The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-03-11

Washington, ID. C., March ~
Foreign trade follows the lending OF
money to foreign governments and
cities. 1t always has and it always
will. This condition is as inexor-
able as the succession of the sea
sons. And yet it is but recently that
American bankers and business men
have been convinced of this fact, &C
cording to Franklin Adams, coun-
selor of the Pan-American Union.
"a few years ago, if another gov
eminent approached our bankers
and asked for funds, those govern
ments either were turned down alb
solutely or so much delay was en-
countered that the applicants grew
tired and went elsewhere, says Mr..
Adams. THE condition, which
existed long before the entrance of
this country in the World war, was
the result of the ignorance OF our
merchants and bankers of the fun
damentals of foreign t1Rie. But
with the opening of the war and the
greatly increased demand for our
goods in Europe and in Latin Amer
lea as well as the far east, our ma
tional mercantile vision widened
perceptibly. 1t is still widening"
In the old days, if the government
of enc of the countries to the south
of the United States wanted loan
to build a railway, that government
would send special representatives
to the United States. These ennis
saries would spend weeks and
weeks in American financial cen
tiers before they got a hearing, and
probably it would be weeks after
that before there was 4 decision.
Today the financial houses of the
United States have representatives
practically all over the world and
these men are looking for places to
lend American money. The Latin
American city that wants to build
a street railway, for instance, after
some American financial agent ar
ranges for loaning the necessary
construction funds and money for
rolling stock, has pointed out to it
that the United States has civil
engineers, steel rail mills, and
ment needed. 1t is natural that the
government making the loan should
want to repay as much as possible
the people of the country advancing
the funds. Thus contracts for
equipment which cannot be fur
nished by the borrowing country
itself follow the American loan to
American firms. The result is a
considerable foreign trade arising
from this single project.
This expansion of the American
viewpoint is being met by the edu-
cation of young men to fit them for
the posts of business and financial
delegates. notably to the Latin
American nations.
More Than Language Required
A great many young men are
Spanish in schools and col
1eges. But they must go long
way beyond merely learning to con-
verse in Spanish to fit themselves
for posts as foreign Representatives
Of American business. Of course
knowledge of the language, and a
thorough knowledge at that, is the
prime requisite, but it is only a
part of the necessary knowledge
and training.
The most perfect Spanish scholar
in the world is of no use to an
American exporting firm or bank
if he is not also a good salesman.
The characteristics of the Latin
people must be taken in
to account A lack of understanding
of these cannot be balanced by the
greatest fiuenCy in Spanish.
Some big American export houses
have established their own schools
for training young men to repre-
sent them abroad. The teaching
STATS can tell within few weeks
whether man is going to be sue
cess as a salesman on foreign soil
Foreign trade is receiving the
close attention of some of the big
universities. Once the
banks and business houses had their
eyes opened to the opportunities so
long neglected, the colleges were
not slow to take up the subject
Officials of the Pan-American Union
discovered that a young employee
there was taking a foreign trade