The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 16, 1904, Page 14

S U A ALV 0 R TIPSR CFITERAL M, R T Y T\ A = Mc'nvvblm. i l,nllmmumwewmmmmlmum \ w‘..r T is just about time that America was sitting up and taking notice. Ordinarily no one could accuse her of being far behind the times. but * when to trading with the it co Orient, she makes her bow, takes a back seat and permits even the baby nations of the world to take the enor- mous trade which by hers. It seems sirange when one stops to think of it that the United States fig- ures £o insignificantly in this particular right should be line of business. Every year of the weorld the Orient buys produce that amounts to fully $2,000,000,000. but by far the greatest portion of this sum goes to England, Germany and France, In fact, anywhere but where it should &0 &nd the fault lies entirely with the American manufacturer and his agents. Instead of w ng up and investizating the cause of lack of commerce, he calm- 1y and serenely goes on his way sell- ing to other markets whose entire trade would not be a patching to that of Ja- pan, China, India and Siam once it was opened up and got into first- class running order. Perhaps America does not realize what & monopoly of Eastern commerce would mean. Evidently she has not figured on the millions of dollars that, would pass from the Orient to the Oc- HE present outlook for encourag- ing trade and business relations with Mexico, Central and South American trade offers a perspec- tive that it has never enjoyed before. To {llystrate what amount of busi- ness is done on the west coast from the porg of San Francisco, let us take a few figures, say from ten years back. In 1894 there was sent out by water to @ifferent parts of the world, merchan- dise to the value of $26,484,000. Of this smount $3.940,700, or, say, 16 per cent, was distributed along the coast of Mex- ico and Central America. At that time the Hamburg line of steamers was but &t the beginning of its operations, hence with the exception of the one steamer belonging to the Pacific Coast EBteamship Company, the Pacific Mail Bteamship Company carried the whole freight. The fare from San Francisco is sbout 3 cenis a inile (a trifle over) to Pznama—that is to say, approximately $105. ¥From San Francisco to. New York, by way of Panama, the fare is $120, 316 more for 1500 miles addi- tional. Commercial developments are stim- AR ) Wl TR . cident; or on the position that she would gain as the chief commercial na- tion of the world. Evidently not, or she would be over there,in a flash prying about and making it her chief business in life to investigate the pos- sibilities and to negotiate right then and there to supply a certain amount of goods—and goods, by the way, that she never even so much as dreamed were used in that part of the globe. The rivalry between foreign and home manufacturers has always been of the keenest, but in this particular case, one is lying low and making hay while the sun shines, while the other is steadily increasing business at home and push- ing vigorously ahead on the European continent. Cosmopolitan San Francisco's water front is ¥ nlarged and strength- ened ev the trade that comes to her p is iImmenge and val- uable, but it is not what one might easily think it. Every Oriental vessel that docks carries a human cargo of foreigners all clamoring and eager to be landed on American soil and to take up their residence in this city. or Little CHina, as it has been dubbed by amazed visitors. That the Easterners are willing and ready to do business with us has been recently demonstrated in a very forcible and manner. convincing By E. H. Coffey ulated by the accessibility afforded to visit the different places.. No obstacle, however, is so great as that which has to be overcome by high passenger rates. With moderate transportation rates, the immense mineral resources of the States of Sonora and Sinaloa would call for capital and mining ma- chinery to be furnished by California. The agricultural resources of the States of Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas would furnish the markets of San Francisco with tropical fruits, dyes, gums, hard- wcods, coffee, cocoa, vanilla, etc., which are indigenous to the soil, but are uncultivated, as cultivation never is undertaken unless there be some prospect of economical transportation. Business has increased between Mexico and the United States 114 per cent in ten years, but the exports be- tween ' San Francisco and the west coast of the southern coast have re- mained at a standstill during the same . period. Mexico exports 3,000,000 pounds of coffee to the States. Of this amount 812,900 pounds come. to San Fran- s Two years ago H. J. Rosen- crantz and J. J. Keegan, per- haps better known as ‘“The Irishman and the Jew,” sailed away to capture the Kast all hands down. They figured 10 do it principally by means of ready Irish wit, shrewd Jewish calculation and jolly American companionship—a combination difficult to beat. It is true there were eight trunks packed snugly with samples in the hold of the ship, but there was precious little money to jingle in their pockets, and samples are not filling when the stomach is empty and crying lustily for satisfaction. Honolulu was their first victim, and so well did they convince the mer- chants that they wanted precisely what those sample trunks contained that a week saw them bag and bag- gage on their way to China with a contented smile and a cheerful click of silver and gold. For nine months they wrestled with the wily Chinese as the advance agents of civilization and prosperity, and then came home to open up larger deals with mer- chants, so that they would be enabled to supply the trade with anything from an elephant’s nursing bottle to a dozen locomotived for the Trans- Siberian Railway. ¥ Round the United States they went, trying to persuade the conservative CALIFORNIA’S OPENING to the SOUTH % cisco; but to connoisseurs the Colima snd Uruapan coffees are unrivaled. Honduras and Costa Rlica are able to support a line of weekly steamers