The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1918-07-16
PURE BLUFF IS.
HUN TRADE WITH
SOUTH AMERICA
German Claims To Holding
The Commercial Throne
Gross Exaggerations.

tI,y Associated Press TO Tho Banner]
WASHINGTON. July 12-Pcrsistcnt
stories of Gormany's commercial
achievements In South and Central
America and the generally accepted
boast that German goods had COM
plotely captured those markets fade
under the intense light of careful In.
vcstigation into merely German pro-
paganda, circulated with the idea OF
soaring all other competitors out OF
the field.
william c. Wells. chief statistician
for the Pan.Amcrican Union, is au-
thority for tho statement that for sev.
cral years before the war Germany
actually was losing ground In South
and Ccntarl America and that the
greatest gains were made by the Unit
cd States.
Just prior to the European war;"
says Mr. Wells, German trade In
most of Latin America was in danger
of immediate dissolution. For thirty
years, II is true, German trade showed
a large and progressive growth-but
this was almost entirely at the ex-
pcnsc of France. In 1911, German
trade reached It's apex. In Argentina
was centcrcd the German efforts to
capturc Latin.Amcrican trade. In
/ 1911 tho percentages of imports from
the seven leading commercial cOun-
tries to Argentina were as follows:
United Kingdom, 29.G; Germany. 18;
United States, n.3; Italy, 8; France
1914; Belgium. 53; and Spain, 81. And
this was Gcrmany's best year. In thir-
ty years Germany had increased her
proportion of the Argentine trade "a
percent. Italy gained 81 per cent. and
the United States gained 141 percent.
All the other countries except Bel.
GUM lost, France most heavily. Most
of the German gains we're at her cx-
pcnse.
"In fourteen of the Latin-AmCriCan
countries, Notwithstanding the strenu-
GUS efforts made by Germany to &C.
quirc or to preserve the trade. the re-
suit had been practically failure. The
. tries was only slightly over eleven
percent of the whole and less than
onc.fOurth of the imports from the
United States.
"Wonderful stories have been told
and are yot being told of German com
mcrcial success in Latin-hmerica. The
spreading of such stories is and al
ways has been part of the German
/, program. 1t creates an atmosphere
; which is supposed to have a depress
ing effect upon rivals. The English
. French. Italian. or American exporter
y is apt to be rcticcnt about what he Is
D doing i'm foreign countries. Not SO tht
J. German. He claims everything ant
= then some.
O "As illustrating that. some time ag,
}. story came from BuenOs Aires t.
l. the effect that agricultural machiner,
from the United States imported In
1t to Argentina since the war was civ
o ing great dissatisfaction; that Gel
d man machinery used prior to the wa
q was much better made and more sui
able to the country. This story. wit
e. much detail as to why tho Germa
|c machinery In general use in ArgeI
t.,t
t. published extensively in the Unite
IN States with no comment whatcvc
r. The facts arc that Germany had n
e, hold ON Argentine agricultural machil
IL cry imports. She had been ouste
I'd from this field more than twent
no years ago horse. foot and dragon
he American machinery had done Ii
at Ousting because it was better mao
ne and more suitable to the country an
the crops. The trade was more int
Dd liSCntly handled by American cxpOl
lis ors and as II consequence they sccu
SC cd It,.
be Both Germany and the Unite
for overseas trade in manufacture
J. but Germany was first In the liel
i German manufactures were pOuril
+ into the Latin.American field fro
Mexico to Argentina in cOmpetiti'
"1 with British and French goods yea
before the United States was shippil
anything to these countries. exec
-. flour Goldfish. lumber and the III
-. Yet in 1913, prior to the outbreak
49,. the war. The United States had pass
h,s Germany in fourteen of the twen
countries of Latin-America-
the United States exceeded Germa
In exports to these fourteen cOuntri
n, in the ratio of more than 4 to l-$1S
I'm 412.096 to $43,S22.0O5.
nm. ''In the remaining six countries q
- gcntina Brazil Chile, Paraguay,