Industrial and commercial South America

by Annie S. Peck

Climate

This great country of Brazil presents considerable diversity of climate, as already observed. The forest covered Amazon Basin is hot, with slight variation throughout the year, and with heavy rainfalls; but while the average temperature is over 80°, ranging from 65° to 95°, some locations are decidedly preferable to others. The regular rainy season is from November to March, a second of less degree from August to October; also the rainy season is said to last nine months. On the upper Amazon there is a short dry season in January and February. There is a flood time November, December, and higher water from March to June. The average rainfall is about 78 inches, the rise of the river 45 feet. There are east winds, warm and moisture laden, the deflected trades, and colder winds from the west and southwest.

The coast region as far south as Santos is generally warm and humid (except for a stretch at the northeast), with a wet and dry season, though it rains also in the latter, except on the arid northeast coast. A variation occurs in Pernambuco where it rains from March to August, the dry and cooler season in Rio. Here on the edge of the tropics the annual temperature is 5° lower than on the Amazon. At Santos rainfall is heavy and the place is hot, but farther south it is cooler with a wider range of temperature and a more even distribution of rain. In Rio Grande do Sul the mercury ranges from 20° to 80°. Cold southwest storms from the Argentine pampa, occasionally as far as Rio, create discomfort for two or three days at a time. The highest temperature in Rio is 98.7°.

The Brazilian plateau is very different. As a rule the days are hotter and the nights cooler, the air drier, than on the coast at the same latitude. With mean temperature 68° there is occasional frost. Brazilian Guiana is hot and arid, though with more rain at the east and west than in the centre. South of the Amazon from Piauhy to southern Bahia is another semi-arid section with a rainless season from June to December, when streams are dry and fields are burned bare. With heavy rains from January to May, the country is covered with verdure; when these fail, sometimes for successive years, the droughts are destructive to agriculture and cattle. The plateaus of Minas, São Paulo, and Rio have a climate which is modified by luxuriant vegetation, south winds, and their altitude; though Minas Geraes, having forests only along the rivers and at the south, is hotter by day, but with always cool nights. The open lands of São Paulo also have higher daily temperature; the annual mean is 68°-77°. In south Minas and São Paulo frosts occasionally occur. In the State of Rio there is a delightful climate in the high valleys of the Serra do Mar, temperature 45°-90°. The table-lands farther south, Paraná, Santa Catharina, and Rio Grande do Sul enjoy a temperate climate with abundant rain, occasional frost, but no snow. The northern valleys of the Paraná River are sub-tropical, the mean annual temperature of Goyaz City being 77°.

The country over a large extent may be considered healthful; the yellow fever which once afflicted Rio and some other cities has been exterminated by rigid sanitary measures, and the conditions of life on the eastern plateau and in the temperate south are agreeable. The Amazon Valley is of course malarial, though some sections are far better than others. It would seem that the lower parts which are subject to inundation can hardly be made suitable for residence whatever precautions are taken; but the higher lands may be to some extent free of malarial poison, and certain parts have a climate which some Europeans, even Englishmen enjoy.

CHAPTER XLVII
BRAZIL: THE CAPITAL, INDIVIDUAL STATES, CITIES

The Capital

Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, with a population of 1,200,000, the second city in South America and the fifth in the Western Hemisphere, is generally conceded to have the finest harbor in the world. It is also the most beautiful city in respect to natural advantages, while the improvements which have recently been carried out have made the artificial structure of the city in harmony with its picturesque surroundings. In the early part of this century the Government awoke to the disadvantages of the narrow streets, the poor facilities for commerce, and the notoriously bad conditions of health. Immense improvements were inaugurated and speedily executed. Fine drainage canals were installed, mosquitoes practically exterminated, wide avenues were cut through dense quarters, and port works constructed, so that in health, beauty, and commercial convenience, nothing remains to be desired. A new Central Avenue, now renamed Rio Branco, is counted among the finest in the world; other splendid avenues are lined with fine commercial structures or beautiful private residences, perhaps with royal palms; along the shores are magnificent boulevards unrivaled in beauty, often thronged with luxurious automobiles, all amid surroundings of ideal loveliness of sea-shore and of mountain. Hotel accommodations, hitherto only fair, and inadequate, are improving with the erection of needed new structures, as increasing travel for business and pleasure demanded. Living expenses are called high in all parts of Brazil, but on the whole Rio has seemed no dearer than New York. The city may boast of a splendid opera house, said to have cost $5,000,000, of the largest library in South America, and the finest art gallery, a wonderful botanical garden, museums, delightful sea and mountain resorts, etc., etc.

EASTERN BRAZIL

States and Cities

As the country of Brazil is so large and of such diversity in its various sections and even in single States, with many independent systems of railways connected with its numerous harbors, it may be desirable to speak of its ports and to some extent of its railways in connection with a review of the different States. In this we may begin with the Coastal States, coming up from the south, and conclude with those of the interior.

Rio Grande do Sul, eleventh in area among the States of Brazil, and equal in size to Indiana and Illinois together, borders on Uruguay at the south. The Uruguay River separates it from Argentina on the west and most of the way from the State of Santa Catharina on the north. Its population is about the same as that of the State of South Carolina, which is one-third of its size. It is called a pastoral State as its chief source of wealth at present is cattle; 45 of the 70 million acres are cattle ranges, 6¹⁄₄ million, farms, and 13³⁄₄ forests. The nearly 9,000,000 head of cattle are called the best in Brazil. Blooded stock is being introduced and packing houses are taking the place of saladeros for charque or dried meat, which formerly were the destination of most of the cattle. High class poultry is extensively and profitably raised, $4,500,000 being invested in the industry.

With a temperate climate and well watered, the country is by no means confined to stock raising, for its agricultural products are more diverse than those of any other state. Not only cereals like wheat and oats, but cotton, rice, sugar cane, tobacco, manioc, alfalfa, etc., even tea are successfully raised, as well as temperate zone fruits and vegetables. It has important coal mines, with some of copper, gold, and wolfram also being operated, and a wide distribution of these and other minerals. With 13,000 industrial establishments its important factories include nine textile mills.

The capital, Porto Alegre, is the chief manufacturing centre, and the State is third in such industries. The capital is the largest city in southern Brazil, with a cosmopolitan population one fourth of German descent. An important commercial and industrial centre, it has fine public buildings, colleges, theatres, clubs, good shops, parks, and hotels. The population is nearly all white with a large percentage of Italians as well as of Germans.

Rio Grande is the chief port, 1000 miles south of Rio de Janeiro, and 180 by sea north of Montevideo. The city lies just inside the entrance of the Lagôa dos Patos at its south end. Unfortunately, the entrance has been obstructed by a sand bar with a varying depth of water above. Vessels drawing more than 11 feet could not pass; uncertainty, often a few days’ waiting was the fate of others. An attempt to dredge a passage was unsuccessful, but with building of jetties improvement is manifest. Port works in the city, including a mile of quays, have been established, and a rapid development of the region is expected to follow. The city, population 40,000, has an active commerce by rail and water. By rail it is connected at Cacequy with the through line from São Paulo to Montevideo, and beyond this line at Uruguayana (population 20,000), on the Uruguay River, with the Argentine railways on the other side. There is regular steam navigation to the port of Pelotas, three hours, population 32,000, noted for its dried meat products, and to Porto Alegre at the north end of the lagoon, 150 miles and 12 hours distant.

Santa Catharina, north of Rio Grande, less than one third of its size, has rather similar characteristics. Bordering on the Atlantic, it has Argentina on the west; on the north is the State of Paraná, from which it is separated for half the distance by the Iguassú River. The State is notable for wheat growing and other grains, for cattle and dairy products, for its exports of fruits, for its coal mines, and for the timber from its forests, especially the Paraná pines. It ranks second in Brazil as a producer of yerba mate, in Portuguese herva matte, 14,000,000 pounds being its annual output. Its manufacturing establishments (174) are of small size.

The capital and chief port is Florianopolis on an island of that name. Improvements in the way of good port works are in hand, and though without rail connection a tonnage of about 300,000 has entered and cleared in a year. The port of São Francisco, a smaller town in the State, is called the best port south of Santos. This advantage will give the city future importance. Already it has rail connection by way of the town Rio Negro with Curityba and Paranaguá, and so with Ponta Grossa on the São Paulo-Uruguay Railway which of course crosses the State, a distance of 225 miles. The city is expected to be the terminus of a road which will pass through União da Victoria to the Iguassú Falls and across Paraguay to Asunción.

Paraná, about the size of Rio Grande, is between Santa Catharina and São Paulo, having Argentina also on its southwest corner beyond the Iguassú River and its great Falls. Along the western border flows the larger river, the Alto Paraná (with the tremendous La Guayra Falls) separating the State from Paraguay, and farther north from Matto Grosso. Besides these boundary rivers the Paranapanema, affluent of the Paraná, flows between this State and São Paulo, while the Rio Negro and Iguassú are between it and Santa Catharina. Many more tributaries of the Paraná are entirely within the State. Matte is the chief industry at present, 100,000,000 pounds being annually exported; but with the best wheat land of Brazil, its forests of Paraná pine, and other varieties of timber it may have another leader before long. Paranaguá, the State’s chief port, with a deep anchorage and improvements planned, is now visited by 650 vessels a year and has a total annual trade of $6,000,000. A smaller port, Antonina, is on the north side of the same bay.

The capital, Curityba, has rail connection with the two ports and with Ponta Grossa on the line to Uruguay traversing these three States. In the delightful four hours’ journey of 70 miles from Paranaguá to the capital, the climb of the Serra do Mar up a steep tropical valley is made without cogs or cables by means of high trestles, bridges, and 17 tunnels; the ride rivaling if not surpassing in beauty the more famous one from Santos to São Paulo.

São Paulo, a great and justly famous State, about the size of Arizona, more than twice that of New York, has Minas Geraes on the north, also east with a small extent of the State of Rio de Janeiro; the ocean is southeast, Paraná south, and Matto Grosso west. This enterprising State is the leader in agriculture, producing 60 per cent of the world’s coffee supply, besides cotton, sugar, tobacco, cereals, etc., in large quantities; it is second to Rio in manufacturing industries, contains large mineral riches, is advanced in stock raising, leads in educational advantages, and has the best railway service of 4300 miles. The wealth of this State is estimated as at $1,100,000,000 in agriculture, $500,000,000 in manufactures, $170,000,000 in railways, and $2,230,000,000 miscellaneous. While most of it is in the torrid zone, the altitude of the State averaging over 2000 feet gives it (except for the narrow coastal strip) a fine healthful climate, a blessing enjoyed too by the States previously mentioned. In the Falls of its rivers the State possesses 3,000,000 horse power of which only 250,000 is employed.

The port of Santos, population 80,000, is regularly visited by the large Transatlantic and North American steamers. It is called one of the best and most important ports of the world, receiving 1600 ships annually besides coasting vessels. The largest ocean steamers, 20-40 foot draft, come up to the quay which extends for three miles along the harbor front; fine granite walls rise five feet above high water mark on a base 10-20 feet thick. Modern machinery is provided, making it the best equipped port in Brazil, and nothing is allowed to interfere with the efficiency of the service. It is a very busy city though warm. The heat does not prevent people from rushing about. A Brazilian writer has said, “People do not run, they fly.” The reason for this unusual haste, by no means manifest in Rio, is that many prominent business men come daily, others occasionally, from São Paulo by morning train, returning at four P.M. A splendid railway which will be referred to later, leads to that important city, a two hours’ ride.

The capital city, São Paulo, 310 miles from Rio and 50 from Santos, while lacking the charm of Rio’s scenic beauty, is preferred by many as a place of residence on account of its cooler climate, the greater business activity apparent, and the cosmopolitan society, more than one third of the population being of foreign birth and another one third direct descendants of Europeans. The city has many splendid buildings, both public and private, including an opera house superior to any in the United States, a large number of excellent schools of various kinds, and all the attractions and facilities, except good and adequate hotels, of a city of half a million inhabitants.

The Federal District of Brazil, the capital, Rio de Janeiro, has been sufficiently described except as a port city. From a commercial point of view the harbor and port works are the chief interest. The Guanabara Bay is a wonderful harbor, not merely on account of its size, depth of water, absolutely safe anchorage, and the beauty of its surroundings, but it is extraordinary from the fact that it is hardly a mile from the ocean to the landing docks. Here a granite quay extends for 2¹⁄₄ miles along the water front with a depth of water alongside of 31 feet. The deep channel entrance is narrowed to a mile in width by long narrow peninsulas extending on either side and further by a small island blocking the waves. The docks have the additional protection of a projecting point of the city, on the other side of which, on rare occasions, the waves do break over upon the splendid boulevard. The larger inner harbor is hardly noticeable, being cut off by peninsulas and islands, of which last the bay contains nearly a hundred. The entire bay is 18 miles long, and the inner section is 15 miles wide. At the docks the most modern machinery is provided for hoisting, loading and unloading ships, with electric power for the work and for lighting. A width of 80 feet was left for railway tracks; back of these are storage ware-houses, administration offices, and customs, for which a space of 110 feet was allowed. Behind these buildings is an avenue 125 feet wide, with double tracks on which run electric cars. Two million dollars are now (1921) to be expended for additional port works, an extension of the granite quay or dock wall about 2000 feet and two breakwaters of 800,000 cubic feet.

