
Buenos Aires
Prior to the organization of the at.
tache service the bureau of foreign
and domestic commerce depended who'll
ly upon the consular service, comprie-
ing about 400 consuls and travelling
special agents, never exceeding ten in
number. The bulk of the information
collected for the bureau and distributed
by it has been furnished by American
consuls
There In consul in ns,r,y .y.r,, ,r,
portant city In the world. and he IL in
an excellent position to keep in touch
with commercial and industrial condi-
tions. He is also in good position to
find specific opportunities for American
manufacturers. Most of the materisl
published in commerce reports is fur
nished by the consuls. The consul,
however. is busy man. He has many
other duties than collecting CONNER
cial information. He must certify in
voices of shipments to the United
States. acting In this respect as a part
of the Treasury Departments machin-
cry Tor collecting revenues. Then he is
often called on to act in a diplomatic
capacity for the State Department, by
which department he is employed. And
at times he Is very busy looking after
American citizens, who can get into
more complications abroad in one year
than they can, or do, at home in a life
time.
For this reason the consul cannot de-
tion that would take all his time for a
month. say. Nor can he pursue such
an Investigation very far from his post
And. of course, he is seldom fitted to
undertake Investigations requiring
more or less technical training.
X
To make thorough Investigations Of
the markets for specified lines the bu-
sending out special agents A special
agent usually undertakes the investi-
CATION Of some one item in certain big
field. as shoes in South America, cotton
goods in the far east, cottonseed oil
in Europe, etc. The agent is a special
list. II the bureau wants to find out
what the chances are of selling ma
chine tools in South America, it picks
out, by examination, a mechanical en-
gineer who has had plenty of shop ex-
perience and is also familiar with the
selling end of the business, and who
can speak English. Most of the reports
of these special agents are published IL
monographs, and the agents also travel
around the country meeting American
manufacturers who have questions to
ask. This personal contact between the
agent and the very men for whom he
has in reality been working is made
much of in the bureau.
But the consuls and special agents
cannot cover the whole field it was
found. A third type of representative
was needed, one who would be a resi-
dent business diplomat, one who could
keep in touch with what was really de-
veloping in important business, either
in front of or behind the scenes; one
who could go right after something big
on a moments notice and stay with il
to the finish. These are the commercial
attaches, the drummer diplomats.