Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-07-17
Mexico Trade
Continued from rage onel

"Latin-America is emerging tom
the post-colonial period and is often
afflicted with growth pains; its trad
ers require much clearer eye and a
firmer hand than their colleagues of
the present day in the United States,
and more resemble the quick wittod
traders of pioneer days in the west,
who made good and laid the fotlnda-
tions of many of the present prosper
Gus mercantile, banking and industrial
establishments while the Apaclles and
PapagoS were a constant menace in
the roads and forests. 1t is easy to do
business while everything is right.
but it takes a Super-merchant to re-
main solvent and profit while things
go wrong and prepare TO reap the
coming harvest as soon as the trouble
is over. Men of this type deserve
every consideration, and it is amusing
to see them sometimes rejected as
credit venture by people whom they
could buy out at moments notice,
and all on account of some erroneous
and alarming report enlarging fist
fight into a widespread revolution.
"HoW political agitation and even.
revolutions do not constitute insur-
mountable obstacles in trade develop
ment can better be illustrated by
consulting statistics for the past SO
or so years. The total Mexican for
eign trade in 1872 amounted to So
million pesos; 81 in 1884; 214 in
1900; ass in 1910 and over 1000 mil
lion pesos during each of the years
1925 and 1926 During the last II
years many new industries have been
developed and practical business men
will tell that they have kept on buy
ing and selling importing and ex-
porting, in many cases without any
more trouble than delays in trans
portation. Furthermore, the entire
country has never been affected by
political disturbances, some states re-
manning always free of difficulties
and others feeling them only sporadi-
cally To include the whole country
in credit restrictions in times of agi-
tation without considering local con-
ditions and investigating circum-
stances is serious mistake often
made and repented.
FINALLY great and long standing
obstacle is found in the persistence
of some exporters in selling wheat,
corn, rye, oats, beans and other ce-
reals by the buShel instead of quoting
by the kilogram or metric ton, or
without at least guaranteeing an exact
net weight in POUNDS avoirdupois per
bushel, as the Weight-of this measure
varies with the product, the size of
the grain, it's relative hardness and
specific gravity Nobody knows how
much he is buying when accepting
bushels, but buying by the weight
offers no obstacles, and this is the
way grains are sold in Latin America.
The oddness of quoting flour by the
barrel of 1876 pounds and selling it in
barrels of 450 to $50 pounds are only
examples of a great number of pc
culiar sales methods, uaintelligible to
the average Latin American importer.
If simple units of weight like 100
pounds or so Kilograms were used,
transactions would be greatly facili-
tated
"The above represent most of the
handicaps affecting trade development
and are also true of most Of the
Latin American countries; the solu-a
tion is in the hands of each manu-
facturer, exporter doing business south
of the Rio Grande, and not until their
interest is fully awakened and the
theoretical panaceas discarded will the
full development of inter American
trade be achieved"