Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-12-01
. Our South American Cams

~ ECONOMISTS are keenly interested in
r. the fact that in the fiscal year 1921,
1 for the first time in more than decade,
our commerce with South Al erica showed
favorable balance hitherto our imports
from that region were annually greater than
our exports thereto; but in the twelvemontn
ended June the thirtieth last the terms were
reversed, our sales amounting to some thirty
eight million dollars more than our purchases.
The exact figures are worth noting: imports
5,250,000; exports, $523, 45O,O0O High
ly interesting, too, are the Government hg-
ures showing that for this same period the
trade between the western or Pacific 'front.'
age of South America and the eastern 'front.'
age of the United States constituted larger
proportion of the 1921 business of the Pan
anna Canal than did the trade OF this country
with any other part of the world. In the year
preceding the outbreak of the Great war
and the opening of the Canal trade between
west South America and the whole United
States aggregated seventy-nlne million dol
lars; in 1921, eight years later. it aggregat-
ed one hundred and thirty-nine million.
While the inter-ocean waterway has had
much to do with this gratifying development,
there are other and more significant factors.
Touching the adverse" balauce which OBJ
tanned for so many years, the foreign TRADE
analyst of the National City Bank of New
York observes: "The United States is a
very large importer of tropical and sub-tropi-
cal foods and also of raw manufacturing ma
terials, while her exports are chiefly food,
manufacturing materials, and manufactures.
As South America was a large producer
of coffee, cocoa and other tropical foods,
and also of wool, rubber, copper, tin,
and other manufacturing materials I'M
ported by the United States, it was quite nat
ural that purchases from that continent
should be heavy, while the fact that South
America did not need our foods or raw ma
terial and had the habit OF buying her manu-
features in Europe kept the value of our
sales to that continent much below that of
our pur, 5es therefrom. With the changes
of the quantity of manufactures offered from
Europe, the South Americans made closer &C
quaintance with our manufactures and liked
them, and also found it advisable to buy the
coal from US especially during the period OF
coal shortage in the United Kingdom from
which they had drawn most of their former
supplies"
Evidently, then, the question Of prime i'm
portance for our trade interests is how
t hold and how to advance the ground
won during the war years? This calls
for keen thinking and for policies at
once vigorous and tactful. The extraordinary
advantages which were ours while European
competition was suspended will not coz
tinue; indeed, they are ready fast dissolv-
ing. The P mama Canal, it is true, is great
expediter of commerce between this country
and the Pacific region of South America; but
the Canal is not all in all. There must be
in addition to all these favoring circum-
stances, sustained purpose on the part OF
our manufacturers and exporters to render
efficient and considerate service, or else the
trade gains of recent years can not be held
To what WIS the remarkable progress of Eu
ropean craftsmanship in South America prior
to 1914 owing if not to the care and resource
fulness with which the field was studied and
exploited the urbanity with which it wa:
approached, the thoroughness with which i
was served? The United States can not b.
less studious, less urbane. less thorough il
value-giving, if it expects to hold it's own il
this increasingly important realm of worlt
trade.