American bankers have loaned the Argentine Government $15,000,000 in 6 per cent. gold notes. The temperament of the public as to the attractiveness of the loan may be readily estimated when I state that the entire amount of securities to cover the indebtedness was sold before four o’clock of the day on which they were offered. The successful consummation of this business—the first ever concluded directly between the Argentine Government and the bankers of this country—will serve greatly to strengthen the “entente cordiale” now so rapidly developing between the United States and the rest of Latin America.
Nor is this all. Movements are now on foot leading to investments of American capital in large sums in practically all of our sister republics. With each step in this direction we as a nation, and also our manufacturers and merchants, become more firmly entrenched in the Latin American commercial world, and our mercantile supremacy in these lands is more positively assured.
As a typical illustration of what can be done in these countries when the subject is handled intelligently let me mention the case of the United Fruit Company, which operates in Colombia, Cuba, and practically all of Central America. Starting in 1870 with a small beginning, this organization is now one of the most solid to be found anywhere in the world. In Costa Rica alone they have invested over $19,000,000 in bananas, while enormous sums are also being expended in other countries in sugar, coffee, cocoa, cocoanuts, the development of mines and the building of railroads and hotels. In fact the prosperity of all these nations is directly due to the presence of this great organization, which finds a market for its products in Europe and the United States, and which through its various local branches and stores, as well as its numerous employes, is a potent factor in introducing American goods and American ideas to all with whom it comes in contact. Its large fleet of ships come to all the leading seaports of this country, and the vast trade which it now controls, and which is still in its infancy, is capable of enormous growth. As one example of what its business means in freight alone, I may state that from the port of New Orleans this company shipped, last year, nearly 150,000 car-loads of bananas to the West and Middle West. The model hospitals which it has installed in each of the countries in which it operates for the free treatment of its servants have caused our physicians to be highly respected throughout this portion of Central and South America, and as a consequence the native now comes to the United States for serious surgical operations and medical treatment, instead of to Europe as formerly. Further than this, the intimate association bound to result from so many Americans living in Latin American communities has tended to develop in each due respect for the ability and integrity of the other, and this has been beneficial to all parties concerned.
It is to be hoped that all the countries of Latin America will take advantage of the disposition so apparent on the part of our financiers to extend external credits among them and that every effort will be used by those in power to establish lasting internal peace and a guarantee of protection against unwarranted attacks on foreign capital. Such an assurance will do much to develop the commercial side of these really wonderfully productive lands.
Is it not the duty of our State Department to assist such a movement by giving capitalists and merchants of this country its positive and definite assurance that legitimate investors and investments will be efficiently and effectively protected by the United States Government, along the same lines as those in general use by the European powers? Such an edict on the part of the United States would remove the last great barrier to American trade development in Latin America.
XXIX
HEALTH PRECAUTIONS
Travel in Latin America can be made comparatively safe, from a medical point of view, by the strict observance of a few common sense precautions. Perhaps the first thing to be considered is the question of water. With but one or two exceptions, drinking water is notoriously bad in all of these countries, being polluted and almost certain, if drunk, to develop, sooner or later, either typhoid or some other intestinal disorder. Credence should not be placed in the well-intentioned statement of the native that the water is good. Like their ancestors, through the continual drinking of the local water, they have become self-immunized to any form of contagion from its use. Because the water comes from snow-clad mountains does not insure its purity, either. Most mountain streams, long before they reach reservoirs, are used for washing clothes or bathing and become infected in this manner. It is obviously out of the question to boil all water prior to drinking and if you are obliged to take many trips to the interior or off the beaten paths of travel, bottled mineral waters are not always obtainable. Therefore it is wise for the purposes of such excursions to carry any of the well-known makes of pocket filter, which come especially made for such purposes. Let me take advantage of this opportunity to correct the erroneous idea entertained by so many of the laity that locally made aerated mineral waters are free from bacteria. They should be shunned as much as the local unboiled water. The best thing to do if you are going to these countries, is to have your system rendered immune to the typhoid bacillus, by having your family physician give you the anti-typhoid vaccination, such as is used in the American army and navy. There is but little inconvenience attending its administration and you can rest assured that after taking the treatment you will not contract typhoid fever. Drink bottled mineral water when possible. Its purity is certain to eliminate tendencies to either stomachic or intestinal troubles.
Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
The Plaza Hotel in Buenos Aires
Pineapples, berries, melons or green uncooked vegetables such as radishes, cucumbers, onions, water-cress, lettuce, salad and the like should be avoided for the same reasons. Truck gardens wherein they are grown mostly use dirty water for irrigation purposes. Even the native is aware of this practice among many gardeners and I recall one man whose farm on the outskirts of a large South American city bears this announcement:—