In some of the republics there is a real disposition to deal with us; in others there is a preference for Europe.  Now, as to many goods, they must deal with us or go without, although I am informed that a German firm, for example, has got word to its clients in these countries that it is prepared to fill orders via Copenhagen.  If we think that our competitors have gone entirely or permanently out of business we shall be ridiculously and sadly disappointed.  We shall be on trial, and if our exporters make good they will find a conservative disposition to continue to buy from us.

In the effort it is important to remember that there is much to live down in criticism of methods of the past.  One Latin-American gentleman, an enthusiast for American commerce, exclaimed to me in despair:  “Son hombres capazes de poner una hacha Collins con vidrios para ventanas,” which means:  “they (the American exporters) are capable of packing a Collins hatchet with window glass.”  Others told me how leading firms always stamped their letters for domestic and not foreign postage.  The office boy simply would not learn geography.  Nobody minded paying the deficit, but through local red tape this seeming trifle sometimes caused two or even three weeks’ delay in the delivery of important letters.

Certain of our strongest firms have been calmly ignoring shipping directions.  What did they care if the packages had to cross the Andes on mule back, and if mules could only carry packages of a certain size and weight?  What did they care if the duty remission for materials on some Government contract, or the customs classification of a shipment, depended on adherence to specific directions?  I could multiply examples of the most amazing casualness and careless disregard, of bad packing, of ungenerous credit, which have enraged the importer.

A European merchant, many years established in a South American city, and knowing the community, has been selling pianos in this way:  The manufacturer would quote him a price and deliver the piano, giving him long credit at an ordinary rate of interest.  The merchant would finally sell the piano on the installment plan, receiving interest at a higher rate on the deferred payments, the merchant trusting the buyer, the manufacturer trusting the merchant, both thus making good profits, and the purchaser being accommodated.  This man found the American manufacturer entirely unwilling to deal in this way.

European houses on the spot, whether independent or financed by large home houses, give credits for as long, sometimes, as a year.  They would not continue to do so if they lost by doing it.  Often this fits the customs of the local domestic trade.  In one country the local retailer is expected to be paid within eighteen months.  Naturally, our exporters’ demand for “cash down on receipt of documents,” even when the customer is well vouched for, does not appeal to him.