Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-17
WORLD IS HOME
OF i. S. CUSTOMS
American Fads, Foods and
Fashions Now Found in
All Places.

"Travel where you will you can't es-
cape American customs and fashions, y
says a bulletin from the National Geo.
graphic Society.
Toxic munches atsu keiki american
hot griddle cakes with sirup).
Berlin focks to its first elaborate
soda fountain for nut sundaes served
by snappy soda 'jerkers.'
Moscow crowds around the first
bright red gasoline filling station put
up in Arbat Square.
American movies automonlles,
dental schools, typeWrlters, monographs
and even its prize fights lead in spread
ing American fashions and customs
throughout the world.
Movies in Java.
Movies persuade Javanese and Bra
Eilians alike that life without sanitary
pl,;nbin. is unthinka5le. American
automobiles have spread the gospel OF
mass production and have Influenced
some European countries to change
from 'left-of-way' to 'right-of-Way'
driving. The excellence of the dental
schools in the United States attracts
turn to their people as ambassadors OF
the fine old American custom of
brushing teeth.
'-Typewriters have pioneered the way
TOR a whole battalion of office equip
ment devices which have converted
many peoples to doing business accord
lng to American methods. The phono-
graph has made jazz a world folk song
and is returning the Oriental ear to the
Occidental eight-note scale, while the
millions won by Dempsey and Tunney
prompt young men, white, yellow,
brown, black or red, with two good
fists, to tK them out and, incidentally,
equip themselves with the necessary
SIN shoes and boxing gloves from the
land of champions
LAS long as the United States re-
manned raw products source, selling
only cotton, corn. wheat. copper and
oil. the world went its own way. That
way was to follow French fashions in
women's clothes, ieWelry and perfume,
practice trade by English methods and
look to Germany for science and music
But American invention and mass pro-
duction have turned the United States
into a manufacturing and distributing
nation. Exports of the United States
last year passed the $4,000, 100000 mark.
Kerosepe Luxury in China.
Strange things happen when Ameri-
can products penetrate foreign coun-
tries. One Of our important exports is
kerosene oil, much of which goes to
the Orient. Kerosene lamps, disappear
ing in America, are the height of lux
ury in China, where they replace
smoky, ineffective vegetable oil lamps.
The early-to-bed and early-to-Mse Chi
nese now stay up at night working by
California kerosene oil on Chinese rugs
for American floors.
kerosene commonly sells abroad in
5-gallon cans that have become the
universal bucket from Kamchatka to
Dakar. Water from the wells of Beer
Sheba, where Abraham and Sarah
drank, quenches the thirst of desert
travellers of today, but now the water is
drawn up in American oil cans. Arab
villagers in North Africa have folded
Up their tents and have built, by skillful
use of flattened kerosene containers,
tin-can towns and at night the tin
houses are lighted with tin-can Ian
terms fashioned by native craftsmen.
Sometimes other peoples have not
brought their customs abreast of their
American purchases. Brightly nickeled
slot machines cash registers and au-
tomato scales are said to decorate the
grand staircase Of the Prime Minister'S
palace in Nepal.
Wear Pants for Shirts.
"A traveller to Borneo reports finding
O local potentate in an electrically
lighted and refrigerated palace that
housed feet of expensive automobiles
which the native ruler could only drive
to and fro on a mile and q half of
specially constructed road Natives in
parts OF Africa use running pants for
shirts, thrusting their arms through
the pants legs, while in China garters
are sometimes worn for Ornamental
rather than useful purposes.
An American manufacturer was
mystified at large orders from South
American country for pearl buttons
sewed on squares of red flannel until
the Department of Commerce found
out for him that the native Indian
women did not use the buttons but
sewed the entire squares on their
dresses. Yet they were more logical
than the prosperous Chinese merchant
who installed four pianos in the four
corners OF his 'parlor,' although neither
ne nor any member Of his family could
play note.
What the World Wants is a regu-
lar Department of Commerce publica-
ton, and brief scanning Of its items
reveals the many thoroughly American
desires the world has acquired; Java
wants slot machines, garters and flash
lights; Costa Rica, automobile hearses:
India, cupboard motors, smoke writing
apparatus for airplanes, sanitary plumb
ing fixtures and silk hosiery; Man.
churia, monographs and records: Ma
laya (going a step farther desires
automatic monograph record changers
and radio sets; Czechoslovakia. paper
matches, jazz orchestral accessories and
bathroom fixtures; Austria, breakfast
foods; British Guiana, rebuilt type
writer's; England, grapefruit (Which the
English are just beginning to demand
Mexico, bathing suits: China. adyer-
Using and display equipment, metal
store furniture and metal window
frames, and Denmark, overalls and
vanity cases."