Rio de Janeiro. This State, though containing or surrounding the capital, is distinct from it, with a capital of its own on the opposite shore of the bay. As the direction of the coast line changes here, the State has the ocean east and south; São Paulo is west, Minas Geraes north, and Espirito Santo at the northeast. The State is comparatively small, being only about one sixth the size of its western neighbor, and less than one twelfth of its northern; it is even a trifle smaller than Espirito Santo, its next coastal neighbor.

Nictheroy, the capital, is a comparatively small, quiet town of 65,000 population, which has some important manufactories. The State has other smaller towns, as Petropolis, the so-called summer capital, population 30,000, at an elevation of 3000 feet. The Parahyba Rio do Sul, which flows northeast, back of the mountain range, is navigable to the city of Campos, population 30,000, 60 miles from its mouth. The agricultural products are important, the State ranking third in coffee and second in sugar. Large quantities of corn and rice are raised, the coast lands with lakes and lagoons being well suited to the latter. Valuable forests and minerals exist, and in manufacturing industries of great variety the State stands first. Besides the harbor of Rio there are a number of good though small ports.

Espirito Santo. Little Espirito Santo, northeast of Rio State, has Minas at the west and Bahia north. The principal products of the State are coffee, rice, and other cereals, sugar, cotton, and mandioca; while the export of fine timber, rosewood, satin and brazil wood, is increasing. Gold and precious stones are its chief minerals. Its factories are few, but the town of Itaperim on a navigable river has cheap electric power, which makes it a fine centre for industry in the future.

The capital and chief city, Victoria, population 20,000, is the first port of importance north of Rio. On a fine bay 2¹⁄₂ miles wide with a narrow entrance of less than ¹⁄₂ a mile, it is the outlet of the eastern part of the State of Minas, which contains the richest mineral deposits so far exploited in Brazil. A railway connects the port with interior cities. Works of importance have been planned, a quay ⁵⁄₈ of a mile long with 28 feet of water and with suitable equipment; the widening and deepening of the channel entrance, and the building of a steel bridge to the main land from the island on which the city stands. Over 500 steamers and 200 sailing vessels clear yearly.

Bahia, an important and well known State, the largest yet considered, exceeding California in area, touches three smaller States on the north, Piauhy, Pernambuco, and Sergipe; it has Espirito Santo and Minas on the south and Goyaz west. All kinds of tropical and subtropical products are found here, cacao, sugar, and coffee in large quantities, rubber of the maniçoba and mangabeira varieties, cotton, vanilla, the finest kind of oranges and pine apples, and other fruits. Bahia has the principal whale fisheries of the country and the best grounds for table fish. Its mineral wealth includes even the sand, monazite, the most important supply in the world.

The capital and chief port, 720 miles northeast of Rio, about 60 hours sail, is generally called by the name of the State, though its proper title is São Salvador. It has an excellent and beautiful harbor, though over-shadowed by the more remarkable picturesqueness of Rio. The bay, Bahia de Todos os Santos, about 25 miles wide (three at the entrance), and 20 miles deep, provides good anchorage for large steamers, 40 feet close in shore. It is a port of call for Trans-Atlantic liners and for steamers from North America, the only one north of Rio for some of the Lines. A company has undertaken port works which will greatly advance the prosperity of City and State, the works to include three breakwaters and two quay walls, the levelling of a large wharf space, erection of store-houses, laying railway lines, installing electric cranes, and constructing a floating dock and a lighthouse. Over 1000 large steamers with 2,300,000 tonnage enter the port annually. The imports are $13,000,000, the exports $20,000,000. The city is connected by rail with various cities in the interior of the State, and with the São Francisco River at a point above the Falls, from which there is navigation upstream a distance of 990 miles. The river has a length in the State of 850 miles. Bahia is a great cocoa port, shipping about one-fifth of the world’s supply; the State produces about as much tobacco as Cuba.

Sergipe, the smallest of all the States, is larger than nine of ours, a trifle bigger than Maryland and Delaware together. The São Francisco River separates it from Alagôas on the north, it has Bahia on the west and south. Its chief products are cotton, sugar, and rice; the cattle industry is important; the State has profitable manufacturing industries; cotton mills, sugar, shoes, soap, and other factories, and unworked mineral deposits.

The capital, Aracajú, population 40,000, is a small port with 95,000 tons of shipping yearly; but it suffers the disadvantage of receiving ships of no more than 8 feet draft, and needs the improvements now planned.

Alagôas, of triangular shape, has Sergipe on one side and Pernambuco on the other, the ocean on the third. Its main products are sugar and cotton; the cattle industry is prosperous; it has copper, lead and iron deposits, not operated, and very important milling industries, particularly of cotton. The São Francisco River is regularly navigated 175 miles to the Paulo Affonso Falls, around which there is a railway 52 miles long to navigation above.

The capital, Maceió, is a modern city; its suburb, the port, Jaraguá, with a tonnage of 600,000. The State is the most thickly populated next to Rio de Janeiro.

Pernambuco, the twelfth State in size, with area equal to that of New York, extends well into the interior, though with a coast line of 112 miles only. Ceará and Parahyba are on the north, Alagôas and Bahia on the south, and Piauhy on the west. The State leads in the production of cotton and sugar, sometimes exporting 150,000 tons of the latter, and raw cotton worth $5,000,000. Other agricultural products are secondary, but cattle and dairying are important, still more the milling industry. Minerals, coal, iron, saltpetre, kaolin, and manganese exist in paying quantities. There are two good ports besides the capital; railways connect Recife with Maceió and with cities inland.

Recife (often called Pernambuco), capital of the State, is a port protected by a coral reef parallel to the shore, where fine works are being constructed: these include a breakwater three-fourths of a mile long, a stone jetty one-half a mile; quays, one with 33 feet of water, one with 28-30, together three-fourths of a mile long, also other equipment. One thousand steamers are its annual quota, with tonnage of 1,750,000; the city has obviously great commercial importance, exporting especially cotton and sugar, also rum, hides, and cereals. Its imports surpass those of any other Brazilian city except Rio. The cost of living is high.

Parahyba has on the north Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco south, Ceará west, and 72 miles of coast east. Cotton is the chief product, and mandioca is important. Vast coconut groves of trees, growing wild, should be taken advantage of. The pastoral industry is important, with goats a specialty as with its neighbors.

A little below the capital, Parahyba, at the mouth of the Rio Parahyba do Norte, is the seaport Cabedello, where port works are planned.

Rio Grande do Norte is the first of several States which have the Atlantic Ocean on the north. It is on the east also, forming a coast line of 290 miles. Parahyba is south and Ceará west. Here, too, cotton and sugar are the chief products, though 180 tons of rubber annually, from the maniçoba trees, are of value; the cattle and goats are important; carnaüba wax and vegetable oils come from the forests; the State, from natural salines, supplies much of the salt used in Brazil. Dried and salt fish are supplied to the rest of the northern States, and much cotton cloth and thread are exported. Natal, the capital, is near the mouth of the Rio Grande. A great reservoir with a dam 160 feet high and a capacity of 2,200,000,000 cubic metres of water is to be constructed, the irrigation of 250,000 acres thereby transforming a large district; others here and in Ceará.

Ceará, smaller than Pernambuco, is nearly twice the size of Rio Grande do Norte, which with Parahyba is on the east; Pernambuco is south and Piauhy west. Cotton is the chief product though coffee, sugar, cacao and cereals are also raised. Cultivated rubber is exported as from Bahia; the cattle industry is important, though affected by occasional severe droughts. However there are approximately 2,000,000 head of cattle. Minerals and precious stones are found in variety.

The capital and port, Fortaleza, is one of the worst on the coast. Three powerful dredges are maintained by the Government for the continual dredging of the channel into which sand from the dunes is ever drifting. Two smaller ports require similar dredging.

Piauhy, eighth of the States in size, with a deep interior has the smallest coast line, only 43 miles. It has Ceará and Pernambuco east, Bahia south, and Maranhão west, from which it is separated by the Parnahyba River. The State has the expected agricultural products, vast herds of cattle and large flocks of goats; important forest wealth of rubber, timber, wax, and medicinal plants, and a variety of minerals. It has one seaport, Amarraçao, but a good deal goes out from a port of the next State, Tutoya, on the other side of the river Parnahyba. Therezina, the capital, is of some importance.

Maranhão, a little larger, has Piauhy east and south, Goyaz south and west, almost touching Bahia between these two; it has Pará also on the west. Its coast line is 100 miles more than Piauhy’s. Cotton is the chief agricultural product, but others exist; the cattle industry is important, much live stock going to Amazonas; there is good forest wealth, various minerals, and important cotton factories.

São Luis do Maranhão, the capital, population 50,000, is called the chief port though troubled by sand, while Tutoya is excellent.

Pará, a name at last familiar to all, is third of the States in area, equal to Texas and California, with West Virginia thrown in. It has Guiana on the north, with the Atlantic northeast; east are Maranhão and Goyaz. Matto Grosso is south, and Amazonas west. Its chief products are of the forest, particularly rubber, also Brazil nuts, medicinal plants, oils and timber. Little is done in agriculture though many plants grow freely such as cotton, rice, tobacco, and especially cacao, of which 3500 tons a year have been exported. There are large herds of cattle, perhaps 2,000,000 head, and various minerals are found. One railway, with branches, leads from Pará to Bragança, near the ocean, and to other towns; and one is open for a short distance in the valley of the Tocantins, the beginning of an ambitious project.

The capital, Belém, usually called by foreigners Pará is a fine city of 200,000 and the only considerable seaport, if so it may be termed, as it is on a bay of the Pará River 80 miles from the ocean. Mean temperature 78°. Harbor works, begun in 1906, and costing over $60,000,000, have been of immense value. They include a fine quay a mile and a half long with a depth of water part of the way of 30 feet, docks and storehouses, two floating docks, a Custom House, oil storage tanks, etc. One thousand steamers formerly entered yearly with tonnage of 1,500,000; imports at one time were valued at $15,000,000 and exports at $30,000,000. A channel from the outer river, 30 feet in depth, is marked by 26 buoys lighted by acetylene gas. The city is notable with attractive plazas, a unique forest park, a museum, a white marble theatre, and a good hotel. The various cities or villages are coast or river ports, some on the Amazon, others on the Tapajós, Xingú, Tocantins, Araguary, or smaller streams.

Amazonas, first of the inland States, and the largest of all, has Colombia and Venezuela north, Pará east, Matto Grosso, Bolivia, and Acre south, and Peru and Colombia west. Its area is equal to that of our three Pacific Coast States with Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Colorado. In this great space the population, estimated at 435,000, is about one person to 1¹⁄₂ square miles. Manaos, the capital, and the various other centres of population by the river side mean rubber. There are no roads except of water, no paths save those made by rubber gatherers, with a few by Indians, the number of whom is a mere guess. All tropical products thrive but their production is negligible save that of rubber. Various minerals are unexploited. Manaos, 924 miles from Pará, 1030 from the ocean, and 2000 from Rio, is the first real city in the wilderness, though Obidos, still in the State of Pará, is a port where 300 vessels call in a year, and a number of smaller places claim that title.

Manaos, a city of 60,000 population, is located just off the Amazon seven miles up the Rio Negro, on a large quiet bay. Port works have been constructed, a fine stone wall over 1500 feet long, with floating docks to fit the 50-foot rise and fall of the river, and 16 electrically equipped warehouses conveniently arranged. Considering its location, it is a wonderful city, well lighted, with a splendid opera house, expensive of course, a fine cathedral, schools, a public library, museum, and good sanitation. One thousand four hundred miles farther is the Peruvian city of Iquitos, near the limit of navigation for ocean vessels on the main stream. Some distance below Manaos the Amazon is entered by the Madeira River which gives access to the State of Matto Grosso and to Bolivia.

Matto Grosso is second in size, equal to the States mentioned above without Nevada and Colorado. Estimated population 275,000. This State has Amazonas and Pará on the north, Goyaz, Minas Geraes, São Paulo, and Paraná on the east, Paraguay and Bolivia are on the south, and Paraguay and Bolivia west. The State is much more open than Amazonas; its chief industry is cattle. Forest products however abound, with all kinds of rubber and magnificent timber. There are large agricultural possibilities and considerable matte is exported. Diamonds and auriferous sands are exploited though their origin is uncertain. The river systems north and south meet in the highlands, and connection might be made by a short canal, opening a way from Pará or Manaos to Buenos Aires.

Cuyabá, the capital, on a river of the same name, an affluent of the Paraguay, is quite a city, population 32,000, although 1045 miles above Asunción, while Corumbá, lower down, on the Paraguay, is of nearly equal size. The river at Corumbá is 1000 feet wide, and 6 feet deep at the docks at low water. Corumbá is regularly visited by steamers, though 1800 miles by river from Montevideo. Its export and import trade amounts to at least $4,000,000 annually.

Goyaz, the fourth State in size, following Pará, has Maranhão on the north, Maranhão, Bahia, and Minas Geraes are on the east, Minas and Matto Grosso are south, and Matto Grosso and Pará west. Three hundred thousand is the estimated population with a guess at the number of Indians of many tribes. The principal industry is stock raising and many cattle are exported to neighboring States. The forests have the maniçoba and the mangabeira rubber, also a vegetable silk, paina. There are great mineral riches, placer gold in many streams, and veins in the hills; many diamonds and rock crystal are also produced. Other metals as iron and copper exist. Navigable rivers are the means of communication as in the neighboring States, but a railroad is coming and more rapid development will follow.

The capital, Goyaz, is not much of a place, though of late evincing progress. Several other cities have from 5000 to 10,000 inhabitants.