from -New ' Orleans by shipping bananas, which we are enabled to buy on the streets for 20 cents a dozen after paying a five days’ water freight and & transcontinental railroad freight. The same fruit could be shipped from Ban Blas and Manzanillo were there & steamer line that would carry them. Moses Taylor of New York made his huge capital out of the forests of Vera Cruz and Tabasco, while those ‘'on the Facific coast are barely touched. It will be stated that there are not enough bananas under cultivation on the Paclfic_coast for exportation. It is quite true, but it is also true that the “Guinea” banana, so highly es- teemed for its flavor and shipping qualities, does grow on this coast; but who will invest in plantations without calculating first the possibility of transportation facilities? ‘With the completion of the Manzan- illo and Guadalajara road, which now lacks but a few miles; with the har- bor improvements and wharfage facil- ities now about completed at Manzan- illo, San Francisco will be in -direct communication with the State of Ja- Eastern manufacturers that all China needed was development and that any one who would devote a little time to the interests of this new buyer could build up a colossal trade in little or no time. They knew of what they were speaking, for they had been over the ground carefully and systemat- ically. Some firms, more venturesome than the rest, went back to first principles —nothing ventured, nothing gained— and sent out samples of everything they carried in stock. But on the other hand, some were afraid of the proposition, and were satisfied to dillydally in safer, tried-out fields. That failed to ruffle the calm of the advance agents, and when they sailed again they carried with them sixty odd trunks, and had others meet them in China, so that by the time they were -eady to invade India they car- ried one hundred and four pieces of luggage and never failed to create the impression that they were anything short of a traveling circus. “Business,” said Rosencrantz, “is just what one is a mind to make it. It's easy to sell and it's easy td buy, but one must conform with the rules of that country. For instance, the Chinese are queer about their ship- ments. They want everything packed in twos—two watches, two umbrellas, two chairs—and unless they come that way they are not pleased, and some- times refuse to receive the goods. In Singapore and about that district they want goods in pairs—say, two, four, six or ten. Now jt really ought not to make any difference to the man who supplies these materials, so long as his N e ) lisco, of one million inhabitants, whose wants are at present supplied by Chi- cago and New York. Providing that the merchants of Sare ‘Francisco are willing to furnish such goods as the market demands, and not insist upon the natives adopting their own tastes, and will follow instructions as to packing, and send down, not the loud-mouthed story telling, free and easy drummer, but a sober, broad- minded man, accurate but unassertiv a very large increase of San Franci: c0’s export business may soon be ex- pected. An important fact to be remarked is this: In all shipments to the south it will be seen that the amounts to Cen- tral American ports are much larger than those that are consigned to Mex- ico. This is explained by the fact that all the shipments to and from Central America are by way of the sea, where- as Mexico sends eightd times more by land than by water. If Germany can afford to send cotton prints, hardware, musical instruments, and so forth, around by way of the Horn, over 15,000 miles to the Pacific ports of Mexico, will it not benefit her t) use the Panama canal tQ the detri- ment of this State, and will she not avail herself of the opportunity, which is so freely offered to her by prohi- bitive freight and passenger rates? = ql -;Jn‘ customer is pleased and sends in large orders, but somehow or other he is loth to depart from his own methods of shipping and packing, and so los trade that would in all probability amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars to him. “The Germans and the English do not consider any order too much trau- ble. They are in business to sell, and if a customer wants an order shipped in boxes that entails a few cents’ more expense they charge it up to profit and loss and trust to luck to get a bigger order next time. And, rest assured, they get it, for when a firm orders a thing and is willing to pay a good price for it it intends having it, and if it cannot get it one place it will go elsewhere. “Why Americans imagine they can send out twenty-seven-inch goods when thirty-six has been explicitly or- dered is beyond me, yet they do it right along and expect to build up a trade in that way. That maf®rial is not only useless to the comsignee, Jbut it makes him very skeptical as to American busi- ness ability and honasty. “The few firms that have sent men to the Orient have made a mistake in trusting to the honesty of the inter- preter. The only way to do business with any foreigner is to do it direct. HE importance of looking well after the trade of San Francisco with the Orient is emphasized by a consideration of the conditions in the State. California is a pro- ducer and a large one and must of necessity look to foreign markets for the distribution of many of her prod- ucts. A few years ago this matter was not as important as now, because a great portion of the export trade from here was made up of wheat which went to the English markets. Under the decline in wheat growing and the larger production of flour than in for- mer years, new markets must be se- cured. Under the stimulus of necessity for manufactures, manufactured prod- ucts have become more general in this State and these must find markets out- side of our own State. Notwithstanding the fact that we are already producers to a very considerable extent in excess of local demand, the effort is continu- ally put forth on all hands to.increase the population of the State from the class that become producers. It tffere- fore must be clear to any