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Show B The Spanish-American Trade. Harold Bolce, in the July number of Apple- B ton's, thinks our trade with South America would B be greater if England owned all South America, B and he gives some figures to make good his belief. B For instance, little British Guiana bought more B goods from America by one million dollars worth B last year than the whole of Venezuela, although B Venezuela is about the size of the United States fl east of the Mississippi. Canada, with less than fl six million people, buys more American goods In B six months of the United States than we sell to fl all South America, with upwards of forty million fl people. fl But while Spanish America is under the pro- fl tection of the Monroe doctrine, the people buy all fl their goods from the nations that believe the Mon- fl roe doctrine is a sham and a usurpation, fl Of the goods bought by the Spanish American fl states the United States supplies but 14.33 per B cent. fl Then the failure of the house of the Barring fl Brothers is discussed by Mr. Bolce. He says: "In fl 1890 we were shipping at the rate of thirty-two million dollars worth of goods to the south of this fl hemisphere, but twenty years of this would not fl compensate the United States for the loss we sus- B tained in the three years of failures following the B failure of the house of Barring Brothers. In that fl brief period of panic the liabilities of failures in B the United States amounted to six hundred and fl fifty million dollars. The total export and Import fl trade with South America now exceeds one bil- B Hon dollars, a sum greater than that of the United B States in 1870." fl There is not much in the article of Mr. Bolce. I He contends that while the United States govern- fl ment is protecting the great republics of the B Eouth, they are not responding by giving the Unit- B ed States their trade. He tells of the losses to B our country through the failure of the Barrings. B The failure of the Barrings was primarily due solely to two things: First, an era of speculation began which the Barrings tried to hold up; then the United States and Germany demonetized silver, sil-ver, which reduced the value of property all over this world 60 per cent, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back In- Argentine. The people were doing well in Argentine, but they were carrying a debt equal to nearly one-half the value of their property. When that property fell 50 per cent in value, of course they wero stranded. The reason we do not trade with South American Amer-ican states is because we have never taken any means to obtain that trade. We mean any legitimate legiti-mate means. Our manufacturers and merchants have never established houses there and kept them running until those in charge got to understand under-stand the language and the customs of the country. coun-try. We have depended on foreign ships to carrjr our goods there and to bring back the products, and the great bulk of them have gone via England to South America and then via England to the United States, all in foreign ships, and wo have had to pay double freights. We have nwer thought of laying cables to South America or extending a telegraph line there. If any Americans are In trade there they are not supported by the home government. If British Guiana has bought a largo amount of goods of the United States it has bought them in England. For instance, it sends to England such of Its products as it has for sale; those products prod-ucts are needed in the United States vastly more than in England, with the result that the goods are not unloaded in England, but are shipped in the same vessels that they came in from Guiana - England, to our country, and if the people of British Guiana wanted a cargo of flour that cargo was shipped first to England and then to Guiana and the double freight was charged up against the United States; and the congress of our country has watched this going on for thirty years, and n any effort is made to establish a mercnant marine on the sea, to give us a fair show with the nations of the earth, every little, small-sized Democratic journal in the United States has pointed out that the object is simply to make men who already are rich still richer, and the economic question beyond it all they have never for a moment mo-ment comprehended. We will get the trade of South America vrnen we go after it in a legitimate way. Despairing of ever getting an American merchant marine on the sea, we have been asking for years why the gov- ernment does not investigate the situation, got behind sortie company and guarantee Its bonds to open South America with a road from the Carlb- 'H bean sea to Buenos Ayres, and from Rio west to the rich mines of Bolivia, which have no outlet to jH tho west. When that is done the change will jH come, as it camo in Mexico. Our people will fol-low fol-low the road, will build the cities, will cultivate tho land, will open and work the mines, and they !fl will buy their supplies from the United States and It will not only bo a good thing for trade, but it will give millions of young Americans a mag- , nificent field in which to build up for themselves f fortunes and great names. - ? . ffl 1 c H |