Minas Geraes, the fourth inland State and the fifth in size, has Bahia on the north, Bahia and Espirito Santo east, Rio de Janeiro southeast, São Paulo southwest, and Goyaz west, a small southwest corner about reaching Matto Grosso below. Although without a seaport and with no large city, Minas is the most populous of the States, with an active industrious population. The State leads in mineral riches of almost every kind; it is one of the foremost in agriculture of all varieties, being second to São Paulo in coffee; it has vast pasture lands, exporting 300,000 head of cattle a year, a sugar refinery, flour mills, and a great dairy industry. It has increasing railway service as well as river transportation. It is believed to have a mineral future rivaling that of the best region in the world. Its factories are important and there is a great store of water power.

Bello Horizonte, the present capital, was made to order in 1897, and is well laid out with broad streets, water supply, sewerage, everything of the best type: a Government Palace, the finest State building of Brazil, and a fine Agricultural School. Ouro Preto, the old capital, has a free Mining School, said to be one of the best in the world.

The Acre Territory, triangular in shape, has Amazonas north, Bolivia south, and Peru west. It is naturally similar to the neighboring sections. There are three Districts: Juruá, of which the capital is Cruzeiro do Sul, population 2000, 1351 miles from Manaos; Purús, capital, Senna Madureira, population 4000, 1320 miles from Manaos; and Acre, capital Rio Branco, population 2000, 1351 miles from Manaos.

CHAPTER XLVIII
BRAZIL: TRANSPORTATION—OCEAN, RIVER, AND RAILWAY

Ocean and River Traffic

Brazil has a considerable navy, several warships; and a merchant marine of 450,000 gross tonnage. The leading national line is the Brazilian Lloyd which with 62 ships has a service to the United States as well as a coastwise, the latter shared by the Navegaçao Costeira and other companies. Rio de Janeiro has three dry docks, one with a capacity for the largest battleships, and a yard where ships are constructed. The country has 30,000 miles of navigable rivers, with boats for these having a tonnage of 75,000.

Coastwise and river steamers have service in the Amazon Basin, the most important as follows: Pará-Obidos-Manaos, 975 miles; Pará-Santarem-Itaituba (Rio Tapajós) 729 miles; Pará-Maués, Pará Tocantins, 1544 miles; Tabatinga (Frontier) Remate dos Males, 1743 miles; Pará-Santo Antonio (Madeira) 1617 miles; Pará-Rio, Peru-Senna-Madureira, 1934 miles; Pará-Chaves (Marajos Island), Oyapock River; Manaos and Rio Negro to Santa Isabel, 423 miles; Manaos to the Yapurá River—to the Juruá River, Cruzeiro do Sul, 1090 miles.

Other companies have service, Maranhão north to Pará, 599 miles, south to Pernambuco 884 miles; Recife north to Maranhão 803 miles, south to Bahia 385 miles, east to Fernando do Noronha Island, 239 miles. On the São Francisco River, Januaria to Pirapora. Other Lines serve from Rio de Janeiro to ports south to Laguna and Ribeira de Iguapé, São Paulo; also on the Paraná and the Rio Grande, and on the Lakes Patos and Mirím. Service from Rio de Janeiro to Corumbá, 765 miles above Asunción, and 280 miles farther to Cuyabá on the Cuyabá River, in time of high water is continued on the Paraguay 250 miles beyond to São Luiz de Caceres.

Railway Transportation

While the great rivers of Brazil with their 27,000 miles of navigable waters have been a large factor in the development of the country, of equal importance for the future is transportation by rail. The total present mileage, second to that of Argentina, exceeds 16,500, these having developed from 9¹⁄₂ miles in 1854 and about 10,000, 50 years later. About 90 per cent are of metre gauge. For the economic unity of the great Republic, the Government policy is favorable to a rapid extension of the present railway systems, a matter as important as was the creation of our railways to the Pacific 50 years ago. The development in Brazil has been retarded by the difficult topography of the country, in striking contrast to the Argentine plains. Along the greater and better part of the coast is the high steep wall of the plateau region, which must be climbed to enter the interior. Once at the top the way in some sections is easier, but in others there are additional mountain ranges. The wall, obviously low in comparison with the mighty rampart of the Andes, presents difficulties, but none to compare with those experienced in Peru.

The first railway, built and operated in 1854, was from Mauá on the north shore of the Rio harbor to Fragosa. Soon after carried to Petropolis, it is now a part of the Leopoldina Railway system. Only two South American railways antedate this, the Demarara of British Guiana and the Caldera-Copiapó in Chile.

The Central of Brazil Railway was the first of much importance, its first section, 32 miles, opened in 1858. For this road leading out of Rio expenses were heavy. Many were the difficulties of construction, tunnels, bridges, etc., the boring of one tunnel, only 1¹⁄₂ miles long, requiring seven years. The system, now in Government ownership, has a network of lines extending from Rio to the city of São Paulo, to Bello Horizonte in Minas, and to other points. It has express trains with sleeping cars (state rooms), and a heavy suburban traffic. It is intended to carry this system northward to the city of Pará, with branches to new territory. Twenty-five million passengers are carried annually with much freight of coffee, lumber, iron, manganese, etc. The railway is to be electrified near the capital with a Government appropriation of $32,760,000.

The São Paulo Railway. The most successful, financially and otherwise, of the railways of Brazil is no doubt the São Paulo, operating a double track, broad gauge line (5 feet 6 inches) from Santos to the town and junction, Jundiahy (population 20,000), 86 miles; it passes through the city, São Paulo, and has a branch to Bragança, 65 miles. This road has a granted monopoly of trade between the two cities, Santos and São Paulo, 50 miles apart. This, in spite of the great expense of the railway construction, has insured them large profits, dividends in 1912-13 being 14 per cent. The train mile earnings are the largest in South America and normally are greater than any reported in the United States. With the construction of more and more lines in this State and beyond, a steady increase in the traffic seems assured, as nearly all must pass in and out by way of Santos. The road now carries annually more than half of the world’s coffee supply.

ENVIRONS OF SÃO PAULO AND RIO DE JANEIRO

One of many engineering triumphs in South America, the railway is ranked among the greater achievements of the world. An ascent of 2600 feet is made within seven miles. Beginning 15 feet above the sea not far from Santos five inclined planes with 8 per cent grade, each 1¹⁄₂ miles long, serve for the rapid climb. A stationary engine at the top of each plane runs the cables; to grip these a small engine is attached to each car. The tracks seem unique. The double track on the inclines has but three rails for up and down cars, which therefore cannot meet there, but may on the intermediate levels of which there are four, each 600 feet long. On each side between the middle and the outside rails are the pulleys which carry the cable, an endless steel wire of enormous strength run by a 1000 horse power engine, capable of carrying six freight or three passenger cars at the same time. In this short section are 16 viaducts, 15 tunnels, and two miles of retaining wall. One viaduct is 334 feet long, and nearly 150 feet high in the centre. There are now two of these double roads, one just above the other, as I have seen, and not on a different route as stated elsewhere. The first soon proving insufficient to accommodate the freight, the second was built with a few technical improvements. It is a wonderful ride through tropical forests, with scenes of picturesque beauty.

The Sorocabana Railway, 864 miles, which traverses a rich and progressive part of Brazil opening up new territory, has important connections with other lines. This Company has several lines running west and northwest from São Paulo. One of the most important is to Baurú, a city also on the Paulista Railway. From this point the North Western Railway has continued the line to Itapura on the Paraná River and across the State of Matto Grosso to Porto Esperança on the Paraguay, about 40 miles by land from Corumbá on the west side of the River, and 80 by water. Probably a train-car ferry will later be provided at Esperança and the road continued on the other side to Corumbá. By the present road connection is made with Bolivia opposite, and by water with Paraguay farther down, the capital Asunción being about 700 miles distant, Montevideo nearly 1800. Previously to the completion of this railway Corumbá and that section of Brazil was reached from Rio only by a long, long sail, three weeks (farther than to Europe) by steamers of the Brazilian Lloyd Line. After making calls along the Brazilian coast, at Montevideo and Buenos Aires, these boats continue up the Paraná and Paraguay Rivers, arriving at last once more in their own country. This new railway and others now in construction will be an immense factor in opening the great central table-land of Brazil, with its rich possibilities for agriculture, cattle raising, and mining.

The São Paulo-Rio Grande, another important railway, 853 miles, runs from São Paulo to Sant’ Anna do Livramento on the border of Uruguay, where it connects with the Central Uruguay Railway to Montevideo. Improvements have been made so that with better connections and sleeping cars to the border, which were lacking part of the way in 1916, the journey is now made in comfort in 4¹⁄₂ days to Montevideo. The road runs through a rich, often beautiful country; in some places with splendid scenery and fine forests, in others with open grazing lands where good cattle are visible, past small towns and pleasant rivers. People who are willing to work could find agreeable homes in this section with excellent temperate climate. Low land values are spoken of, which if genuine should make this an attractive region now that fairly good transportation exists with more in prospect. This line has several branches of its own, while other railways are connected with the through line, local roads to ports or to interior towns. One of these, the Paraná Railway, has its main line from the port Paranaguá to the State capital, Curityba, and to Ponta Grossa on the São Paulo-Rio Grande; it has north and south branches, the latter to Rio Negro and to São Francisco.

The southern part of the São Paulo-Rio Grande Line belonged to the Compagnie Aux Chemins de Fer de Brasil which had a concession for the entire State of Rio Grande. Roads from Porto Alegre and from the city of Rio Grande extend to the line from São Paulo, thus making connection with Montevideo and Buenos Aires. From the Cacequy junction a line goes west to Uruguayana on the Uruguay River. Along this river the Brazil Great Southern operates in Rio Grande 110 miles from Quarahim on the Uruguay border through Uruguayana north to Itaqui, with an extension to São Borja 77 miles farther up. At Quarahim an international bridge 700 yards long connects the Brazil and Uruguay Railways. Across the Uruguay River connection is made from Uruguayana with Argentine Railways, and a direct route to Buenos Aires.

There are other roads in the São Paulo, which has the best system in Brazil and the most mileage: over 4000.

The Paulista Railway, extending northwest from Jundiahy through rich coffee territory with Barretos a recent terminal, has many branches and a mileage of 721.

The Mogyana goes much farther north, crossing a corner of Minas and entering the State of Goyaz, on the way to the capital city of that name. It has arrived at Santa Cruz, still quite a distance from Goyaz, though with a total mileage of 1081.

The Southern São Paulo Railway runs along or near the coast 100 miles from Santos to Juquiá.

The Leopoldina. An important British line or system nearly 2000 miles in length is the Leopoldina, the main line extending from Nictheroy, on the bay shore opposite Rio, to Friburgo, Campos, Victoria, Leopoldina, and other points in the States of Rio, Minas, and Espirito Santo. Lines run also from Rio and Mauá up the mountain to Petropolis and beyond, connecting with the main line. This follows the Parahyba Valley for some distance and then crosses four mountain ranges, a work involving many unusual feats of engineering. On the main line the maximum grade is 8 per cent, on the Petropolis section 15 per cent. The territory traversed is highly productive, and in spite of expensive construction good returns in normal times are assured.

The Great Western. Under British control is the Great Western Railway which has Pernambuco as its centre. Lines extend north along the coast and also to the interior with 1000 mileage in the several states of Pernambuco, Alagôas, Parahyba and Rio Grande do Norte. It reaches the ports of Maceió, Parahyba, Cabedello and Natal. Two and a half million passengers were carried in one year and much freight.

In the state of Bahia short lines run back to the interior, one, 140 miles, from Nazareth, south of the bay, and one from São Felix, 165 miles, to Santo Amaro, serving the best sugar district, as Nazareth that of cacao and manganese ores. The principal road is from Bahia, 281 miles, to Joazeiro, on the São Francisco River; the oldest, opened in 1860, is along the coast to Aracajú in Sergipe, 268 miles. Two other small railways are farther south, in all about 950 miles.

The Brazil North East Railway operates in Ceará about 472 miles, one division from the port of Forteleza, another from the port Camocím to Granja and Crato.

The State of Pará has less mileage than most of the others, the short line, 40 miles built, at the junction of the Tocantins and Araguaya to avoid bad cascades. Another road, the Bragança, runs northeast from Pará to the Atlantic Coast.

The Madeira-Mamoré is in some respects the most remarkable railway in Brazil, perhaps in the world. It was built in accordance with a treaty with Bolivia in settlement of the Acre difficulty, and in compensation for the surrender by that country of the Acre Territory, to give access to that Republic by making a way around the prohibitive falls and rapids on the Madeira and the Mamoré Rivers. In the heart of the wilderness, 570 miles up the Madeira River and about 1100 miles from the sea, this road, 202 miles long, was constructed. In 1871 an American, Colonel George Earl Church, a Civil War veteran, and a distinguished civil engineer, turned the first sod of the railway, but work was soon suspended. In 1877 P. T. Collins of Philadelphia undertook the task and completed 20 miles of railway, but the difficulties were too great, especially the mortality, modern methods of sanitation not then being understood; the work was therefore abandoned. In 1907 the recent operations were begun, again in charge of Americans, and the road was opened for traffic, July 15, 1912. From Porto Velho the road runs up the river to Guajará-Mirím, the road of course on the Brazilian side of the river, and in the State of Matto Grosso, which is thus made accessible as well as Bolivia. The new little American town of Porto Velho of 1500 population has an ice plant making six tons a day, a wireless telegraph to Manaos and other conveniences. The road passes through a jungle which is cut out 100 feet wide. Two days are required for the short journey. At Abuná they halt for the night; leaving early next morning they should arrive at the terminus at 3:15. About 60 miles south of Abuná, Villa Murtinho is passed, opposite the town of Villa Bella in Bolivia, at the junction of the Beni and the Mamoré, which two rivers form the Madeira. A road across from Villa Church opposite Guajará-Mirím or from Villa Bella to Riberalta on the Beni was in the plan, as the Beni below Riberalta is unnavigable on account of rapids. Automobile roads are now in construction, at least one from Riberalta to Puerto Bello (Villa Bella) or to Villa Church.

