The Washington herald., 1917-11-19

can markets. xAnother, policy needed
is thorough understanding. not only
what each Of the South American ma
tions require, but also how to meet
these demands by offering for sale
commodities which reflect the highest
skill Of American manufacturers and
yet with prices that are attractive.
Then. too, our banks are aiding in
Increasing our South American trade
by establishing branch banks there.
The Electric Companies.
Already the American nanufactur-
ers Of electric apparatus and also Of
steel and iron commodities have
gained a good understanding OF the
best methods Of marketing their prod
ucts In South America One OF the
electric companies grants very long
credits, at the same time Offering its
apparatus at reasonably low prices
and demonstrating the perfection to
which the manufacturers Of this ap-
paratus has been carried. In this way
it has secured q large trade In South
America.
1t Is for the most part manufactured
products that South America Is now
seeking from the United States. In
4 IdCIR very NAlC BANoNOA RoAS VI
] our exports to South America and
certainly almost all of the increase Of
more than $1o0, 100000. in the first
eight months of 1917 as compared with
! the first eight months OF 1914, is due
to the export OF our manufactured
articles. 1t Is q fair inference that we
are gradually capturing South Amer
| lean markets for our cotton cloth. Be-
fore Germany lost her South American
trade she was the chief rival Of Great
Britain in the South American mar
kets for cotton goods, although a Pc
culiar kind Of cotton goods was ex-
ported to South America from Aus
tria.
How great has been our increase in
the export of cotton goods since 1914
Is illustrated by the fact that We sold
to the South American people in eight
months OF this year cotton goods of
the value of $6,000,00O although in the
corresponding months of 1914 We found
great difficulty in marketing as much
as s., 000, 900 worth Of cotton goods.
This increased market for cotton
goods in South America means a great
deal to the highly developed cotton
manufacturing industry of the South.
1t may explain in part why it has been
commercially practicable to establish
a chain of cotton manufacturing
plants which bisects North Carolina
and penterates South Carolina, whose
power is furnished by the hydro-elec-
tric plants.
Iron and Steel Exports.
Detailed reports Of the money value
| of the iron and steel manufactured
4, products exported to South America
are not now at hand, but they must
constitute much the larger part of
the increase. We shall have at the
close of the year a very large debit
balance upon our international trade
with South America. Very likely It
will amount to as much as $3.50, 600, COO.
This will prove to be of great ad-
vantage to the South American ma
tions.
How greatly we are dependent upon
| South America for raw material,
much the greater part of which we
formerly bought from other nations,
Is shown by the report which tells
Of our imports of wool, copper and
indla-rubber. OF course we have,
| since the Chile nitrate fields were
developed, imported large amounts of
nitrate. But the time is not far back
in the past when our chief imports
from South America were coffee and
hides. Our textile manufacturers
have been compelled to turn to South
America for supplies of wool, and
how greatly the South American ma
tiOns have served US in the wool
| emergency is shown by the fact that
our manufacturers in eight months
bought nearly $10o0O0,0OO worth Of
wool, or a little over 1900. 900 more
than they paid for wool which was
bought in South America in the like
period of 1914
1t was inevitable that we import
large amounts of copper from South
America, although much the greater
part of the copper, of which the value
in eight months was $50, 1000 came
from mines which were operated by
American capital which had receiv-
ed concessions from Chile and Peru
We should increase our information
al trade with the continent to the
south of US so that within a few
years it will aggregate at least s, 900. =
OC0,OO for 1t Is now $620,OOO,OOO, or
four times as much as 1t was as
recently as 1914 HOLLAND.