one who con- CALIFORNIA’S TRADE By Arthur R. Briggs, Manager State RIDING . It is better in the long run to take time and learn the language, for then there is good faith on both sides and the sale is virtually made. “My list of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ is very small, but if the business men would give up some of their long, tiresome conferences and pay attention to them they would have all the business they could handle. They are just this: “l. Don't send out catalogues print- ed in English. The customer can't read them and nobody else will take the trouble to. “2. Don't send letters to Consuls. More than half of them don’t under- stand the knack of getting trade and they are too busy to take time to an- swer Jetters and petitions. “3. Don’t trust to an iInterpreter. Try yourself, for you can sell almost anything with samples and personal solicitations. “4, Don't fill orders at all unless you can do it properly. “5. Don't pack goods in anything but tin-lined boxes. Remember the ship- ment may be damaged in transit and that you will be hald responsible. “§. Do make up your mind to give people exactly what they want.” That the field for trade is immense cannot very well be denied. for a country that contains more than one- half the people of the earth naturally THE PROPER THING IN \NDiA THE CcAMEL. has enormous Then ses the ies for this coast. Tt certain- from k of excellent har- be want of or so sees a clearing for Japan and se facilities ame that ) per ceat of he is not e to retain careful she will not even tha mu-h That cse are waking from tkeir long sleep and trying to make up for lost time is evident by the variety of ich they are importing dail To illustrate, watches, spec- tacles, gramophones, and light hardware, false »writers, au- temobiles, cam aph instru- goods, agricul- instru- arms, flour, of all de- scriptions, and in fact nost anything that one can think o ave spices. On the otl hand the Celestial has much to offer In the first place, spices alone amount and tea hind. coffee and owing to tt to a pretty penny are not far be- there are silks, . and just at present, 1 for Chinese furnish- itity of peculiar native and oriental articles in China is by no manner of means the only portion of the Orient that opens its gates to outside manufacture, Slam offers splendid inducements to Ameri- c=n salesmen and even takes the trou- ble to tell them that they are eager and willing to look at the samples. Japan is so busy just at present minding her own P's and Q’'s that she has no time to devote to buying and selling, yet her little brown men buy over the world's counter something over $150,000,000 worth of produce every year and think nothing of it. And America does not think much ef it either or else she would bestir herself and see if she couldn’t by some hook or crook manage to secure more than from $20,000,000 to $30,000,000 of it. And so it goes throughout the entire Eastern countries, for the spirit of trading and of buying and selling is strong and seems to strengthen as the years go by. When a traveling sales- man can sell to a single merchant in Calcutta 10,000 gross of watch chalns, it either does not speak very well for the resident agent, or else it speaks mighty well for the persuasive powers of the newcomer. At any rate, the old tune that American manufacturers are 50 prone to sing that England, Ger- ngany, France and even Japan have resident firms always ready to gobble up trade. should dis a natural death, for there is plenty of room and busi- ness for all, and the shrewdest buyver and sellgr may rest assured of the lion's share. siders matters at all in a thoughtful way that it stands the merchants of San Francisco as well as the pro- ducers to use every possible effort to encourage and foster and en- large the trade with foreign countries. ‘What California can produce few even of those who have made the most care- ful study of it have any conception It is not alone the agricultural and horticultural products that we need, but it is the growth of manufactures of various kinds, and who knows what these may develop? With the climatic conditions, with cheap fuel and with abundant labor and with every con- dition favorable to manufacturing, why should not this State become a large producer of the goods which Eastern countries demand? One of the advantages that the great expositions of the world develop is trade compvetition with different parts of the world. Through the exposition which is now in progress in St. Louis, California is being brought to the a tention of various countries, and In whatever we excel, whether it be in raw products or manufactured goods, other countries will endeavor to com- pete with us. It therefore stands Cali- fornia in hand to do everything that can be done not only to maintain its present commercial position, but to OUTLOOR Board of Trade compete with the world's products in whatever market they are consumed. It must be clear to all thinking persons that articles of merit, whatever they may be, can be placed in almost any market, and even though the people to which her products are offered at first use them in moderate quantiti oncé the merit and pricesare established those markets will continue to grow and are likely to develop into large pro- portions. San Francisco is to-day the recog- nized metropolis of the Pacific Coast, but any lack of energy, enterprise or determination on the part of the me chants of this city will be taken ad- vantage of by other cities on the cos and once this business is establis! in these other competing cities, San Francisco will find it difficult to ac- quire it. The principal towns at the north and south of us are constantly putting forward efforts for the exten- slon of trade, and there is no reason to think that any indifference or lack of energy on our part will not be taken advantage of by them. It must there- fore be apparent to all that the ques- tion of how best to enlarge the for- eign trade from this port and to main- tain that which we now have Is one Which should be constantly kept in mind.