CHAPTER XLIX
BRAZIL: RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES

Brazilian industries as we have already seen have the variety befitting a country of its enormous area. The States of Minas, Pernambuco, and São Paulo can produce almost anything, but even these have specialties. Of the various products of Brazil, as in the other South American countries except Bolivia, the vegetable are the most important, with coffee far in the lead. Stock raising comes next; minerals of prodigious variety and richness are third. Manufactures, developing later, may in time largely satisfy the requirements of the inhabitants.

Agriculture

Coffee, we all know, is in value the most important crop of the country, growing over vast areas, chiefly in what we may call the northern part of South Brazil, the States on or near the edge of the tropics, São Paulo, Rio, Minas, and Espirito Santo. North and south of these States coffee grows and flourishes more or less according to local conditions. There are said to be 1,400,000,000 coffee trees in Brazil, which produce perhaps three-fourths of the world supply, more than half of them in the State of São Paulo. The State contains about 60,000 plantations. Probably more than 1¹⁄₂ billions are invested in the industry, $900,000,000 in São Paulo. The larger part of the crop moves over the wonderful railway between São Paulo and Santos and goes out from that port, some from adjoining States as well as from São Paulo. For ten years the average value of the coffee exported was $120,000,000.

Great fortunes were made by some who embarked many years ago in the business; the coffee king, Colonel Schmidt, who has 8,000,000 trees and produces 11,000 or 12,000 tons of coffee yearly, was himself a poor immigrant. But the best lands were taken up long since; production is increasing in other countries, as well as consumption, and there is not now the opportunity of earlier days. São Paulo especially has the rich red soil that the plant loves, the sloping ground, the right climate, and the water supply, over a greater extent of accessible territory, probably, than any other land in the world; though districts in other countries produce coffee of equal excellence. Here of course there are different varieties and grades, the original plants having been imported from Arabia and Java and preserving their characteristics. Life on the faezendas, as the farms are called, is agreeable both for the rich proprietor and for the Italian and other laborer, who has his own garden and whose wife and children help in the picking season. The rows of trees extend for miles in even lines; there are great cement drying grounds in the sun, pulping machinery, and store-houses. The business generally is in the hands of Brazilians, though there are foreign stock companies, paying large dividends. Coffee is about 40 per cent of the Brazil exports and 97 per cent of São Paulo’s.

Cacao. Other agricultural industries are of importance and capable of infinite expansion. Cacao is a product the consumption of which is rapidly increasing. Bahia stands second in production, a crop of 40,000 tons being exported from the city in 1917. Cacao forms 60 per cent of the State’s export. Large areas of suitable land are said to be available for plantations in States south of the Amazon, including North São Paulo and Matto Grosso. That grown in Maranhão ranks as the best. The groves run inland along the river valleys, full of rich red soil. There are two gathering seasons, one from September to April, the next crop beginning in May, less important. It is said that one person can take care of 1000 trees, which yield from 5 to 13, sometimes 20 pounds annually. A plantation at pre-war prices cost 80-85 cents a tree. Three hundred are planted to an acre. The investment of a moderate sum is pretty sure to give good returns after three or four years.

Sugar plantations are increasing and sugar is exported in considerable quantities. This was one of Brazil’s earliest industries, but languished on the discovery of gold in the 17th century, to be followed by several revivals. The amount exported varies, in 1909 it was 70,000 tons, in 1916, 54,000. It is cultivated near the coast and inland, chiefly from Rio Grande do Norte south to São Paulo, though it is also raised down to Rio Grande do Sul, where the 1916 crop was worth $3,000,000. In one year 441,000 tons were produced, 109,000 exported. The yield in some States farther north is 20 tons to the acre. In general little fertilizing is done and crop rotation is not followed, so that lands have become degenerate after centuries. The most flourishing seats of the industry are in Rio, and in Pernambuco, 1000 miles north. In Rio, Campos is the focus. The State has 31 large sugar mills, Pernambuco has 46. São Paulo is third, other States have fewer, but small mills are scattered everywhere making brown sugar and cachaca, native rum. In the large mills the best machinery is used, and it is said that 300,000 tons is the total output. The export is to Uruguay, Argentina, Great Britain, United States, and Portugal. Almost every cotton, coffee, or other faezenda grows its own sugar. Eighty or ninety pounds a head are used. Cane ripens in the northern States in about 15 months; south of Rio in 18-20 months.

Tobacco was in use in Brazil in prehistoric days. The State of Bahia is the centre of the largest production, though it is raised in almost every State. The quality varies in different localities, but in some it is said to be equal to the best Havana, especially in Bahia, where the soil is similar. Forty-five thousand tons were exported in 1902, chiefly to Germany; in 1916, 2100 tons, valued at over $7,000,000. A plantation of 37 acres earns $10,000 a year.

The Coconut is another product, which might be more important. It is found near the coast from Parahyba to Bahia, 1,250,000 trees bearing 50,000,000 nuts, the size of which compares well with others. One hundred million trees are also reported. At present there is practically no export, but large possibilities exist for an important industry. There are three shipping ports, Cabedello, Maceió, and Recife, three-fourths of the trees near the first two. On the plantation the nuts sell for $25-$35 per 1000, according to size, and in cities at $42.50. No attempt is made to produce copra, as the natives are fond of the milk and fruit. With New York price $160 a ton for copra and $10 freight it is better to sell the nuts at home, but if business were done on a large scale, good profit would result. Improper spacing injures production; of two groves, one 75 trees to the acre and one close by, 130 trees, the yield of the first is four times that of the second. Labor is cheap, disease and pests unknown. The by-products are valuable; fibre for cord or rope, the husk for fuel, the milk for breakfast, and palm leaves for building or for hats. To develop 2000 acres of land a capital of $30,000 is estimated as necessary, giving a net return for the first seven years which would average $31,865 a year, 105 per cent on the capital, with gross receipts for the last year of $300,000. If the profits are half the estimate the investment would seem a good one.

Other Nuts. The Brazil nut is an equally well known edible, mostly exported from Pará; in 1914 over $2,000,000 worth. The trees are large, often 150 feet high. Babassú nuts are exported, some thousands of tons, chiefly from Bahia, yielding a high percentage of oil, similar to that from the coconut. Also the souari or butternut brings a good price and has commercial possibilities, having a larger percentage of fat than other known species. Its cultivation is believed to be more profitable than that of coconuts. Tagua nuts are exported in small quantities.

Cotton is an important product likely to have a large increase, though a diminishing amount is exported, $8,000,000 worth in 1914 and $500,000 in 1916. This does not indicate lessening production but large increase in cotton milling. Cotton of long silky staple of high merit here grows wild or with careless cultivation. Growing in almost all parts of the country, it is best on the northeast promontory and along the coast to the Amazon. There is little culture, not yet ¹⁄₂ million bales, where 20 might be produced. United States cotton buyers in 1916 were astonished to find here the long silky fibre. One of the best varieties is similar to the Peruvian, a hardy, prolific perennial growing 13 feet high and yielding for at least three years. One tree was bearing after 16 years. Maranhão has raised this kind for centuries. It has the high percentage of 38 to the boll and is similar to that cultivated by the Incas. Under the names Moco, Serido, and Sede de Ceará, this cotton is grown in these north States. Gossipium microcarpum, related to peruvianum, is said to produce a pound of clean cotton from 120 bolls. These varieties have fuzz on the seeds, but four other varieties have clean seeds, the most important, the Gossipium vitifolium found wild in Brazil, still producing long silky staple. Sea Island and the best Egyptian belong to this stock. These varieties can be cultivated here without fear of rival anywhere, and offer a fine field for the investor. In the State of Pernambuco cotton production is more important than sugar. Much is produced in São Paulo. Export growers, and good roads or railways are needed to stimulate production.

Cereals are obviously of far less importance in Brazil than in Argentina, yet many tons are produced and the possibilities are large. Rio Grande do Sul alone produces wheat in quantity, though not enough for her own needs; Santa Catharina, São Paulo, the hills of Rio and Minas are suitable for cereals, and wheat, barley, oats, and a little rye are seen in the south near European colonies. The chief cereal grown is maize; in patches it is found everywhere, and in enormous fields in the centre of Brazil. With mandioca it is the food of the common people, in spite of the large consumption of flour in the cities.

Fruits. The fine fruits of Brazil deserve greater exploitation. I have eaten really delicious pineapples in Rio only. There may be as good elsewhere, there cannot be better. The oranges of Bahia have an equal reputation. It is from that State that the navels were introduced into Florida. If superior to the California fruit as were the old Floridas, it is time they were more extensively cultivated and exported to the United States.

Rice is growing in importance. Formerly imported, its production has increased until now there is an export balance.

Beans are raised and consumed in great quantities; recently some have been exported.

Forestry

It is well known that the forest country of Brazil has an enormous area. The entire rubber region is estimated by a Brazilian authority as covering 1,000,000 square miles, half of which is in Brazil. Other forest regions of a different character are on the highlands and at the south, all together covering 1¹⁄₂ million square miles. The forests contain the varieties that might naturally be expected with others peculiar to the country, medicinal plants, trees with gums and resins, woods hard and soft, but mainly hard; some ornamental, others useful as timber; plants supplying tannin, quebracho and others; the beautiful Araucanian (Paraná) pine, the candelabra tree, of which there are 800,000,000 in Paraná. The wood is said to be 20 per cent stronger than the pine of Sweden; the trees are nearly 200 feet high, with a diameter at the base of ten feet. Other figures are 100 feet tall and three feet in diameter.

The timber industry is of slight development, but Paraná and Santa Catharina afford much good building material. The Brazil Company has in the two States over 500,000 acres with 5,000,000,000 feet of good standing timber and three mills. One of these, at Tres Barros, located on a railway, has a capacity of 40,000,000 feet a year, with planing mill, box factory, etc. There is a great market in Brazil and Argentina. Among unusually valuable trees is the peroba, with a trunk weighing 30 tons, worth $7 a ton on the spot. The imbuya tree which resembles mahogany is heavier than water. An infinite variety is found with infinite uses.

Rubber still has some importance, in spite of the great diminution of export owing to the development of the Ceylon plantations. Once the price was $3 a pound; in June, 1921, 15¹⁄₂ cents. Unfortunately the industry in past years was very badly conducted, with short-sighted policy, wasteful methods in tapping trees, foolish importation at excessive cost of all kinds of supplies including food, far too high prices to the laborers; partly in consequence of extortion and cruelty, a scarcity of labor; in addition, high export duties. The idea prevailed that people could get rubber nowhere else and must pay whatever price was asked. It was a severe shock when Ceylon rubber came more and more into the market, and was found to be a formidable rival. Although not generally considered equal to Pará fina, the Ceylon answers for most purposes.

The Government is now lending aid to the industry, encouraging plantations, and better methods otherwise. The export tax at Pará has been slightly lowered but is now 24¹⁄₂ per cent. A Government investigation, however, in 1912-14 at a cost of $47,000,000 did little besides paying fat salaries to favored individuals. The Ceylon export has recently been 300,000 tons to Brazil’s 37,000. So far synthetic rubber with the special therapeutic base has cost four times the hevea. The Pará fina is of course the hevea brasiliensis, which constitutes the larger part exported from the Amazon, 80 per cent of a good workman’s product. Sernamby is a by-product of scraps or careless work, though even the better is liable to be contaminated more or less with leaves, nails, etc. Caucho from the castilloa elastica is not so good, and in procuring it the tree is usually destroyed, as previously stated. Near the mouth of the Amazon where some collectors are quite independent, owning their own homes on the edge of the forest, are white rubber trees producing fraca or weak rubber; not so good as the hevea which has the most resilience, and is tough and elastic. For many purposes these qualities are essential, hence the higher price. Red rubber coagulates badly.

Men from the State of Ceará, especially in times of drought, have been glad to go to the Amazon as rubber collectors; and half wild Indians of Peru and Bolivia have been employed. The rubber is collected in the dry season, June to November. Dr. Oswaldo Cruz, a famous Brazilian physician, said of some of the Amazon regions that there were no natives, as all the children die; others declare that the normal condition of older persons is to be afflicted with malaria, beriberi, dysentery, pneumonia. Still others maintain that much of the higher land is fairly healthful for persons of careful habits who have good food. Conditions are improving. American and other companies are organizing on a more scientific basis than formerly, and with humane plans which in the long run will prove profitable. Lands have been secured in desirable locations where men can live all the year, raise their own vegetables, and not be dependent for their entire living, aside from fish, on canned stuff at enormous prices. To put Amazon rubber on a better basis it is necessary that the output be cleaner, the expenses of the collector smaller, and his living better through local cultivation of fruit and vegetables, which here grow luxuriantly, and with better habitations on suitable sites, so attracting a better labor supply. A further reduction by the Brazilian States of the rubber export tax, now about 24 per cent in Pará, seems also desirable.

