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Show Ill SOUTH AMERICA AUTOMOBILE DEMAND (Thomas M. Kirker, back from six months' tour through Brazil, Uruguay and Argentine Republic, sees complete com-plete reversal of sentiment in favor of Yankee built motor cars.) That American made motor cars are eagerly sought after by residents of South America is the report brought back by Thomas M. Kirker, export representative of the Chalmers Chalm-ers Motor company, who has just returned re-turned from a six months' tour through Latin American countries. Mr. Kirker sailed from New York early In April and toured through sections of Brazil, Uruguay and the Argentine Republic in a Chalmers Slx-30. Slx-30. He effected several important dealer connections whereby Chalmers cars will be distributed in the countries coun-tries visited. "Having been absent from South America for several years, the condition con-dition tat struck me most forcibly was the complete reversal of the former for-mer South American attitude toward cars made In the United States," said Mr. Kirker. "Until recently, European cars outsold Yankee machines by a wide margin. American built cars were considered incapable of standing up on the crude country roads. But this idea has been thoroughly eradicated from their minds by the sturdy performance per-formance of even the cheaper cars of American construction. Today there are between 500 and 1,000 cars of European make standing unsold In the warehouses while Yankee cars are selling like the proverbial hot-cakes. hot-cakes. "Scarcity or ships and high freight rates are playing havoc with an otherwise oth-erwise bumper crop of sales in South America. Summing up the high cost of freight , charges, insurance, boxing and import1 duties, it means an advance ad-vance of .from 40 to 50 per cent over the American list price of the car if the dealer is to make a fair prof-It prof-It Scores of German ships are Interned In-terned in the harbors of Rio De Janeiro, Ja-neiro, Buenos Aires and other ports and will remain there until the end of the war. Meanwhile, the only vessels ves-sels in commission are a few British Brit-ish boats.- It is assuredly up to the United States government and American Amer-ican merchants to strike while the iron Is hot The need of a protected American merchant marine was never nev-er more apparent, "An example of high freight tariffs tar-iffs is to be found in Brazil. Coffee sells In Brazil at $1 a bag, but it costs $2 per bag to transport It to New York. Among the other important import-ant shipments now being made from Brazil are great quantities of mang- anese ore. About 15,000 tons of manganese Is shipped weekly from Brazil ports. At the present time, Germany alone owes Brazil some $7,-000,000 $7,-000,000 for coffee, crude rubber, ores and other products shipped just before be-fore the war. "In Uruguay a six months' drought which destroyed crops and brought heavy damage in its wake, has caused caus-ed a temporary setback. Cattle and sheep raising, two of the most important im-portant industries, suffered from the lack of grazing facilities during the long continued spell of dry weather. The cattlemen and ranch owners are just getting on their feet at the present pres-ent time. "I found the most prosperous conditions con-ditions in the Argentine Republic with-Buenos with-Buenos Aires especially active. Cattle Cat-tle are being shipped in great quantities quan-tities to England and are bringing war prices. Practically all the automobile auto-mobile dealers selling American cars are making excellent progress. J. F. Macadam & Company who have taken tak-en on the Chalmers line, have ordered order-ed a big consignment of Chalmers sixes shipped them immediately tor the big spring and summer trade. Owners of big estancias in the Argentine Ar-gentine . are finding the motor car a good investment for ranch work. They are buying cars In half dozen lots for the" use of their foremen and ov-erseers ov-erseers "Undoubtedly the action of the National Na-tional City Bank of Now York in establishing es-tablishing branches throughout South i America, is responsible for the stim-I stim-I ulation in trade with the United States. The National City bank now has branches in Rio De Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Santos, Montevideo," Buenos Aires and is about to open another in Santiago. All branches are handling hand-ling a big volume of business. The Guaranty Trust company has Its investigators in-vestigators on the ground, also, In preparation for going after a share of the profits. Intelligent co-operation between the banking interests of North and South America has at last been established and prosperity awaits the coming of American ships to transport the goods between ports." According to Mr. Kirker all vessels running to South American points are shrouded in darkness at the present time. Port hole windows are painted paint-ed black and even masthead lights extinguished. A sharp lookout Is maintained at all times for German submarines and raiders. |
