Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-07-31
south, AMERICAN TRADE
I OBJECT OF LOCAL EFFORT
Richmond Business Men Branching
RI Out for Big Extern
I sion Effort.
WARS GREAT OPPORTUNITY
Charles Lyon Chandler Discusses
q Prospects From Point Of View OF
* Expert-Great Need as for More
81 Vesscls-Many Now Being Built.

BumerS among lnelT CUSTOMERS MS
ston was Immediately taken after the
Spening of the Panama Canal. which
made Newport News and Norfolk
among the principal Atlantic seaports
Since the James River offers an OPP
sportunity for steamers to load in Rich
nond, with only a few hours differ
ence in time between this city and the
Atlantic. business men see great trade
opportunities. The Richmond Chamber
of Commerce, about TWO years ago, inl-
< tinted this movement with a banquet
B. at the jefferson Hotel. when the mat
ter WAS discussed at length.
lsN With the United states now at war
4 with Germany the opportunities are
greatly increased. Charles Lyon
Chandler. of the southern Railways
South American Agency. recently DIS
cuSscd the many benefits from such 4
business He said that at the out
: break of the European war the English
merchants and exporters did them
selves incaiculabIe good by announc-
ing business as usual" England
knew perfectly we'll that it was. just
as much a part of her preparedness
to keep up her foreign trade as 1t was
to send guns and men over to france.
4 WHAT GREAT BRITAIN
~ SENT TO SOUTH AMERICA
TX SFor the eleven months ended NO
Sember. 1916. Great Britain exported
TO Central and South America 4i9.ooo'-
600 wards Of cotton cloth, as against
o7s 200 600 wards in the same months
OF 1915, and 2T6.O00,0o0 yards in the
corresponding period of 1914. Before
the war, in the same months OF 1918
which was the record year OF import
trade in Central and South America
Great Britain's exports OF cotton cioth
to these countries were only I4.ooo,ooV
wards more than those for the eleven
months in 1915.
az These figures show what good care
GREAT Britain is taking OF just one OF
her eSport products despite war con-
ditions To be sure. England had
tremendous merchant marine at her
disposal just as the United states mao
in the Napoleonic wars. Eng iand also
: had n well-organized system OF SNIP
: building which has been of incalculahic
benefit TO her. and she has not Jagged
behind her people in promoting ana
sustaining her foreign trade.
: France has not been backward
either She has sent spec'a! rcprs
sentatives TO many countries in south
! America, and although her export
business has been much more crippled
than EnEland's owing TO the fact ina
so many Of her factories we're IN 'he
hands of the Germans the brave hsh'
that she has made to hold her foreign
trade is worthy of admiration and
! study. After the first cNcitemen OF
the entry OF tho United states into IT'S
first real foreign war IL over. no one
should neglect his export opportunity.
particularly to the South American
countries which are SO eagerly sup
porting this country in the position IT
has taken.
tGREAT ECONOMIC
yS ADVANTAGES OF WAR
&; "a war has tremendous economic adj
yantages." Mr. Chandler said
fi' NO industrial country has ever gone
TO war without learning intensified cf-
.fciency in every branch Of manufac-
ture and industry. For forty years
after the Napolconic wars Eucl was
the bargain counter OF the world. Her
merchants went into every part OF the
world and her trade prc-emincncc be
came unQuestioncd in many countries.
The impetus given to British manu-
facturers during the thirty years previ-
Gus to ISIS has been OF incalculahle
benefit to England. The Franco Prus-
sian War did far more good for the
German empire commercially than po-
litically. II was only after that war
when the German industries had been
mobiliZcd and organized and the Ger
man chemiStS had begun TO play their
part in prct2 red'ftss. that the German
steamship lines started To ply all over
the world, German banks were found
ed in competitive foreign markets. and
united Germany was commercially
aroused.
9i This is exactly the time when
American firms should send their rep
rescntativcs TO the different South
American countries II for no other
purpose than 10 carefully investigate
4 the markets there for their respective
products. one hundred years ago the
United States had far more in proper
ton OF the commerce OF Latin America
than to-day. The War of 1872 had Sc,
simen thinking Of something bigger than
their own little communities This
war mad followed period in which
the British armies in Spain and Portu-
sigal had been fed by vessels from AIcx
$andria. Norfolk and Charleston There
has never been a case of history re.
peafinS itself so precisely applicahlc
as conditions then and to-day. our
enormous shipments TO Russia in 1915
are paraileied by the $4,000, 900 which
we exported TO that country in 1911
American shipping then crowded ,bc
ports of Russia
MANY FORTUNES FOUNDED
~ DURING WAR OF ISIn
as so anxious We're the Europcan co,,n
t!ies TO nave our supplies that il was
nearly two years after th.. War ~ 1870
was declared before Great Britain
,olockadcd the United states coasr nor,b
OF Cape Cod. Even All through maj
EAr Nesse!s from the Chesapeake and
foIomac Kept receiving special Iiccn.o.
70 carry cargocS o. Virginia ana N,,,N
iand wheat 10 Wc!liugton's armies 7,
NE perfectly true that at that lin.
mere were wealthy families in Rich
tmond and Norfolk who could no, ~
8 lord 10 have sugar on rbnir ,a,I,
fDecause OF the interference. win our
e west Indian trade, but the founda,ior
hanE fortune on our coast ports
was iaid IN the shipping of this period
~ he nrst thing To do in reni ,,ro
tpaIeoheSs Is 10 permanently build I'm
our shipbuilding facilities The ted'
81 eFa shipping Board has inaurnr.,nd
80 most patriotic ana far-rearhint.
movement by promoting the cons,rmr'
- tioh OF wooden vessels in various nor,s
nelner we consider this from a
Stthoney making point Of view or fron,
u; mat or mere preparedness. i, 60 an
ol the most vital steps that We ms,
taKe to insure our commercial in%a'
reuehce. rms is particularly tru. o,
the southeastern ports. of which ~
fltoik is the only one thus far tba, has
t4 carried sh!pbuiiding TO any ser;on,
~ extent. IT is true that vessels arc 49,
Gms Quit at Savannah, Brunswick
81 md ~,