Besides the hevea and caucho, two other varieties of rubber are exported, the maniçoba and the mangabeira, which have a place, like the balatá of the Guianas and Venezuela and the Guayule shrub from Mexico. The first is from the manihot tree which grows up to 4000 feet altitude, on a rocky soil where there is not too much rain; it is good for many purposes. The mangabeira, mostly from Pernambuco, grows on a sandy soil at 3000-5000 feet, but is a wet rubber not highly valued.

The Ceylon rubber trees, the seeds of which were taken from the Amazon and germinated in Kew Gardens, first blossomed in 1881. The seeds were used to plant more trees. In 1900 four tons of rubber came from the East, in 1910, 800 tons; the output in 1916 was about 150,000 tons. One million, three hundred thousand acres are now producing in Ceylon, India, Borneo, and elsewhere, a monument to British enterprise.

Herva Matte. A very important export, rather forestal than agricultural is called in Portuguese herva matte, the yerba mate of Spanish. Paraná is its special home where it grows wild in the forests, straying over into the neighboring States of Matto Grosso, São Paulo, Santa Catharina, and Rio Grande do Sul, and being native as we have seen to Paraguay, and to Misiones in Argentina. The trees or shrubs often grow in sections with the tall Paraná pines, the tree with the candelabra top, which is not only an ornament to the landscape but supplies good lumber, and pine kernels as large as chestnuts. These when boiled make a nutritious food, much relished by the Italians. The chief export of matte is through the city of Paranaguá, after preparation in the mills of the region. In 1915, 75,800 tons were exported, largely to Argentina, some also to Europe; 40,000 tons is an average amount. It is much used by the residents of Paraná, but in most of Brazil coffee has the preference.

Fibres. Besides cotton Brazil produces fibres of excellence from a variety of plants. A wonderful article but little known to the general public is the remarkable paina, called in Europe kapok, 34 times as light as water, 14 times, as cork. Chiefly produced in the Orient, it is obviously excellent for life preservers, also for mattresses, pillows, and for whatever needs to be light, warm, elastic, and impermeable. The best fibre, best packed, comes from Java, inferior grades from India and Africa. Introduced into Venezuela, it was so packed with stones and refuse that it was rejected when sent to Europe, although the article was of fine quality. Careless exporters of all articles should take warning. Other good fibres of Brazil are aramin, from which coffee bags are made; pita, from which the Amazon Indians make hammocks woven with much art, and sometimes with feathers interspersed along the edge. Palms and aloes supply other fibres, some equal, they say, to the famous henequen (sisal) of Yucatan. Banana fibre is used by north lace makers for a curious stiff shiny lace, some quite beautiful, fine and intricate, and some with a darned-in pattern of heavier silk thread, on a filmy background.

Carnaüba Wax, which forms an under coating of the leaves of the carnaüba palm, is not unlike beeswax. Nearly 600 tons were exported in 1915 valued at $2,400,000. The trees grow in the north States, especially in Rio Grande do Norte, where there are 15,000,000 trees, and in Ceará. Large amounts of the product are used locally. The wax is of excellent quality, melting at a low temperature and burning with a bright light. Mixed with a little beeswax and 10 per cent fat, it is easily worked and makes candles of high quality. It is much used for shoe blacking.

CHAPTER L
BRAZIL: OTHER INDUSTRIES

Cattle Industry

A leading industry of Brazil which, it has been said, may even in São Paulo supersede in importance that of coffee is live stock. Two packing houses now slaughter 300,000 cattle per year, one Brazilian, at Barretos, the other an American, the Continental Products, at Osasco near São Paulo, exporting chiefly to France and Italy. Another American Company has at São Paulo a plant that will handle daily 1500 head of cattle, 1000 hogs, and 2500 sheep. In tributary territory, which would include parts of Matto Grosso and Minas, 2,500,000 cattle are estimated. It is said that the best breeding ground is Matto Grosso, where the cattle run wild as once in Texas, though each rancher has a certain range and his cattle are branded. The Brazil Land and Cattle Company procured 8,000,000 acres in Matto Grosso, Paraná, and Minas, mostly well watered and with good grazing, except in Matto Grosso. Much fencing was done and buildings were erected. Recent increase in prices has improved prospects. This property is now owned by the Continental Products Company, in which the Wilson packers are interested.

Other vast lands are available. From the ranges of Matto Grosso the cattle are driven across to fattening pastures of southwest Minas and northwest São Paulo where the land has been planted to grass, though it is said that a native grass, caipim gordura, grows there all the year round. Argentina’s alfalfa lands make the cost of fattening an animal six months $7.50, while with caipim gordura in Brazil $1.33 covers the expense. Some Brazil grasses are of the highest class while others are good only for goats. On the Araguaya River the grass is 16-17 feet high. The Jaragua is over 3 feet. In Amazonas and Pará cattle are said to flourish but not goats or pigs. Rio Grande near the Uruguay line has fine grazing lands; those in Minas and São Paulo at an elevation of 1200-1400 feet where animals never need shelter are excellent.

Before the packing houses were started jerked beef only was marketed from the herds, hence, as thin cattle were preferred for that purpose, there was no object in improving the grade. Now there is systematic progress. Breeding farms are operated, fine stock has been imported, and in time high grade meat, perhaps equal to the Argentine, will be marketed. Twelve thousand tons were sent to Europe and the United States in six months in 1916, though the first experimental 1¹⁄₂ tons was sent in November, 1914. At the School of Agriculture, Piracicaba, São Paulo, are good imported bulls, and one of native type, the Caracú, with pale buff hide, fitted to be the base of standardized herds. It seems that in some sections, notably Matto Grosso, a cross with the Indian zebu, which has a hump, and its descendants, is best qualified to resist the climate and the insect pests of that region; but in the pastures of Paraná and Rio Grande, Herefords, Durhams, Jerseys, etc., will flourish. The zebu is of large size and its skin is excellent leather, but packers say the hump does not pack well, and the shoulder is thin. Plants now or soon to be in operation south of São Paulo are three: in Rio Grande, one of Swift, one at Pelotas, Brazilian, and one at Sant’ Anna of Armour. The President of Paraná has been extending high roads towards Guarapuava to tap the State of Matto Grosso, and a large drove of cattle has come down. He desires to have an American packing house established in the State and will arrange with a suitable company to make no advance on the export tax for 15 years. Paranaguá, a port which we have already noted, is well served by the Brazilian Lloyd Line and the Funch-Edye from New York. Similar concessions are offered in Santa Catharina, which State has lower export duties; and by the Governor of Rio Grande, who would exempt from all export taxes any foreign company; though a tax of 10 milreis, $3.33, is imposed for every cow slaughtered, to protect the herds from decimation. If all the herds number 30,000,000, 2,500,000 or more might be slaughtered yearly without diminution. Cattle formerly were killed for their hides only, and the export of these is still important; 37,000 tons exported in 1915 were valued at $13,000,000.

Sheep raising seems inappropriate for a tropical climate, but in Rio Grande do Sul development is possible, also on the highlands of São Paulo, Minas, and Matto Grosso. Experiments with Romney Marsh have been successful for both wool and meat. Now there are 11,000,000 sheep, 7,000,000 goats, 18,000,000 hogs, 6,000,000 horses, and 3,000,000 mules and donkeys in the country.

Manufactures

While Brazil may not be called a manufacturing country, she had over 26,000 such plants in 1916; and her statesmen are eager to increase these industries, for which her immense water power gives her unusual advantages. The largest concern in this field has a capital of $8,000,000 and an annual output worth $4,500,000; it employs 2800 hands making sacking, yarn, rope, thread, etc., this in São Paulo. In the textile field, the cotton mills naturally lead with over 200 mills and an investment of $80,000,000. They exist in various States, employing 80,000 persons; one in Pernambuco near the city of Olinda is a sample. The estate of 45 square miles of pasture and woodland borders on the sea, the shore fringed with coconut trees. Machinery and some technical workers were brought from England. All the processes of making fine cloth are there followed; they spin, dye, weave, color, and print. Native dyes are used in part. Of 3500 hands employed 70 per cent are women and children. Over $35,000 a month are paid in wages. Dwellings are rented at low prices or owned by employes; schools, hospital, and dispensary are free. A dairy and a stock farm belong to the estate, brick factories, a bakery, etc. A lumber yard is important. One thousand tons of coal a month are usually consumed, but in war time wood was used. The cotton is bought, $200,000 a month, and as much a year is spent for chemicals, drugs, etc. From 960 looms 1,500,000 metres of cloth 22-26 inches wide are produced a month, from blue denim to fine flowered fabrics; the products are sold in 80 stores owned by the Company in various States. Brazil has 11 flour mills of commercial importance, located in the States of Rio, São Paulo, Paraná, and Rio Grande do Sul, at one time having no tax on wheat, but ten cents a kilo on flour, by means of which the infant industry was started. In 1915, 800,000 barrels of flour were imported from the United States and 600,000 from Argentina, a little from Uruguay; at the same time enough wheat was imported and milled to make 2,750,000 barrels, evidence of the work of the mills. For metal working there are 134 shops for imported iron. Factories exist of almost every kind. Leather goods are produced especially shoes for which there are many factories; hats, clothing and a variety of ordinary articles, such as soap, hosiery, brooms, paper, wagons, etc. Brazil workmen are skilful and the industries are certain to increase.

Mining

The mining industry of Brazil, if not precisely in embryo, for it has been in a very flourishing condition, is now in a state of prospect; on the verge of a great development rather than of active operation, except for a few varieties of metals. At the moment there is little working except in gold, diamonds, monazite, manganese, and coal.

Manganese has recently been the chief mineral exported on account of war necessities, 245,000 tons valued at 7 million dollars, in the first half of 1917, in contrast to 85,000 tons in the same part of 1914. The mines are in Minas, Matto Grosso, Bahia, and elsewhere, those in Minas being accessible to the port of Rio. In Matto Grosso, 18 miles from Corumbá, there is a deposit called the Urucum, estimated at 30,000,000 tons of undeveloped ore; one, the Quelez, in Minas of 5,000,000, 30 miles from Rio, and others. The ore averages over 50 per cent of metallic manganese, with a little iron silicate and phosphorus. Americans are interested in the works as the metal is valuable in the iron and steel industry. With better transportation facilities for these and other deposits, a good future is certain.

Gold mining was naturally the first to be developed. Minas has been the chief producer. Of Minas Geraes the writer Diaz said, “In this State what does not hide gold contains iron; what does not contain coal spreads diamonds.” After the discovery of gold in 1693, 80,000 men toiled for a century at placer mining for the King of Portugal. About $1,000,000,000 has been taken out. The Morro Velho, said to be the oldest producing mine in the world, is now with the Ouro Preto worked by British Companies. The first is being worked at the depth of a mile with no sign of exhaustion. The gross receipts for the year ending February 28, 1917, were over $4,000,000, the profits $750,000, from a tonnage crushed of 187,400. The Ouro Preto Company operates the Passagem Mine five miles from the former capital of that name, being the first to use a stamp mill in 1819. The average thickness of the lode was ten feet, now about eight. Gold properties exist in many States, the most important around three mountain chains, the Mantiqueira and Espinhaço, which cross Minas and Bahia, running into Pernambuco; the range between Minas and Bahia, and Goyaz, continuing into Piauhy and Ceará, west of the São Francisco River; the third east of the Paraguay and Araguaya Rivers. Those most worked are in the Espinhaco Range in Minas and Bahia. Dredging has been carried on with varying success, but some of the companies have been overcapitalized. An American Company has recently acquired some old concessions of land in Goyaz, rich in gold and diamonds, where extensive operations are expected shortly.

Diamonds. As for diamonds, since the first stone was discovered in 1721, many precious gems have been produced. During 40 years in that century $17,500,000 worth were exported. The city, Diamantina, 500 miles from Rio, is the centre of one of the most important fields. Gems are found in pot-holes, one of which contained 10 pounds of diamonds and 28 of gold. Others are in clay deposits in rocks of sandstone and schist. In the River Bagagem near the border of São Paulo, 250 miles from Diamantina, three great diamonds have been found: the Estrella do Sul, in 1853, weighing 254 carats uncut, was sold to the Gaekwar of Baroda for $400,000, the others weighing 117 and 175 carats. Other fields are in Paraná, Bahia, Goyaz, Matto Grosso, and São Paulo, in Goyaz on the Garças River, tributary to the Araguaya. Apparently most of the stones are now smuggled. They are said to be finer than the Cape diamonds and also to be sold for them. Black diamonds are found, of great value in the arts, and many precious and semi-precious stones, such as amethysts, tourmaline, topaz, etc., in various places.

Copper exists in several States, but production is slight. A mass weighing over 2600 pounds was discovered years ago near the city of Bahia, and there are six well known districts in the State. In Rio Grande do Sul an extensive property was opened which showed 6.5 per cent copper and 30 grams gold per ton. Minas will probably rank next to these States. Promising quantities are near Campos in Rio de Janeiro; there are also ores in Goyaz, Paraná, Matto Grosso, Parahyba, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and Maranhão; some are hardly accessible. One of those in Bahia covers nearly 15,000 acres, about 30 miles from the railway. Belgians and Dutch have operated at Camaquam, Rio Grande do Sul.

Iron in actual mountains occurs in Minas, 12 billion tons of the highest grade in 52 outcroppings. Deposits have been acquired by American, British, German, and French interests. The manager of a British company which owned 90,000 acres said, “One could travel 23 miles one way and 16 another on outcrops of ore, canga, or rubble.” In one deposit 30,000,000 tons are in sight, 60 per cent pure.

