The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-08-28
Plan Suggested For q. S.
To Assist South America
Export Surpluses Could Be Disposed of Here
Without Expense to American Consumer Tariff
Changes Needed to Boom Trade.

and enjoy richer, if more expen-
sive, chocolate bar.
Latin American agriculture, back
bone Of the economy, also presents
opportunities. The soils and eli
mate of Latin America are varied.
and with the aid of capital and
agricultural experts lent by the U. S.
this region could be converted into
primary source of certain num-
Der of products that we now import
largely from other parts of the
world.
Even Quinine!
Altogether we import something
like $74,000000 worth of fibers an
nually, of which SO per cent comes
from Java, India and other nom
American countries. Yet the jute
the sisal, the kapok, and the fax
could all be grown in Latin Amer
lea. Carpet wool from China, India
and Syria could be replaced in Ar
gentina and Uruguay Oiticica oil
from Brazil could be-and indeed is
rapidly becoming a substitute fol
tung oil from China.
"Quinine, monopoly of the
Dutch East Indies, could in time be
replaced in Latin America, for the
cinchona plant is native to the re-
gion. And tapioca from Java could
be supplanted by processed manioc
which grows all over Brazil and
tropical Latin America. In fact a
deal is now on between Brazilian
manioc growers and a U. S. ma
chinery firm to build prototype
processing plant in Sac Paulo.
Some alternative markets exist
within the hemisphere and with i'm
agmation could be developed" For
tune will assert. To-day the trade
of the 20 Latin Americans among
themselves amounts to only z per
cent of their foreign commerce, and
teh flow from Argentina to Brazil
represents only ST. per cent of Ar
gentina's exports.
| With the development OF more
efficient intercoastal shipping, the
building of refrigeration plants, per-
haps temporary hemisphere stamp
plan, much of the surplus meat
wheat and corn of the South Tenn
perate Latin America could in time
be worked of against the coffee
cacoa, and fruit of the tropics.
However the U. S. decided to ap-
proach the problem, it cannot hope
to succeed unless a clear-cut hemi-
sphere economic policy is worked
out. In the long run, the surest
defense of the hemisphere lies in
expanding the inter = and intra-
American trade-in speeding up the
n Or tn and-soutn circulation of
goods.
Cultural Background
Thus the problem of what to do
about Latin America is not so much
lack Of opportunity as a question
Of defining out immediate and long,
range detectives, the methods by
which we shall attempt to attain
thems the guarantees OH which we
shall insist" Fortune will declare.
yet whatever we do II we approach
the problem merely from a dollars
and-cents point Of view we shall not
succeed at all. for more than any
other single factor. the differences
In cultural and historical back.
grounds have made O nightmare Of
the century-old dream OF Pan
Amezicanism.
Compared 10 tourist movemeots
across the Atlantic. travel between
North and South America Is virtu
ally non.existent. The distances ere
great and travel u expensive. TO
stimulate travel II might be q good
Idea 70 scale down the defauited
debts By letting y. 8. tourists work
them of, cay, In the form Of BRA