The Washington herald., 1920-04-08
BY JAMES II. COLLINS.

Lima, Peru, April IA ten-cent
jitney was speeding for the ferry.
Built for five passengers. it carried
ten. with baggage tied onto the
footboards and even piled on the
hood. Every two minutes the driver
stopped to pump up a leaky front
.tire-it was not punctured. but sim
ply let the air out slowly. and he
pumped patiently as though that
was the normal behavior of auto
tires.
There was only one Yankee pas
senger, the rest being Latin-Ameri-
cans. He stepped down to have a
look.
"Yc gods!" he whistled.
For the leaky tire was half an
inch too large for the wheel. It's
head would not go into the rim.
Only by pumping it up every two
minutes was it kept on the wheel
at all. They were running at least
twenty-five miles an hour in their
hurry. Had it collapsed, there
would have been Latin-Americans
and baggage strewn all over the
beautiful tropical landscape.
But they reached the ferry safely,
and later the Yankee was told by a
friend with longer experience in
southern countries that Latin-Amer-
leans have a way of just tying
things together with string or stick
ing them together with stickum, and
wonderful luck in having them hold.
Maybe there is a particular saint
in the calendar who specializes in
this form of protection.
In Latin America nothing strikes
the Yankees so quickly as the gem
eral lack of mechanical sense.
There is an old engineering saying,
when you sell a machine to a
Latin-American, in three months
one of two things has happened
the Latin-American has broken the
the Latin-American."
II one of our machines breaks
down, we fix It or send for the re-
pair man. But the Latin American
decorates IT with p sign. mo
Funciona." and gocS away and
leaves 1t. All over the southern
continent one sees ~ sign. mo
Funciona" is a far better alibi than
"manana." A further touch of art
lessness Is added when the sign of
a broken-down lift reads 'Malo."
which means bad"
Everything wobbly.
Even when machinery runs. 1t Is
usually on three legs. Automobiles
thump and wheeze, their wheels
wobble. and they just barely get
over moderate hills, though they
may be high powered American cars
capable of eating up mountains.
Typewriters and adding machines
soon become so temperamental that
they can be operated only by the
person\who has seen all their idio-
syncracies develop. From railroad
locomotives right down to push but
tons and locks mechanical appa-
ratis goes crazy in Latin America.
and people humor II patiently in the
belief that II is incurable.
Many Americans jump to the con-
'clusion that the people of, the south
ern continent are nonmechanical-
that 1t is useless to expect them to
understand machinery. But that is
a mistake. The Latin-American is
decidedly clever at the handicrafts
he follows. doing superior work in
wood, brick. stone, plaster, leather
and other materials. He happens to
be nonmechanical today largely be-
cause he has enjoyed few contacts
with machine civilization. He makes
an apt pupil, and tomorrow. with
better opportunities, may easily set
us a pace.
In selling to Latin America we
have. in this matter, both an oppor-
tunity and duty. Too often we
have sent the salesman where the
demonstrators and the service man
were really needed.
American elevators were in
stalled in a new hotel on the south
'ern continent. Then the building
stood idle five years waiting for a