American interests, the Itabira Company, have secured deposits which include the celebrated iron mountain of Itabira do Matto Dentro in the east near the head of the Doce River. The hematite iron district is reached from Rio by the Central and the Leopoldina Railways; but this deposit will be tapped by a prolongation of the Victoria-Minas Railway, now running along a part of the Doce River. Also a branch will lead to a terminal 40 miles north of Victoria, Santa Cruz, a small port which will be developed and equipped with special loading machinery. Here will be erected a steel plant with an annual capacity of 150,000 tons of steel products, pig-iron, steel plates, rails, etc. The iron, 326 miles from this port, runs 69 per cent pure; some in the United States runs 52 per cent. It will be several years before manufacture can begin. Coal will be imported.

Development of iron properties has been retarded by lack of transportation and fuel. Wagon roads are unknown. The altitude is 2000-4000 feet and the climate good. The coal is hardly good enough or in sufficiently large supply. Oil development is uncertain. As there is water power the use of electricity may be arranged.

Near Ipanema, São Paulo, iron is found. A large deposit has been located in Paraná three miles from the port of Antonina. Other deposits in the two States south give good promise. So far charcoal has been used for a little smelting.

Coal mining has been carried on for a long time in a small and primitive way, but most of the coal used has been imported. The principal deposits found are in Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul, others are in Paraná and Pernambuco. In Paraná American interests have made extensive purchases and expect to develop the property at once. Rio Grande do Sul has been estimated to have 800,000,000 tons and to be able to supply 1,000,000 a year.

In Santa Catharina the veins are about ten feet thick; some in Rio Grande are 4-10 feet, some 13. The property at Xarquedas, operated for some years, produces 20,000 tons per annum. With greater activity, in March 1918, 650 tons were produced daily from two shafts, and 1000 or more was expected by the addition of a third. With high volatile matter, good gas and salable coke are procured for Pelotas. Coal is found in several river valleys in Santa Catharina. State surveys are being made, and with improvement in transport by land and water a great industry may be developed of enormous value in promoting manufactures. Railway construction has been authorized by the President to aid coal companies in work, and other concessions have been made. The briquettes from Santa Catharina coal show hardly less caloric value than those of the Welsh patent fuel. Much is used by the Lloyd Brasileiro and other steamship lines including the Japanese; by railways, mills, etc. A little is exported to Argentina and Uruguay. The Rio Grande Railway is or was burning coal mixed with wood on its locomotives. The best coal is 42 per cent combustible, and when pulverized is equal to any other. Bituminous schist sold at $12.50 a ton was used for gas in São Paulo during the War. There are great seams 10-12 feet thick in São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul. Lignite occurs in Pará, Amazonas, and Minas, enormous peat beds in various places.

Monazite sands exist on the Brazilian coast, probably in larger quantities than in all the rest of the world. In 1910 Germany imported $1,000,000 worth. The thorium in the sands, used in the manufacture of gas mantles, is extracted in Brazilian factories before exportation. Two per cent of thorium is in the sand, sometimes nearly 6 per cent. It is found on the coast north of Rio and on some river banks in Rio, Espirito Santo, Bahia, and Minas.

Graphite exists in several States, especially Minas and Bahia in rather inaccessible locations, but one deposit in Rio is worked, for a pencil factory in the city of Rio; others in a small way for local use.

Other Minerals. Platinum is found in gold bearing quartz and in river alluvium in Pernambuco, Minas, and Parahyba; nickel in Minas, Santa Catharina, and Rio Grande do Sul; salt in Rio Grande do Norte, Rio, and Minas, worked in the last two; much is imported. Other minerals found in various localities are asbestos, antimony and tin, bismuth, barium, cinnabar, emery, kaolin; marble, white, rose, onyx, and green; mica, molybdenite, saltpetre, silver and lead, soapstone and talc, and wolfram. Among the stones garnets, opals, pearls, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, topaz, and tourmalines are found in more or less profusion as well as rock crystal, useful to opticians. Minas contains almost every variety of ore and gem, which with its good climate and fertile soil have made it the best populated State, though without a large city.

Petroleum has been discovered in a number of States, among them São Paulo, Minas, Alagôas, Pernambuco, Bahia, and Sergipe; some of excellent quality in Bahia; but whether in quantities for large exploitation is uncertain until further investigation and work are carried on. Some geologists believe that prospects are highly favorable. Oil of fine quality is recently reported at Piracicaba, São Paulo, but as the petroleum is generally in schist rock its extraction would be expensive. Recent advices state that Brazil has 35 oil fields in four States with an area of 10,000 square miles; in the entire country 75,000 square miles with an estimated producing capacity within ten years of 500 to 600 million barrels.

Investments

In view of the varied resources of Brazil, to enumerate the possibilities for investors would be difficult. There is hardly a line of industry which cannot there be carried on successfully. That of coffee growing is so well developed as to be somewhat overcrowded, but in almost any other line there is a field for the investor. Whether it be mining of gold or diamonds, of coal, iron, or manganese, be it agriculture, stock raising, the lumber industry, or manufacturing, the harnessing of the waterfalls to produce hydro-electric power, the construction of public works, the field for the capitalist, large or small, is of infinite variety and excellent promise. The present Government is planning a broad and active development of the electric power available from its great and numerous water-falls.

CHAPTER LI
SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE

As to many it may seem presumptuous that one with no practical experience should venture to discuss foreign trade, I beg with an apology for my temerity to make a slight explanation.

On my six trips to South America (1903-1916) I saw and heard so much of the shortcomings of my countrymen there, and meanwhile perceived such ignorance at home that as early as 1907 I wrote an article on “Our Commercial Relations with South America,” published in the Van Norden Magazine, wherein I set forth many points which prominent men of affairs have repeatedly urged upon the attention of their fellows, even up to the eighth Annual Trade Convention at Cleveland, May, 1921.

My personal observation being supplemented by extensive reading, I venture to hope that my remarks under this heading may be charitably viewed by those who are wiser than I, and prove of some slight service to those whose acquaintance with South American affairs is more limited.

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In proportion to our wealth and our domestic activities our export trade before the Great War was indeed small in comparison to that of other nationalities. Slight interest was taken in outside matters of any kind, even our publicists giving little heed to foreign affairs. However, prior to 1914 there had been a slowly growing interest and a gradual increase in our export trade, which from 1915 to 1920 showed a more rapid extension. In 1915 our exports amounted to $3,500,000,000, in 1920 to $8,228,000,000; to South America in round numbers, in 1915, $144,000,000, in 1920, $624,000,000, in 1921, $273,000,000.

As to the past and future of this matter, with especial reference to South America, two widely divergent opinions prevail; one, that we have accomplished wonders, and that our trade with that continent will be permanent and, with improvement in exchange and other conditions, increasing; the other, that we have not done so well as we might and ought; and that owing to our indifference, inefficiency, ignorance, and bumptiousness, we shall be unable to retain anything like the proportion of trade which we have enjoyed or so much of it as might seem our reasonable share. With some ground for each opinion, the truth as usual lying between, there is a possibility of either result depending upon a variety of circumstances. The first is whether some of us acquire a willingness to learn, or persist in certain mistaken notions and practices. Well merited criticism of the methods of some exporters and salesmen is far from applying to all. The “S” of a well known concern is as familiar in South America as in North. Other great corporations are famous the world over. Their success in foreign sales has meant the employment of many men abroad and of a large number at home, with the home business supplemented and steadied by the foreign. In addition to the extensive pre-war export of some large companies, many small ones, whose names are less familiar, have long sent their wares to foreign lands.

A matter of prime importance is that the entire nation and people become convinced of the value, the necessity even, of our maintaining a large export and import trade, for we cannot have one without the other. The provincialism of our thought and education, which have a reciprocal influence, must be laid aside. Congressmen should be able to feel that their reëlection will depend upon their ability to grasp the problems confronting the whole nation, problems of labor, transportation, commerce, finance, and world interests, rather than upon their catering to a special class or securing a sectional advantage. It would be well if they were high-minded enough to act for the country’s best interests regardless of their future fate. To demand ability and statesmanship of their representatives in these crucial times is the privilege and duty of the people.

As a nation we have prospered because of the richness of our natural resources and the enormous extent of our agricultural lands. The latter being now for the most part occupied, with increasing population our welfare will depend more largely upon the development of our manufacturing industries and of our export trade. That the prosperity of our manufacturing towns and seaports will be reflected in our agricultural districts and will benefit the entire nation should be self-evident. Supported by the people the Government will act in accordance with its best judgment. In any case, every one should feel that it shows a shameful lack of a sense of duty and of patriotism to place one’s personal fortune above the nation’s welfare in peace no less than in war.

For success in foreign trade as well as for safety at home our Government must and no doubt will see that production is not stifled for any reason, that our transportation on land and sea, and communication by wire is unhampered by strikes or otherwise. If need arises, previous restrictive measures should be removed and suitable aid granted. With abundance of shipping which we formerly lacked, equality with European freight rates must be maintained or competition will be impossible. The establishing by our banks of needed branches, fortunately made practicable, has been accomplished. The important question of trademarks and patents may require further Governmental consideration and diplomatic action, though some international agreements have already been made. In certain countries the laws have been unfair, prejudicial to the interests of honest manufacturers and favoring the unscrupulous; some of whom have taken advantage of the situation to the embarrassment of legitimate American business. Trademarks have been practically stolen, through previous registration by foreigners without title to use them. We must remember that the same thing has been done by Americans in the United States, who have registered here trademarks owned in Europe.

Of immense service would be a few free ports where raw material could enter, and without paying duty be exported either as entered or after being manufactured. Foreign countries have fostered commerce in this way and by allowing favorable freight rates through subsidies and otherwise. Competition under Government ownership has produced an enormous deficit. While better results may be expected under private ownership, our shipping will be at a disadvantage from difficulties imposed by the Seamen’s Bill. It is said that American shippers may be able to pay higher wages than European if relieved of the necessity of employing larger crews and superfluous engineers. The Bureaus of the Department of Commerce now perform very valuable service: the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, the Bureau of Standards; also the Bureau of Markets of the Department of Agriculture. A consistent foreign policy, undoubtedly to be formulated and pursued by our able Secretaries of State and Commerce, will be of great service in relation to foreign trade and for our general prosperity.

To the intelligent sympathy of the country at large and the coöperation of the Government must be added the eager purpose of the manufacturer, and the interest of young men who will make of export trade their chosen field of labor. The manufacturer who contemplates entering this broader field or who, through peculiar war conditions, has been brought into it without preliminary investigation, should recognize the fact that careful intensive study is a prerequisite for successful permanent trade, a method which has been followed by many Europeans and by some Americans with excellent results.

The book here presented it is hoped will furnish a useful groundwork of information on South America, to be supplemented by further study of details appropriate to the character of the prospective exports and to any special conditions. In these countries generally, we have observed a great diversity in the population and disparity in their condition. One may hope that the latter will be diminished by advance in wages and by the education of the Indians, by means of which their producing and their purchasing power may be increased; but for a long time two broad classes must be distinguished and catered to: the cultured and literate, and the poor and illiterate laborers, especially the Indians of the North and West Coasts. It is evident that the requirements of a cultivated society where the customs and dress are European in character, or of a homogeneous middle-class population, would be quite different from those of Indians who sleep on the floor, a whole family in one room. A personal acquaintance with the character of the people, their manner of life, and their methods of business is extremely desirable. If the head of a manufacturing industry is able himself to make “The South American Tour” even in a hasty manner, it will be to his advantage; if not, his export manager, if he has one, should personally study the ground. Those who look merely for a slight supplementary trade may best accomplish this by arranging with a reliable commission house and following directions. If the manufacturer decides to undertake the matter himself, he must plan a careful campaign.

To make haste slowly is a good rule. Unhappily in the past some who have attempted foreign trade have ignored the advice and experience of others, and deemed information quite unnecessary. With the know-it-all attitude, the idea that business is business everywhere, and that goods and methods successful at home must be equally good for abroad, before the War they proceeded in such a manner as either to make an utter failure and abandon the project, or after large and needless losses to secure profitable business. Criticism of two different kinds made by South Americans should lead to the correction of faults; otherwise there will be a complete loss of trade on the part of those who are guilty, and much injury to our commerce generally from the resulting bad reputation given to all Americans. One form of criticism is directed to the character, methods, and manners of the traveling salesman or agent, the other to the shortcomings of the home office.

During the War period when at times our goods alone were available, even poor methods and service brought results. That the continuance of such a course will be successful in the face of the severe competition now arising is too much to expect. A friendly Englishman long engaged in business in South America, in 1916 remarked that he was afraid the Americans would lose 60 per cent of their business after the War. A Peruvian the same year declared that they would lose it all; so much had he been disgusted by the arbitrary manner of some salesmen of the type who said practically, “There is the stuff. Take it or leave it as you like.” With a correct atmosphere in the home office and a more careful choice of salesmen such crudeness would be avoided.

