Chapter VI: Appendix: 377 (5)

The house accepting your agency will have its own salesmen to travel the country and to introduce your line to the trade in addition to other appropriate means toward this end. They will be only too glad to have your representative accompany their local man from time to time and are highly appreciative of such an interest, because it stimulates both the customer and their representative and at the same time gives you the opportunity of knowing just what they are doing and what they have to overcome in the way of prejudice and competition. It is always well to aid the local agency with a small advertising allowance, to be spent as your combined judgments may dictate. This gives a further evidence to them of your desire to go after the trade and keeps their interest more intense on your line. Unfortunately too many American houses think that it is unnecessary to spend any money in advertising their goods in these lands. The sooner they take advantage of the advertising possibilities afforded by these virgin fields the larger and quicker will come the returns. Very often it is advisable to make specific allowances to the firm holding your local agency with a view to having their representatives make special trips in your behalf. These are, however, all details to be worked out advantageously between the contracting parties and will suggest themselves as conditions develop.

In the event of your organization having an export department, properly equipped to conduct correspondence in the native tongue and give direct attention to the banking problems arising as well as to shipping and forwarding it is advisable to have your own traveller, or travellers, to cover one or more of the countries or all of the territory involved. This keeps the home office in closer touch with all the details of the business and is to be commended in certain lines of trade but is only advisable when one’s foreign department is thoroughly perfected and in the hands of a competent manager.

Orders sent in by your traveller will contain such complete and specific instructions as to forwarding and banking that they can be intelligently handled at a minimum of expense with your own force. It should be observed however that your representatives for the first few years should make the entire territory once every twelve months at least, and oftener if conditions warrant, in order to keep your goods continually before the dealers and to engrave upon their memories that you are in the field to stay and wish to cater to them and their wants.

If conditions are such that you cannot afford a personal representative the commission export house offers opportunities for bringing your goods to the attention of the native dealer. There are many of these concerns situated in all of the larger cities of the United States; New York, New Orleans and San Francisco being especially well provided with them, owing to the fact that they are the largest ports in the East, South and West respectively and have excellent forwarding facilities. As a rule these firms are well supplied with capital and capable of rendering effective and efficient services. They are open, however, to the one objection that most naturally they will give the greatest attention to the line yielding them the largest profit, and just how to induce them to handle your goods to the exclusion of other competitors is a problem to be solved by you with the concern you decide to use for your purposes. Furthermore, it should be your express duty to see positively that your customer is thoroughly protected against the commission house making any additional charges or increasing the original price quoted by you to your client. This has been a common practice, and has had the effect of tending to retard business and prejudice trade in these lands.

As a rule these agents pay cash for goods when delivered, a feature which has its attractions to the manufacturer or merchant working on a limited capital and requiring his money promptly. Their financial connections are of a kind that enable them to do this, allowing a very small commission for their trouble. In addition to all these features they have a corps of experts familiar with shipping procedures, insurance problems, the routing of freight, packing, banking, as well as the details of foreign correspondence so that much of the complications and annoyances of the export trade is taken from your shoulders and borne by men familiar with the entire subject. Every few months it is the custom of many of these organizations to send their representatives through the entire Latin American territory with the idea of developing trade and receiving orders. There can be no question as to their place in this field or as to their general efficiency, and it is always well to discuss with some high class commission export house what they can offer your particular line when contemplating the possibilities of doing business in these lands.

A few American merchants have found it expedient to sell goods through their own representatives, turning the accounts over for delivery to some local concern for the purpose of forwarding the goods and making the collections thereon. While this may be advisable under some conditions, still it is not a practice to be commended and is only warranted when the local or native commission agent is of a high grade and financially responsible and where the purchaser is likely to impose upon the buyer through some of the many methods in vogue among a certain type of small native business men.

Rather than entrust the future of one’s business in the export field with an inferior representative, it would be better to co-operate with several manufacturers in allied lines, and send one man to represent the entire group. It is questionable if one traveller could do justice to more than five or six lines and they for obvious reasons should be related to each other, the principal idea being to economize the time and expenses of the one handling them. For example, a representative might carry neckties, shirts, collars, socks, and men’s underwear and hats, or such lines as corsets, stockings, ladies’ underwear and shirt waists might be effectively presented by one salesman.

The strictest care should be taken in the selection of the person to represent each group of merchants and under no circumstances should lines which might sooner or later develop into competing ones be allowed to be carried.

Such an arrangement appeals particularly to the smaller manufacturer or merchant in that it brings his goods to the attention of the foreign dealer at a minimum of cost with a maximum of efficiency and paves the way for developing the market. Many of the leading sellers in Latin America to-day had their start along this line of co-operative selling.

