Walking along the extensive docks at Buenos Aires, and going through the immense warehouses which extended one after another along those docks, I was impressed with the small proportion of the immense traffic coming into this port that belonged to the United States. It was an object lesson far more impressive than the perusal of statistics. Section after section would be visited without a single package bearing the name of one of our manufacturers, while great boxes and bales with “Hamburg” stamped upon them, French boxes of both wet and dry goods, labelled “fragile,” and English shipments were piled clear up to the ceiling. The question “why is this condition?” arose in my mind, and set me upon inquiry. Are North American manufactures not adapted to the needs of our fellow Americans? Can it be that our goods are not[362] fully known or appreciated beneath the Southern Cross? It was just at this time that the naval commission of Argentina awarded the contract for the two battleships to United States builders, after a fierce competition from the ship-building firms of five nations, and one in which even the diplomatic representatives of more than one nation became involved. This act brought out a great deal of favourable comment upon the United States from the leading journals of Buenos Aires. A reporter of La Prensa, perhaps the most influential daily in that republic, came to interview me, and I took the occasion to say that the United States had entered upon an era of commercial conquest, and hereafter must be reckoned with. A number of Argentinians whom I met afterwards commented on the subject, and everywhere the encouraging words were heard: “We will welcome you; indeed we have wondered why it was not done long ago.” This convinces me that no prejudice exists among the Latin-Americans against their fellow Americans of North America.
It may be that the manufacturers of the United States have been a little ignorant of[363] conditions in South America. A little ignorance is excusable. As the United States has not been a colonizing nation, having undeveloped lands and resources at home for its surplus population, there has not been the intercourse between North and South America that there has been between South America and Europe. But there is one characteristic which I noticed everywhere and greatly admired, and that is that South Americans of every country are satisfied only with the “best.” The “just as good” argument does not satisfy. When once convinced that the manufacturer of the United States is putting out a better article, it will be bought. The manufacturer of that country has oftentimes been at a disadvantage because the importing houses are mostly of European nationality, and for that reason prejudicially inclined towards their fellow-countrymen. North American-made goods have forged ahead simply and solely upon their own intrinsic merit.
“All of our printing machinery is of North American make, as is almost everything in the establishment, except the type,” said the manager of La Prensa, as he courteously and with justifiable pride showed me through their fine[364] office building with its humanitarian and sociological features. “We have found those goods to be the best. Furthermore, our presses, as you will see, are the North American make; and not from the branch factory in England.” And so I found as we went through these offices, being taken from one floor to another on an American elevator, that the “copy” was being written up on typewriters, set up on linotype machines, and printed upon presses, all of United States manufacture; the checks to the reporters were signed by fountain-pens and the cash received over the counters was rung up on cash registers from the same land.
“Where do you purchase your paper?”
He answered: “We buy some of it in the United States but most of it in Germany. We prefer that made in North America, but it is so carelessly packed that we always figure on a ten per cent. loss. The German manufacturers carefully surround the rolls with boards to prevent the paper from damage, while the North American paper is simply wrapped with a little heavier paper, which tears or becomes water soaked, and damage results. A short time ago we returned nearly nine hundred bales to[365] the manufacturers because of the damaged condition in which it was received.”
 
ROLLS OF PAPER FROM GERMANY
 
“How does American machinery sell?” I asked of an importing merchant in Buenos Aires, who represented a few American manufacturers.
“Very well indeed, for the people generally like them. But there is one thing your North American manufacturers must learn, and that is to be very careful in putting every necessary part in the shipment. Several times we have received engines, or other complicated machinery, and when it was put together some part would be missing. As it was impossible to get that part in less than three or four months, the customer lost a season’s business, and his friends bought English machinery because there was no danger of that same trouble.”
It would be possible to relate numerous other instances of personal experiences, all of which would be of similar tenor to those herewith given. It is humiliating to an American to travel throughout the length and breadth of South America and see the trade which legitimately belongs to us slipping away to Europe, when some of our own factories in that line are idle because of lack of orders. It leads one[366] to ask the questions: “What is the matter with the American business man? What is the matter with the American manufacturer?”
The South American field is an extensive one, and it is a discriminating one. The idea that anything is good enough for that continent has been exploded. Buenos Aires, for instance, is a live, hustling up-to-date metropolis. The people have money and they spend it freely. What they buy they want of the very best, and nothing is too good for them. It might also be added that nothing is too expensive for them, as they are used to paying high prices, and money seems to be of little moment when once the desire for the article exists. So it is not a cheap or a low-price market that awaits the American merchant.
Argentina is essentially British in her sympathies. That is but natural, for England owns her railroads, public improvements and government bonds. Almost two billion dollars of British gold is invested in that republic, and perhaps fifty thousand of her subjects dwell there. There is not a boat that sails for Buenos Aires from an English port which does not carry some young English boys to that city, who expect to enter commercial life there. It[367] is only natural that this should create a preference for English-made goods, for the Englishman always carries his atmosphere with him as well as his ideas of taste and style. And yet German houses have aggressively entered this field in the past decade and have made terrific inroads on English trade. The Germans have studied the markets; they aim to cater to its demands; they grant the terms asked by the merchants, and do anything to secure the trade—and they generally get it.
One noticeable feature of the German commercial invasion is its imitation, and a desire to furnish “similar” articles at a cheaper price. As a prominent man told me: “Their goods are worth no more than you pay for them, and they are bound to lose out in the long run.” It is this commercial rivalry that has caused the intense feeling between Germany and England, for the German manufacturer has been somewhat unscrupulous in his methods. If a manufacturer in the United States or England has succeeded in evolving some new and valuable contrivance, it will not be long until a German imitation will be on the market, and bearing an English name. It is well known that the North American manufacturers[368] have evolved the best and practically only successful typewriters, cash registers and computing machines. Within the last year or two, however, German imitations have appeared in all markets. The machines in some instances have such a wholly misleading name as “Columbia,” showing the plain intention of deception. In these lines their methods have had little effect. One can hardly go into an office anywhere in South America without seeing one or more typewriters with familiar labels, for a half dozen or more manufacturers are working in that field, and nearly every store has from one to a half dozen cash registers of one or two North American makes. “We are bringing them in by the shipload,” said an agent in Buenos Aires, who handled both lines, and there was not much exaggeration in the statement.
It is in the practical and useful things that the genius of the United States has been most manifest. A great undeveloped country rich in natural resources stirred the inventive genius of the people, and the result has be............