If the heads of the office are unable to visit the countries, there is greater reason for wide reading. The “Movies,” which seem to entertain many, present pictures of a few phases of life; but it is not by such means that one acquires the intimate knowledge of a country and people essential for a proper conduct of trade. For agreeable and profitable relationship of any sort with those of other nationalities we must realize that they also have their point of view; we need to consider how they regard us. While we may believe our country to be the greatest and best, and our ways and manner of living superior, we must bear in mind that others are equally loyal to their own; though their country may be smaller and in some respects less advanced, its people are equally patriotic, they prefer their own way of living and methods of business where these are different. Many South Americans have a wider knowledge of the world, greater culture and taste, and these in general are more punctilious in manners and dress than the majority of Americans. We must therefore, while preserving our own tastes and ideals, have equal respect for theirs, cultivating a catholicity, a breadth of view, quite different from the spirit common among us, that everything different is thereby inferior, that we can teach the world everything, and that we have nothing to learn. Such an attitude is merely a mark of ignorance and provincialism.

Aside from visiting the countries there are many sources of information in regard to sales possibilities for any class of goods. The lists of imports of the countries and of some cities are available in commerce reports, with figures showing the approximate quantity and ratio of these. While the list of our exports seems to embrace almost everything, all of the goods are not sold everywhere; a knowledge of the various markets, of the prices at which goods are sold, and of trade conditions is necessary, to ascertain whether competition is possible and if there is a prospective increase of present business. Detailed information as to many lines of manufactures and markets may be obtained from consular reports, from the branches of the Department of Commerce located in a few cities, or by writing directly to the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce in Washington. Many persons have written to our Consuls in Latin America, often to their great disgust, for information, not merely such as might be procured in Washington, but what might be gained by looking in a geography or reading one of many available books. The Consuls are continually making reports with suitable information on matters which are within their province. Membership in certain commercial organizations gives the privilege of receiving trade information; the Philadelphia Commercial Museum, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the American Manufacturers Export Association, chambers of commerce, commercial clubs, trade associations, such as one of jewelers and silversmiths, all may be useful in this direction. The Pan American Union through its Bulletin and otherwise furnishes much information about Latin America. Export Trade Journals, other magazines and newspapers, are serviceable.

If from investigation it appears that there is a market for one’s goods in any section or universally, that quality and prices can be such as to make competition favorable, that the market can be enlarged, or should there be none that one can be created, and a determination is therefore formed to enter export trade, the next question is how the goods shall be sold. The methods are various, but of only two kinds: the direct and the indirect.

Direct methods include the establishing of branch houses; the appointing of a general agent for one or more countries or of a local agent for a limited territory; the employment of traveling salesmen; and advertising in circulars, newspapers, or magazines, for mail orders to be filled by freight or parcel post. The choice of methods, and the appointing of agents or salesmen demand the greatest care. Exclusive rights of sale have been given for the whole continent to a South American, incompetent even to take care of a small district. Salesmen have been appointed from the home office who perhaps had done well here but were utterly unfit for work in South America.

It is desirable to have representatives of our own nationality. Others if employed solely by an American Company may do their best for it, but we now know that many Germans, possibly others, have taken agencies for the sole purpose of keeping the goods out of the market. A good salesman or agent of any sort should have as his first qualification ability to speak Spanish fluently, unless his work is confined to Brazil, in which case of course he must speak Portuguese. Next he should be a gentleman and simpático. The spirit which led some youths in the early days in Panamá to call the residents niggers, monkeys, and savages is one which, though not indulged in outwardly to such a degree, is sufficient to prevent the harmonious relations necessary to make permanent, satisfactory business dealings. Unquestioned integrity, unfailing courtesy, patience, tact, straightforward action, are all highly important qualities, as well as those essential from a strictly business point of view, such as critical knowledge of the goods, etc. Confidence and friendliness count more in South America than at home. Social qualifications are desirable. It has been said of the British that they were too cold and exclusive, that the Germans were more friendly. On the other hand, some Americans have felt that the South Americans did not care for more than a business acquaintance. This is doubtless true in many cases, but one who is cultured, sympathetic, and well mannered is likely to have social opportunities which he may accept to advantage.

Branch houses will best serve the large manufacturer, giving a standing not otherwise attained, and best promoting permanent relations. From these houses salesmen go to neighboring territory. The manager must be a man of wide experience, familiar not only with the product and home matters, but with the language, customs, and business methods of the country in which he is located. Some corporations engage business houses in different sections as local representatives or distributors, with exclusive rights in restricted territory. Such arrangements, supplemented by advice and literature from the home office may prove effective in securing sales.

Those who cannot afford branch houses or the risk which may attend the cost of a traveling salesman’s exclusive service are now able through the Webb-Pomerene law to coöperate with other houses in the same or in associated lines of industry. Both investigation and sales may thus be profitably conducted. Advertising only, without the employment of other agencies, has been highly profitable to many. It is said that advertising in South America brings better results than in the United States. To avoid utter waste of money careful investigation as to sales possibilities and media should be made before planning a campaign. One large mail order house has carried on an enormous foreign business. Other firms have accomplished much in a similar way. Advertising is done in journals and magazines published here and circulated there, in local publications of various kinds, in moving-picture houses; also by means of mailed circulars, and to some extent by electric signs.

The importance of correct technical and idiomatic translation in advertising in Spanish and Portuguese cannot be over-estimated. Gross and ridiculous errors have been made in the past. A book knowledge of languages seldom prepares one adequately for such work. Foreign translators are more numerous than formerly, but they, also, too often make egregious blunders; not of the same character, but caused by their not comprehending exactly the English which they translate.

If indirect methods of trade are preferred as involving less risk, trouble, and preliminary expense, and if the medium is carefully chosen, it may be more profitable. Export commission houses or export agents will relieve the manufacturer of almost all care. One large commission house not only acts as selling agent for manufacturers through its branches in many parts of South America; it also operates steamship lines, carries on banking and exchange, and handles important financial transactions for South American Republics. Certain firms of national or worldwide reputation and large capital have for many years been satisfied to conduct their foreign trade through such a house. The opportunity for commission houses of this sort was not overlooked by foreigners and one company of these in New York did an annual business of $30,000,000 before the War.

The experience of a commission house is an asset, which saves many mistakes. Their experts have a wide range of information covering American and European competition, and details such as suitable patterns, correct packing, etc. The commission house may have its capital tied up for six months in transactions, or did prior to the more general use of the trade acceptance, while the manufacturer might receive cash for his goods. For small people this method of sales has many advantages, especially when first launching into export trade. Conference and honorable coöperation are necessary and the protection of the commission house from direct under-selling or from other unfair dealings. The service of export agents is preferred by some, these acting as salesmen, forwarders, or shippers, either for one or more concerns, perhaps on salary and commission, or as independent agents.

After securing orders, by whatever means employed, the responsibilities of the shipping department begin. The principles governing the execution of orders would seem to be rudimentary. One wonders how a business in this country could achieve even a small measure of success when violating the most elementary rules of conduct. Yet this has been and still is done in South American trade as recent information from various sources shows, despite the fact that these things should go without saying, and furthermore that they have been iterated and reiterated for years.

First, the goods to fill an order should be precisely like the sample, if there was one, not something inferior, as has often happened, nor something just as good, or even better. If ordered without a sample strictest attention should be paid to prescribed details. If it is specified that cloth be 28¹⁄₂ inches wide or 25 centimetres, that is what is wanted. If two-wheeled vehicles are ordered, what sort of business is it that permits of sending, by mistake, four-wheeled vehicles a distance of 5000 miles, even though the bill was made the same and the goods were more expensive? as was done by a well known manufacturer to his loss. The loss to the purchaser was greater, for the vehicles sent could not be used at all in that country.

The assumption that the seller knows better than the buyer what the latter wants is offensive if true. Generally it is not true. Mistakes are unpardonable. Requests for particular colors, patterns, size of bolt, and character of weave must be complied with if trade is wanted. The willingness of the Germans to oblige in such matters largely accounted for the rapid growth of their South American trade. The Latin American business men are as acute and intelligent as any. They know what they want and are discriminating buyers as to quality and price.

Criticism of the shortcomings of the home office is the second of the two forms previously referred to. Lack of accuracy and of attention to details is a grievous fault, apparently arising from want of discipline and thoroughness in our homes and schools, a fault recognized by many heads of offices here. The dishonesty of sending goods inferior to sample or order, a practice injurious to the entire national trade as well as to the guilty individual, shows an utter lack of patriotism, as well as folly if permanent trade is desired.

Another elementary matter is that of packing. Woful tales of breakage and loss from bad packing have been rife for years, and volumes have been written and spoken concerning it. In 1916 an experienced traveling man told me that before his last trip, in view of war conditions, he had taken on the agency of some new people and received many orders for them. He had sent explicit instructions as to packing and other export details. But now he found his new customers swearing mad and was booking no more orders for his new patrons: for they had paid not the slightest heed to his directions either as to packing or forwarding, with disastrous results. In February, 1919, a letter from Brazil said: “We cannot imagine why your shippers ever accepted the travesty of an export bale dumped on you by the spinners, and we must clearly state that our factory will not accept any yarns which arrive in bad condition due to bad packing.”

Unwillingness to profit by the knowledge and experience of others, the belief that one knows everything without learning anything, is called a peculiarly American trait, though happily it is not universal. The British not only pack and handle goods in the best manner, but they are careful to send and land them in all parts of the world by the best route and with the least expense to the receiver, as the world knows. Of course we can do the same if we take the trouble. The packing department for the soldiers overseas showed the highest excellence. The baling of clothes instead of boxing saved labor, box material, and two thirds of the space, and goods arrived in better condition. Fifty-five million dollars were saved at one plant in a year. Forty-nine million dollars of this was cargo space, other things were rent, freight, etc. Fifty-eight million feet of lumber of 30 years growth were spared. The burlap required would be useful in South America. Square packages instead of round are advantageous. Those who wish a share in foreign trade must take the pains to do everything right. The most careful man, familiar with the metric system, should be in charge. The scales should show pounds and kilograms, and figures be given for net weight, container, etc. Aside from careful packing to avoid breakage or other injury as from water, dampness, or pilfering, instructions are often given as to size and weight of package. Mules, donkeys, and llamas usually carry two packages, one on each side; the ordinary load of each is 200, 150, and 100 lbs. respectively, though some mules will take 300 lbs. for a moderate distance. For the interior, especially on the North and West Coasts and in some sections on the East, these animals are the only means of transport, and goods must be packed accordingly; machinery in sections, etc. Many boxes of 1000 pounds weight have been left on the dock or at a railway station, the goods a total loss.

To arrange the packing with an eye to the custom house is important, both in order that the contents may be easily examined, and so that fines or exorbitant imposts may be avoided. Directions and governmental regulations as to giving separate weight of container and goods, and the separation of different classes of the latter must be scrupulously followed. Heavy fines are often imposed for trivial errors in packing or invoice, and corrections of any mistakes by cable are expensive if frequent.

Obligations of every kind should be fulfilled with fidelity though a bad bargain has been made resulting in financial loss. On the other hand consideration for the embarrassments of the buyer should be shown, whether these are purely personal or the result of national conditions such as followed the outbreak of the War or the conclusion of the Armistice. After the unexpected cessation of War many orders which had been placed here were suddenly cancelled under the supposition that coöperation such as had always been extended by European merchants would not be refused here. British representatives promptly offered to cancel orders for goods that the buyers might not care to receive under the changed circumstances, while the majority of Americans made many difficulties: a contrast in conduct liable to influence unfavorably future trade, especially when added to the fact that vast numbers here cancelled orders and that the average American manufacturer had taken advantage of the situation created by the War to charge exorbitant prices in excess of those applying to domestic trade. Thus some manufacturers who have cried out about the bad faith of the South Americans, with no consideration for their difficulties, have forfeited their confidence and friendship, with a probable loss of future trade unless able to offer remarkably attractive bargains.

The utmost care should be taken in the shipping of goods as well as in the packing. Promptness is an important feature. Where regular sailings occur space should be engaged in advance, and the necessary papers accurately made out in good season, in view of the many copies of the consular invoices, the bills of lading, the clearance papers, and the short hours of some of the consulates. To avoid the trouble of attending to these and other elaborate details, many manufacturers find it convenient to employ a Freight Forwarder who looks after such matters including insurance of various kinds covering theft, damage, and total loss. He will know the most favorable trade routes, look after transfer and storage, and fill all requirements, if qualified for his job.

No dealings should be initiated in any country until after the registration of patents and trademarks.

Trouble should be taken to adjust any bona fide complaint and to satisfy reasonable customers. On account of length of time and distance, especial pains should be taken to avoid possible difficulty or disagreement.

The establishing of American banks in South America has been a boon to manufacturers. The houses of Dun and of Bradstreet perform much service for their clients in the line of credit information. It has been suggested that the Government might collect information for general private use. It may be said that experience shows losses in foreign trade to be less than in domestic. Yet, as shysters exist everywhere, suitable precaution should be exercised, guarantees required, or the reliability of the house made certain.

The use of the trade acceptance, a negotiable note given by the purchaser to the seller of goods, now becoming general, is of great assistance to those who were deterred from entering South American trade on account of the long credits which seemed necessary. Foreign bankers invest in the commercial bills of other countries, knowing them to be convertible into cash in those countries. Private houses handling investments or commercial paper have added departments for dealing in acceptances. The subject of foreign exchange should be familiar, the fluctuations having an important bearing on purchasing power and trade, while exchange itself is dependent on foreign trade conditions, being an index of international transactions. Careful consideration of this matter is necessary in quoting prices. In normal times it was customary on English imports to reckon the pound as $4.90, and in export as $4.80 to cover incidental expenses.

