Twenty-five years ago, Mr. Blaine, sanguine, resourceful, and gifted with that imagination which enlarges the historian's understanding of the past into the statesman's comprehension of the future, undertook to inaugurate a new era of American relations which should supplement political sympathy by personal acquaintance, by the intercourse of expanding trade, and by mutual helpfulness. As secretary of state under President Arthur, he invited the American nations to a conference to be held on November 24, 1882, for the purpose of considering and discussing the subject of preventing war between the nations of America. That invitation, abandoned by Mr. Frelinghuysen, was renewed under Mr. Cleveland, and on October 2, 1889, Mr. Blaine, again secretary of state under President Harrison, had the singular good fortune to execute his former design and to open the sessions of the first American conference at Washington. In an address of wisdom and lofty spirit, which should ever give honor to his memory, he described the assembly as—
... an honorable, peaceful conference of seventeen independent American powers, in which all shall meet together on terms of absolute equality; a conference in which there can be no attempt to coerce a single delegate against his own conception of the interests of his nation; a conference which will permit no secret understanding on any subject, but will frankly publish to the world all its conclusions; a conference which will tolerate no spirit of conquest, but will aim to cultivate an American sympathy as broad as both continents; a conference which will form no selfish alliance against the older nations from which we are proud to claim inheritance—a conference, in fine, which will seek nothing, propose nothing, endure nothing that is not, in the general sense of all the delegates, timely, wise, and peaceful.
The policy which Mr. Blaine inaugurated has been continued; the Congress of the United States has approved it; subsequent presidents have followed it. The first conference at Washington has been succeeded by a second conference in Mexico, and now by a third conference in Rio de Janeiro; and it is to be followed in years to come by further successive assemblies in which the representatives of all American states shall acquire better knowledge and more perfect understanding, and be drawn together by the recognition of common interests and the kindly consideration and discussion of measures for mutual benefit.
Nevertheless, Mr. Blaine was in advance of his time. In 1881 and 1889 the United States had not reached a point where it could turn its energies away from its own internal development and direct them outward towards the development of foreign enterprises and foreign trade, nor had the South American countries reached the stage of stability in government and security for property necessary to their industrial development.
Now, however, the time has come; both North and South America have grown up to Blaine's policy. The production, the trade, the capital, the enterprise of the United States have before them the opportunity to follow, and they are free to follow, the pathway marked out by the far-sighted statesmanship of Blaine for the growth of America, North and South, in the peaceful prosperity of a mighty commerce.
To utilize this opportunity certain practical things must be done. For the most part these things must be done by a multitude of individual efforts; they cannot be done by government. Government may help to furnish facilities for the doing of them, but the facilities will be useless unless used by individuals. This cannot be done by resolutions of this or any other commercial body; resolutions are useless unless they stir individual business men to action in their own business affairs. The things needed have been fully and specifically set forth in many reports of efficient consuls and of highly competent agents of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and they have been described in countless newspapers and magazine articles; but all these things are worthless unless they are followed by individual action.
I will indicate some of the matters to which every producer and merchant who desires South American trade should pay attention.
1. He should learn what the South Americans want and conform his product to their wants. If they think they need heavy castings, he should give them heavy castings and not expect them to buy light ones because he thinks they are better. If they want coarse cottons, he should give them coarse cottons and not expect them to buy fine cottons. It may not pay today, but it will pay tomorrow. The tendency to standardize articles of manufacture may reduce the cost and promote convenience, but if the consumers on the River Plata demand a different standard from the consumers on the Mississippi, you must have two standards or lose one market.
2. Both for the purpose of learning what the South American people want and of securing their attention to your goods, you must have agents who speak the Spanish or Portuguese language. For this there are two reasons: one is that people can seldom really get at each other's minds through an interpreter, and the other is that nine times out of ten it is only through knowing the Spanish or Portuguese language that a North American comes to appreciate the admirable and attractive personal qualities of the South American, and is thus able to establish that kindly and agreeable personal relation which is so potent in leading to business relations.
3. The American producer should arrange to conform his credit system to that prevailing in the country where he wishes to sell goods. There is no more money lost upon commercial credits in South America than there is in North America; but business men there have their own ways of doing business; they have to adapt the credits they receive to the credits they give. It is often inconvenient and disagreeable, and it is sometimes impossible, for them to conform to our ways, and the requirement that they should do so is a serious obstacle to trade.