Whatever medium you may feel it wise to select in entering these fields, bear in mind the fact that under no circumstances should your representative overstock the buyer with goods. It is far better to receive small orders at first than to sell large ones which may move slowly. Climatic conditions are such that in Latin America many goods, unless sold quickly, rapidly deteriorate and the consequent loss will fall on the individual merchant and result in complaints from the buyer if he becomes the possessor of damaged goods, thereby prejudicing your article in his sight. The salesman in thus cautioning a dealer will exhibit his material interest in the future welfare of the merchant and more thoroughly establish a substantial business friendship with his client.

In many of the countries of Latin America, owing to their enormous extent and lack of travel facility, as well as the exorbitant local freight rates and great distances to be traversed it is often wise to establish more than one agency. In Brazil for example, it might be well to place agencies in Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Bahia, Pernambuco, and Para, for the simple but sufficient reason that the freight on goods from New York to any of these ports direct, is less than the local freights between many of these cities. To get from Callao, Peru, on the west coast to Iquitos on the eastern boundary of that republic is a difficult problem. It is really quicker, cheaper and far more convenient and comfortable to come first to New York, then go to Brazil and up the Amazon, to Iquitos, than to undertake the hazardous journey of many weeks across the risky overland trails through the interior of Peru. Assuming that you were desirous of giving an agency for some special line of merchandise liable to be a good seller in the eastern frontier of Peru as well as throughout the republic, one agency should be placed in Callao, or Lima and the other in Iquitos. In Chile, it is likewise often advisable to place an agency for goods in one of the northern ports of the republic as well as in Valparaiso, or Santiago, either Iquique or Antofagasta being selected for this purpose, as being best adapted to reach the center of the nitrate industries.

_Photograph by Underwood & Underwood_

Drying hides and skins in Argentine
]

Many of the Central American countries, particularly Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras, as well as Mexico, having seaboards on both coasts will present problems for determining the location of agencies accessible to both oceans. These and other conditions will be continually arising. After discussing the matter with your factor or your representative, common business judgment will be the only safe and sane rule to warrant you in reaching a decision.

XXII
THE SALESMAN AND THE CUSTOMER

The success or failure of a business venture in Latin America depends materially on the character of the representative sent to these marts of trade. Never having seen or heard of you or your goods, it is most natural for the foreign merchant to make his deductions from your emissary.

The typical ambassador of commerce for South American fields should combine elegance of dress and courtliness of manners; be a linguist; a scholar; a diplomat; a philosopher; always a student and a business man as well. He should continually bear in mind that his visit is unsolicited—that in a sense he is an aggressor, an intruder, and above everything he should conform to the usages that custom has established in this part of the world.

European merchants and their travellers, with the hope of strengthening their position have spread about the unwarranted idea that the Yankee is tricky in all his dealings and this condition must at all times be combated not theoretically but obviously and practically. Be frank with prospective customers. Do not try to load them up with goods. Keep your agreements to the letter. Live up to your contract even if you lose money by doing so. Follow exactly whatever shipping instructions are given.

After an initial visit to a possible client it is advisable to develop his social side. Ascertain to what clubs he belongs and get put up at them, so that an opportunity may arise to see him after the cares that infest the day are gone. You will find the Latin American a gentleman, a past master of the art of etiquette, a Chesterfield in matters of decorum and an agreeable companion. He, like ourselves, has his weaknesses. Find what they are and cater to them. He will be responsive, after he gets to know you. The amount of flattery that he will stand for and assimilate is beyond belief. The Spanish language is especially equipped for the purpose and provides means for raising to its _n_th power the superlative degree. Do not for a moment get the idea that you are dealing with a child, for though, like the Chinaman, he presents a bland exterior, he is uncannily wise. He knows his line and prices and market conditions. Existing in a world of little excitement, few amusements, and one foreign mail per week, his mind is not diverted and he unconsciously concentrates and becomes a specialist in his business. Having always lived thousands of miles from markets he has learned to prognosticate trade developments years ahead.

He expects to talk to you in Spanish excepting in Brazil where the language is Portuguese, and he will tell you that 100,000,000 people all over the world speak in this tongue; that European salesmen converse with him in this tongue. Obviously, if you can discuss affairs with him in his own idiom you are on the road to success. He often speaks French too, and if you cannot talk in the language of the Dons he will ask you to do so in that of the Gauls. Only in the largest establishments of the big seaport towns will one find merchants with an employe or two familiar with English. It is therefore obvious without a knowledge of Spanish a salesman in this territory is hopelessly and seriously handicapped. In fact he is inefficient. Europeans recognizing the importance of this employ only representatives speaking the languages of the countries wherein they travel. I recall meeting a German in Assam talking fluently the native tongue and later ran across him in Arabia conversing in Arabic in the market place. Americans have never been linguists, but in our business lexicon there should be no such word as “impossible.”

