The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-10-18
U. S., Britain
Strug gle In
Latin America

field in Latin America hitherto
controlled almost exclusively by
British interests. For long time
the United States has been success
fully competing against Great
Britain in the exploitation Of ma
tural resources of Latin America
and has replaced Britain as the DOM
inant factor in trade. But the
domain of public utility services,
telephones, telegraphs, street cars
and the railroads remained for de-
cades almost exclusively under the
control of British interests.
Immense Profits.
! But here also the last few years
have witnessed notable change.
American interests are penetrating
all these fields. Most of the South
American railways are still British,
such as the transcontinental road
from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso
and the famous Sac Paulo railroad
which transports the worlds coffee Z
and yields such profits that it is 4
known as "the road with the golden
rails" The telephone companies in .
the principal cities of Argentina and
Brazil also are still held by British
companies, but the American Inter
national Telephone and Telegraph
Company, which controls almost all
telephone lines in Cuba, Porto Rico,
Mexico and Montevideo, Uruguay, is
trying to acquire all the British
owned systems in Argentina and
Brazil. This company already has
plants and systems in Argentina,
Australia, England, elgium,
France, Italy, Spain, Austria and
controls companies with factories in
Toxic and Peking. Recently the In
ternational Telephone and Tele-
graph Company offered $35,000,000
for the telephone system of Buenos
Aires, the British-owned United
River Plate Telephone Co. which is
capitalized at s5,000,000. 1t offered
Ia to e15 a share for the $4,000
shares outstanding of &5 each. The
negotiations are still pending. In :
Brazil, the American has, sought to
| buy out the British-owned Brazilian
Traction Light and Power Co. but
he has not succeeded so far. How
ever, in recent litigation of the
Western Telegraph Company Ga
subsidiary of the British-owned
Eastern Telegraph and Gable Com
pany operating in BraziD-against
the Brazilian" radio companies
about rates and operating rights
the government decided in favor of
the Brazilian" companies. But
these so-called Brazilian" COM
panies happen to be controlled by
the International Telegraph and
Telephone Company. This Ameri-
can concern also operates the ALI
American Gables to South America,
and the Commercial Gable, with a
total of $1,000 nautical miles of
cables. The British-owned Western
Telegraph owns 100000 miles of
cable.
British Worried.
The British financial press has
sounded the alarm about this menace
to British capital and trade in Latin
America. Thus the British South
American Journal of June 16, 1928,
writes that they view with concern
the growing tendency of United
States capital to push south and by
lending money to governments and
others to capture trade hitherto
largely in the hands of British
manufacturers. Over and above this
direct method there has also de-
veloped a less obvious but more in
sidious penetration into the British
/ traders sphere by openly or secretly
acquiring controlling interests in
British companies with the avowed
object of diverting trade into Ameri-
can channels"
! The magazine points out that
American interests often offer such
alluring prices to the shareholders
that they cannot resist parting with
their shares; as result raany COM
panies are nominally stFl British
but the majority of their mares are
in American hands The mlssal con-
sequence of this change of control 4
is that the supplies for public utility I
companies telephones, tramway \
service, etc. are from then on, or
dered from American manufacturers
and the trade is lost to Great
Britain. Thus the American inves-
tor may overpay for acquiring the
public utility plants and systems, but
he is amply repaid by acquiring a
market for public utility supplies.
About 80 per cent of all British
goods exported to Argentina repre-
sent supplies of British-owned trac-
ton and public utility companies.
U. S. Air Control.
Air communications with and
within Latin America are largely in
the hands of the United States,
which is pushing this development
quite energetically. Thus an air
mail service between Mexico and
New York was inaugurated on Oc-
tober first. And the first direct air
mail planes between Mexico City and
Laredo, the American border town,
have delivered their mail. At Lare-
do American mail planes take over
the mail brought from Mexico in |