Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03


drawn by Austin JewellD
! with fair knowledge of German and
Norwegian also, she has just gone off
to Oslo to the thrill OF doing some
more pioneering create in Nor
way the new work of being the first
trade commissioner in Oslo
Then there are the stories of Miss
Elizabeth Humes. trade commissioner in
Rome. Daughter of an American naval
officer, much Of her childhood was spent
in Europe, so that she speaks German,
French and Italian f1uently
There is no doubt that much of her
extraordinary success has been due to
that knowledge of Italian, but still moro
is it due to that personality upon which
the expert committee OF judges m
Washington lay so much stress. For 1t
was with both that she has been able
to gain Mussolinis cooperation.
Red Cross Experience.
She had been doing Red Cross work
in Italy during the war, and when we
accredited DR.. Alfred p Dennis as our
first trade commissioner to Rome she
went into his Office as an assistant.
Learned as that gentleman was, he had
no knowledge of Italian, and he was
soon using Miss Humes in all his CON
facts" But she was far more than an
interpreter Of languages. She was a
smoother and arranger Of all sorts Of
politico-social situations
Mussolini, in his first policy of Great
ing an entirely self-dependent Italy, had
issued his famous order on the "Batalo
del Grano"-the battle of the wheat.
Italy was to grow all the wheat it need
cd by a stroke of the distatorial pen.
Dennis went to the International In
stitute OF Agriculture in Rome. He went
to the minister of agriculture. He went
to many other sources for such informa-
ton. He worked for days He ended
empty-handed. He happened. then. to
mention to Miss Humes that he desired
to know what would probably be the
proportion of Italy's wheat crop to
Italian consuming needs. She instantly
gave him, out of the knowledge she
had in her head-knowledge derived
from official sOurces-the information
he had been seeking.
When Dennis was given rowing
commission covering nearly everything
west of Turkey. Miss Humes went along
for those contacts. Among others. they
conferred with Stambouliski. dictator
OF Bulgaria. With him Miss Humes
conversed In German.
Next day the dictator gave a great
dinner in her honor.
Remember" he said to her, 81 am
not as the others Other governments
1all i, the son OF goatherd, I under
stand my people. shall remain. Ten,
WE'VE years from now return and you
will find me here!"
At the station. when she left. there
were rows OF young peasant girls who
strewed flowers before her in the die
tator'S name. AS the train pulled into
the station in Paris the front page news
in the paper she bought headlined the
assassination Of Stambouliski.
Mussolini's wheat program collapsed.
Stambouliski was assassinated. They
were but passing incidents in the
crowded life OF the young woman who
was to be made. two years later, trade
commissioner in her own right.
On more than one occasion visiting
American OF Importance who has asked
for five minutes with the great Mus
solini and has been blocked in other
directions has been taken into the pres
ence by Miss Humes. And then It has
been his opportunity to observe that
the five minutes he has asked for has
turned into prolonged and animated
conversation between her and II Duce,
greatly to the benefit and the interest
OF the important American.
Trade Across the World.
Here and there across the world the
lines of our trade run, carrying that
extra 10 per cent of business which
makes for sterilization in our national
industry. which takes up the slack of
depression and frequently spells just
the margin between profit and loss
Here and there it runs, spotting at
nearly every pin another story of the
contribution Of our trade commissioners
10 national prosperity.
And those trade lines tie back into
district offices dotted across the home
land. where q telegram or a telephone
eau gets an absolutely instant response
OF spot news from Picking to Keokuk.
The day has passed when the Ameri-
can manufacturer has to rely upon
casual information for broadening his
markets. The day has passed when you
are amused upon the steamer deck by
the old classics of commercial travellers.
SUCH stories as that of the American
exporter who tried to sell coal-burning
cook stoves In Costa RIGA, where there
Is no coal, which is the favorite tale of
commercial Attache Peck in Panama.
Or the story OF the builder of street rail-
| way equipment who had all the trolley
cars ne had shipped to Caracas returned
because the signs Don't speak to the
motorman" were painted in English. Or
OF the enterprising Cleveland merchant
VINO lourneyed all the way to Rumania
10 sell vacuum cleaners to the peasants,
ana who got terrible shock upon his
arrival by learning that Rumanian peas
ants nave no electricity within some
hundreds OF miles and are not particu-
larry interested in the virtue which is
second only to Goodness.
! Iooay you are amused in a new d.
rectlon, as was. to ind sailed peanuts
III Paraguay; to find Brazilians drinking
grape juice In the midst of wide-open
town; to learn In Buenos Aires the word
2uacka" as an Argentine word mean
Ing porridge; to buy American silk
stockings in Jerusalem from an Arab
and little yellow tube of tooth paste
from an Egyptian, who had certainly
never used 1t himself; and to be able to
reach for your own brand of cigarettes
In Turkey.
Those ancient stories of our ignorance
OF packing processes and of marketing
processes which flourished before the
days OF Hoover have already become the
Homeric epics. the myths Of business
| 1t Is out OF world vision looking away
| from our shores. and out of intimate
home study within our shores-the
study OF personality here, of broad psy-
| chologies there-that this foreign trade
OF ours Is swinging on its upward course.
| Our Sparrow Hawks of Commerce are