Republican farmer., 1918-05-31
WILL BUILD UP SHOE TRADE WITH
 SOUTH AMERICA

Washington, May 24-For the as- 1 sistance of American shoe manufac- turers in eniarging their South Amer ican trade, the Bureau of Foreign ana Domestic Commerce has importe1 l more than 150 samples of the kinds of footwear most generally used in | Latin America and will publish soon series of special reports ct the | South American shoe trade by Her man G. Brock, of Brockton, Mass, who recently returned to this country after a long tour as a special agent for the Bureau.
 The best opportunities for the sale | of American shoes found by MT. Brock, to be on the west coast of | South America. High grade shoes are scarce there, while the countries are very prosperous from the sales of unusual quantities of nitrates, other minerals and foodstuffs at war | prices. On the east coast there is | an over-production. of fine shoes by the numerous and up-to-date factor ies in Argentina. Uruguay and Brazil. | Argentina recently doubled the duty on imported shoes for the protection of home industry and tariffs in the other two countries also are highx Peculiarities' of the Latin-Ameri- can foot must be considered in mak- ing goods for sale in those countries It was with this in mind, particularly that the Bureau collected representa- tive styles of shoes to illustrate the very high instep, broad ankle, short camp and high heel, which the South American demands.
 In styles, the South American fac tories generally copy American types 1 adapted to local conditions. The modes are varied frequently to main tain the advantage of domestic over imported shoes. Niceties of finish are required, rather than long-wear' l ing qualities, and objection frequent 1 ly has been made to high grade Amer ican-made boots for women because there was some roughness of detai or because they were too heavy. Th' South American buyer wants piano finish" even on the bottom of thu soles, which must be flexible ant light and any loose threads are like ly to prevent a sale.
 Another demand made is that sho' uppers should come together owe the instep, which is directly contrar. to ideas of a perfect fit in this coun try.
 Except in the very large cities there is NO such thing as fixed pric for an article. Every purchase the occasion of much bargaining, S
 that the American custom of stamp ing prices on the soles of shoes not in favor.
 American machinery is used almos exclusively in the South America
 factories. Buenos Aires alone ha
 more than 200 factories, some c
 which have daily capacity of 500
 pairs.
 Before the war, England led in tn
 sale of mems shoes to South America
 Austria, France and Switzerland sol the bulk of women's and children shoes, but all of the Austrian pro
 duct was cleared through Hambur
 commission houses and the trade sta
 tistics gave Germany the creddit fo 5 the sales. American firms have a
 excellent reputation, for fair dealint the quality of their goods and tn A manner in which the goods are pack
 ed, which probably accounts for th increase in business in recent year '' MT Brock pointed out that th
 small population of Cuba buys nor American shoes than the 50,000,0 DO 1 inhabitants of South America. H said that in spite of export restrie
 tions necessary for a successful prose cution of the war and notwithstan6 ' ing the difficulties of doing bushes abroad at present, American manr
 facturers who are seriously intereste
 in building up a permanent expol
 trade, cannot be too strongly urge
 to acquaint themselves with Sout 1 American needs.