The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-30

learn their language but they controlled Ia large percentage of the business be-
 cause of their shipping and banking
 facilities. We had neither and therefore
 suffered.
 American manufacturers fail to print
 shipping instructions in Spanish, and
 they constantly and consistently refused
 to follow packing instructions given by the purchaser. This resulted in thousands
 of shipments remaining at the port for
 the reason that the South Americans had no way of transporting heavy pack ages One piano, destined for an Argen-
 tina city, was shipped five years ago to Antafagasta, Chile, where it still remains because it could not be transported across the mountains and the shipper
 and the buyer got into a dispute as to
 who should pay the freight from Anta- fagasta to an available port.
 "Catalogs sent to South America by | American manufacturers are printed only | in the English language and therefore
 cannot be read by the peoples of those
 countries. This is worse than waste of printed matter It means nothing to the South American people.
 Alabama, with the opening of the Warrior river and the building of an
 American merchant marine. should be
 able to supply a great part of the coal used in Argentina, Brazil and other
 
 coal in South America, and prior to the war practically all that was consumed there came from England. Since the war | began some coal has gone from this
 country, but England will try to get it | back.
 | There is no direct boat line between
 and gulf port and South America, since
 the Grace line steamers were taken off,
 after years operation. sometime ago. We must have boats running regularly and frequently between these places if
 we hope to build up an extensive trade with our neighbors to the south. Tn my opinion, based on my knowl- edge of the people gained by over eight
 years residence among them, before
 America can build up very much trade with South America her manufacturers
 must send young men down there to Istudy conditions. to learn their Ian guage and to be of the people there 1 Very little of their trading is done in
 their offices. Most of it is done in cafes and clubs while the merchants and bus ! mess men lunch. If the salesman or the | representative who has something he wishes to introduce, cannot talk with
 them in their own language-and they
 talk no ~other themseves-he had just as well pack up his trunk and come back home.
 | "The people there are intensely patri- | otic; they demand that the people they l trade with understand them and their I ways. Americans are now the most popu- | lar of all peoples the Germans the most unpopular It will be hard for the Ger | mans to regain their prewar trade, a, ! the South Americans will not care to | be seen at the cafes and in the clubs with Germans"
 | MT. Rosenfeld will be in the states until April and while here will confer 1x...tl | ciaf and industrial clubs, civic associa- tions and other commercial bodies with the view to interesting them in South America. He has held conference with General Manager P. A. Fenimore and | former President Arthur c. Crowder of 1 the Chamber of Commerce and explained | to them the necessity of concerted and systematic efforts to build up trade with South America. He says he is anxious l to meet manufacturers or others who | may feel interested in the matter and l to talk it over with them.
 | While 1 never actually lived in Bir- | mingham, being a native of Virginia,
 an instructor and experimenter in Louis | jana, and the last eight years engaged ! in experimentation and agricultural de- velopment in Argentina, nevertheless, | claim citizenship here and look upon Bir-
 mingham as my home" said. MT. Rosen- field. My father and family have made | their home here for number of years and their home is my home. I am, there 1 fore, deeply interested in the growth and l industrial development of Birmingham and the Birmingham district, and see their greatest hope in that respect in ] South America.
 1 T know the people down there and feel that l can be of some service to my people here in developing trade relations and whatever I can do to that end I will willingly and gladly do."
 l In concludingsshe interview. Mir Rosen- I field stressed what he considers the three
 essentials in building up trade in South
 America. Understanding the people and l speaking their language; banking facili-
 ties, and shipping. Possessing these three
 essentials, he says, America, with an in | telligent application of them. can con 1 trol the South American markets