In certain lines, for example, in hand-made goods, it is impossible for this country to face European or Asiatic competition. In some kinds of machine-made goods we excel. In lines where competition seems difficult the excellent suggestion has been made that costs may be reduced. The lowering of the daily wage has in some cases occurred; and more may be accomplished by diminishing overhead expense. The high salaries of the heads and of numerous assistants in plants of moderate size and the expenses of salesmen are often unnecessarily large, giving rise to foolish and injurious extravagance, which indeed has permeated all classes of society. Carnegie while building up his Steel Company, and President McKinley smoked cigars costing five cents each, while some modern salesmen pay 50 cents for one, with other things in proportion. Some hotels charge 40 cents for a potato not costing one; a Washington hotel asks 60 cents for a slice of watermelon when a whole one is selling on the street for 15 cents. The head of a company suggests that by reducing one-third of the personal and family expenses for luxuries they will live longer and be happier; that one-third of the middle men might be cut out; that the office and supervising class could accomplish 25 per cent more and cut down office expenses one-third; that the laboring man could increase his efficiency and output one-third without injury and come nearer to earning his wages; and that the unreasonable waste of material should be diminished. I would however add that many heads of establishments and departments work harder and more hours than the ordinary office force or laborer.

One would naturally desire to have his firm name on such goods as permit this; “Made in U.S.A.” seems desirable where practicable. It has happened that Germans handling American machinery have covered such marks with their own. It may be noted that in South America many of the large mercantile establishments of various kinds, dry goods and others, are in the hands of British or German firms. A considerable portion of trade in the large cities is conducted by other than the native born.

For the best development of our foreign trade it is necessary that young men entering this field should be of higher type than the average in domestic affairs, particularly those who will go to foreign lands. The larger number may not be called upon to go outside of their town or country, as many must be engaged in the export department, at the factory or the seaport, or in commission houses and banks, as export agents or freight forwarders, etc. Others will go abroad as salesmen on tours, or to reside a few or many years in the capacity of local agents, in branch houses of large companies, civil and mining engineers, etc.

Many of both sexes have enough of the spirit of adventure to enjoy the prospect of at least a temporary residence in another land. It is to be hoped that those who desire the broader career will enter it not solely for the pecuniary reward but with something of the spirit which animated our soldiers, the knowledge that they may extend the prestige of their country and uphold the best traditions of democracy; with the feeling that their work, if well done, is patriotic in character, an essential and splendid vocation, a dignified career for the development of the commerce and the promotion of the welfare of a great nation. Character, the manners of a gentleman, and educational preparation are among the requisite qualifications. Of prime necessity is a familiarity with one or two foreign languages; also a training that will develop thoroughness and accuracy and the consciousness that these are essential. Nothing will accomplish this better than a good groundwork of Latin; which makes mere play the acquisition of any derived language like Spanish, French, or Portuguese. A sound understanding of Latin syntax is needed for easy comprehension of these languages, with their varied forms and constructions, so different from our simple English, which indeed one who is ignorant of any other language hardly comprehends. The ability to conduct business correspondence correctly and with at least some degree of the elegance and courteous phraseology current in other lands where our brusque letters and speech are disliked if not resented: Knowledge of office routine especially as to the various papers to be procured and prepared in connection with foreign transactions: An acquaintance with the requirements of shipping practices, trade routes, types of vessels, freight rates, insurance of various kinds, loading and unloading facilities at different ports, and details as to the arrival and despatch of cargoes and vessels: A study of the principles of commercial law needed to enable one to decide business questions, disputes and misunderstandings, according to equity and international practice: A close study of the economic conditions which govern the production of the countries, of the social institutions and customs, of advertising needs and methods, of shipping facilities, of banking facilities and methods, credit practices and requirements, and any discrimination in tariffs or regulations:

A study of the foreign trade practices and methods of those countries already occupying these markets, the character and style of their goods and their methods of securing and holding business: Acquaintance with the financial and investment relations of other countries as affecting international trade; with foreign banking practices and with the mechanism of foreign exchange: A study of physical geography including the natural resources, climatic conditions, and characteristic peculiarities of each country: A knowledge of the history and affiliations of the countries, with the character of their governments as likely to bear on their commerce:—All these are matters which must not be overlooked by any one who wishes to become an expert in foreign trade. Some acquaintance with the racial origin and relations of the nations, with their social customs, religious tendencies, and traditions may at times help in determining trade possibilities. It is important to realize that the cultivation of tact, dignity, and judgment is necessary for success as a foreign representative, and that such an one may prove a more valuable ambassador than some of those occupying such position, to whom a similar training would be of advantage.

Furthermore we must realize that no nation can sell largely abroad unless it buys also, and that we must purchase from South America if we expect to sell there. Fortunately they have many agricultural products, which we do not produce, and other raw material of which we have not sufficient. Yet probably we cannot take as much from them as we should like to sell. We must therefore INVEST, now that we are a creditor nation, in the securities of others, the bonds of the countries and cities; we must send our capital to develop public utilities where these are lacking, as for sewerage and water supply. Electric lighting plants and power, docks and railways, have proved excellent investments. The better banking facilities now provided encourage these on our part. The British, French, and Belgians have been beforehand in this matter. The British have invested more than two billions in Argentina, $1,200,000,000 in Brazil, smaller sums in Uruguay and Chile. The Germans have not invested much money, their banks bringing chiefly credit and making money by taking part of the business of local banks, a practice not conducive to popularity. The United States, i.e., some people, have invested $175,000,000 or more in Brazil, smaller sums in other countries. Large opportunities lie open in this direction.

That loans should be made to foreign countries only on condition that the money be spent here, seems a short-sighted policy, as also restrictions on our export of gold, when our excessive holding of that metal is a contributing cause of the unfortunate exchange situation. Many Republics need railways, for which construction material and equipment would be here purchased if here financed; but part of the money must be spent on the ground; so with works of irrigation and other public or private construction. If we must always be selfish, at least our selfishness should be enlightened, and we should realize that in the long run we shall gain more by manifesting a friendly spirit of service and coöperation rather than by showing intense eagerness for the “mighty dollar.”

CHAPTER LII
LIFE IN SOUTH AMERICA

While the variety of conditions in South America makes any treatment of this subject necessarily superficial, a few words beyond those already said may not be out of place, since it is evident that for the successful conduct of our trade many persons from the United States must spend some years or reside permanently in the several countries. From the descriptions given one should have a fair idea as to climatic conditions in these and make an intelligent choice of locality if any is offered. Some persons will be happy in warm Rio or even in more tropical Pará. Others will prefer Andean heights, from 7000 to 14,000 feet altitude, the higher for persons with sound hearts only. Most of the cities where one is likely to be stationed have a fairly temperate climate, and good health conditions, except as previously indicated.

In respect to social advantages there is considerable variety. In general the smaller the city the greater the hospitality and the more will one’s society be cultivated, as is true in the United States also. On the other hand in the important commercial cities, the English-speaking folk are numerous enough to make an agreeable society for themselves, and some South Americans have made the criticism that the English and Americans hold aloof, apparently preferring their own company: a mistake from a business point of view and also nationally. One must, however, have the right qualifications for cordial recognition anywhere. It has been stated of Buenos Aires that the fact of membership in the diplomatic corps did not entitle the gentleman and his family to more than official courtesies; to be received socially he must be persona grata. This is true to some extent everywhere. At the same time one who is at the head of a large commercial establishment is more likely to have social opportunities than members of the office staff, one of whom, a young man of unusually good manners and attractive personality complained to me in Lima some years ago, that he had no social opportunities. It is different now. On the other hand a young dentist in a city of Argentina where Americans are few associated with the best people and married into one of the first families.

At the mining camps of the Americans provision is now made for the social life of the employes and for exercise and recreation, also by other large corporations. In general I believe that men enjoy the life in South America better than their wives. Some of the latter decline to go or to remain after being there a while: a great mistake if they have any regard for their husband’s welfare, unless the care of children or other serious matter compels their return. Many women are perfectly contented, this depending in some degree on their location, but chiefly upon their disposition. In the town of Sorata, Bolivia, I chanced to meet one who seemed perfectly happy, though she was the only English speaking woman in the place, or within 100 miles.

It is desirable for banks and business houses to give their young men sufficient salaries to permit them to marry and take their wives along. It will be better for both parties in the long run. Perhaps there are no more temptations than in our own large cities, but in most places there are fewer forms of wholesome recreation. Too many men in cities and in mining camps have gone to pieces as they say.

Some men prefer life abroad for the reason that they feel less restraint than in their native home or even in our metropolis, rather than the responsibility which a real patriot should recognize of presenting the highest American ideals of manners, conduct, and business practices. If one cannot be contented without going somewhere every night, except in Rio or Buenos Aires he might be unhappy or worse. It would be well if persons everywhere had sufficient intelligence to enjoy themselves at home with a good book, a quiet game of cards, even cribbage; but especially books that are worth while, valuable as literature or as containing information about the world in general or on matters connected with business. “Movies” are found almost everywhere; in the larger cities, theatres and a long or short season of opera; clubs with opportunities for golf, tennis, and other sports; often horse races. In smaller towns horseback riding is a common, sometimes the chief diversion; but in such places one sooner enters the social life of the community. Some Americans say they would not take a wife to such a place, but if she is wise she will go.

Punctiliousness in dress as well as in manners is more highly regarded in South America than in the United States. Evening dress is more general in large cities than in most of ours, and correct afternoon dress for men is a more rigid requirement. Some persons on important missions have astonished the Latins by their negligence in this regard. Of course a gentleman is a gentleman the world over and such an one will have no trouble. It is unnecessary to imitate certain mannerisms of many South Americans, yet a little more effusiveness is easily acquired and may be an improvement on the coldness of the Anglo Saxon. It will be noticed that men regularly lift their hats to each other, that they shake hands much oftener, when you come and when you go, make more inquiries after your health, etc. That they pat each other on the back, give mild hugs, or at times kiss one another (not you), will perhaps not seem so terrible as formerly, now that so much has been written about brave marshals and generals kissing soldiers on both cheeks when conferring decorations.

Courtesy must not be considered hypocrisy because phrases like “The house is yours” mean no more than our remarks “I am glad to see you” or “How are you?” though we may wish the caller in Africa and have no real interest in his health. Not everywhere is the same courtesy evident. On my first visit to La Paz in 1903 I noticed that men frequently stepped from the narrow sidewalk into the gutter to allow a lady to pass. More recently in a much larger city, still with some narrow sidewalks, I frequently stepped into the street myself to avoid crowding past a gentleman (?) who made no move to give way.

The cost of living is an item of practical interest. Some remarks on this subject have seemed to me exaggerated. Great diversity exists in this respect in the different cities: the larger the more expensive, as in the world generally. In most of the capital cities and chief ports rents are high; in some places many articles of food are dear with others cheap; similarly with dry goods and other articles, some higher than in New York, others lower. Recent unusual conditions have made sudden changes which may be repeated. Living expenses were increased by the War, and on account of the influx of foreigners for business houses. In 1916 rents in Buenos Aires were lowered in the business centre; but they have now advanced to their former price or higher. Years ago one of our diplomats there paid more for his house rent than his entire salary on which others perhaps have managed to live.

In remote sections, for instance in the Huailas Valley, Peru, in 1906, a sheep cost $1, a lamb 40 cents, a chicken 15 cents, beefsteak, 9 cents a pound. The cook received $1.50 a month and board. Fresh fruit and vegetables were almost given away. In Lima then as now it was very different, some kinds of food were expensive, others cheap. Coal and kerosene oil are dear everywhere except in the Huailas Valley where coal is abundant with no market. In Buenos Aires a few apartment houses and hotels have hot water heating, but in many places in winter one freezes, or uses an oil stove or an electric heater, the former the cheaper and more effective.

Persons of adaptable disposition may spend a few years in South America with pleasure and profit, returning with broader minds, and with the ability to command higher salaries than if they had remained at home.

APPENDIX I
POSTAL REGULATIONS

Much repetition is avoided and probably greater convenience secured by presenting a summary of the Postal Regulations. All of the South American Republics are members of the Postal Union. In November, 1920, a Pan American Postal Federation was formed. According to the convention adopted, domestic rates will apply to letters, postal cards, and printed matter, among the various countries of Latin America and the United States, as soon as they have ratified the agreement. At present, October, 1921, this has been done by the United States and by the South American Republics, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. To these the letter rate is two cents, postal cards, one cent, return cards two cents; printed matter, newspapers and periodicals, one cent for four ounces. The old rates now effective in the other countries will doubtless soon be reduced, and should therefore be investigated.

Parcel post service has been extended so that parcels weighing up to 22 pounds may be sent to Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, and Peru. To Ecuador 20 pounds is the limit; to Bolivia, Chile, British, Dutch, and French Guiana, Uruguay, and Venezuela, 11 pounds is the maximum. The rate to all is 12 cents a pound or a fraction thereof; except that to Paraguay, on account of transit through Argentina, 30 cents additional must be paid for a parcel weighing 11 pounds or less, and 60 cents for one above that to 22 pounds. In Brazil, this service is limited to Bahia, Bello Horizonte, Curityba, Manaos, Pará, Pelotas, Pernambuco, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro (including Petropolis), Rio Grande do Sul, and São Paulo. Parcels are subject to customs duties, and these with other details should be investigated. Parcels may be registered for Bolivia, Brazil, British Guiana, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, but not for the other countries.

Money orders may be sent to Peru, Bolivia, and Uruguay.

Changes resulting from the Pan American Postal Congress at Buenos Aires in 1921 will be inaugurated January, 1923 or earlier.