I remember an American traveller for an oil machinery house startling those in the dining room of the leading hotel in Lima, Peru, by pointing to the menu and alternately grunting and squealing aloud. He could not talk Spanish. In a few moments the place was in an uproar. Some thought he had gone crazy; others that he was insulting the Peruvians or the proprietor of the hotel. The head waiter rushed to me and asked that I ascertain what the trouble was. Imagine my surprise when my countryman in explanation of his barnyard impersonation said: “I was trying to tell these durned fools that I wanted ham.” Incidents like these are never forgotten; always magnified when told and invariably hurt us seriously, socially and otherwise. This little affair happening in a foreign country where news is scarce was talked of in the hotels, clubs and cafés, printed in the journals and illustrated in the comic papers. Americans were always referred to by each narrator as uncouth and the story gone into with great detail and precision. Grandparents in Peru one hundred years from now will be telling this yarn to their grandchildren.

I have long ago ceased to wonder at the lack of common sense exhibited by some large American houses in selecting the type of man they employ for Latin America. I recall one well known concern in this country sending a man to sell carbon paper and typewriter ribbons who spoke only English. Of the man personally I will only state that by nature he was the very antithesis of everything he should have been. Calling upon the leading jobber in his line in Bolivia who spoke only Spanish he found it impossible to do business, and undertook to tell his prices by yelling them, a method in vogue among those who have command of one language and who seem to feel that if you can repeat loudly in a crescendo voice, and with great precision, what you have to say your hearer will ultimately by some occult means understand. In the midst of this vocal exercise by the American, a German happened to drop in, also desirous of selling the dealer goods, and kindly offered to interpret for the Yankee, which suggestion was eagerly accepted. The gentleman from the Fatherland was also selling typewriter supplies and I heard him afterwards telling his friends in the hotel with much gusto how he handled the matter. I shall not try to repeat the conversation. It was humiliating for me to think what a fool my fellow citizen had allowed himself to be made. When the American said “These ribbons are $4.00 a dozen,” the German translated: “These ribbons are $8.00 a dozen.” The American salesman told me afterwards that he had written his house that they could not compete with European prices in this market and I am certain that this concern will never again be tempted even to consider Latin American possibilities. These two cases strikingly serve to illustrate the importance of being familiar with Spanish, or the language of the country wherein you are expected to sell goods.

Extremely sensitive and quick to appreciate a kindness, it pays to study the social usages among Latin Americans and to live in conformity therewith when among them. It is, for example, considered good taste to walk always on the side of the street next the curb, to take off your hat and stand uncovered as the funeral of peon or plutocrat passes, to bow generally to those present as you enter a streetcar or café and to salute them similarly as you depart, while gentlemen always raise their hats when they meet. The observance of these frivolous niceties marks the gentleman, the failure to do so the man, and the yawning abyss between these two degrees of masculinity to the Latin American mind cannot be bridged.

Generally speaking every Latin American is named after some saint and observes the festival of this canonized individual both socially and religiously. Ascertain what day this is and always send some little remembrance. It creates an intimacy hard for us cold-blooded northerners to understand. Never forget church and national festivals. Both of these are dearer to the impulsive natives than are our own and are celebrated more elaborately. It pays to keep a memorandum book for this purpose, noting data of this nature, so as to be always in close personal touch with customers and prospective clients. Little cards and other appropriate souvenirs from the north commemorating these events are highly cherished as well as deeply appreciated and erect invisible and effective barricades about the sympathetic Latin, sufficient to repulse the attacks of other salesmen.

Religion and political conditions should never be discussed. The Latin American is almost always superstitiously religious and intensely political. To take the wrong side of a theological argument may land you in the hospital while an error in judgment on a political problem may mean jail. Both are places to be avoided in these lands. Besides such arguments always serve to make one decidedly unpopular and materially hurt business prospects.

Religious processions are frequent in the streets. They excite curiosity and are often amusing viewed from our standpoint. Do what the populace does as they pass: kneel or raise your hat, otherwise get away from the scene as quickly as you can. Many clerical parades have been turned to riots by some foolish foreigner failing to observe these suggestions.

With but few exceptions, hotels in Latin America are terrible. Toilet and bathing accommodations are poor, the cooking vile and the dishes unpalatable, while the beds are intolerable. Vaults in American cemeteries are far preferable as residential quarters in comparison with some rooms I have slept in in this part of the world, especially in the small towns and villages of the interior. Conditions become rapidly worse the farther away one gets from the larger cities, and as one penetrates out of the way places hammocks and your own food supplies are to be recommended. It would be almost impossible to describe the primitiveness which exists in this part of the Western Continent away from the beaten path. Travel facilities are execrable. Trains are slow and late and accommodations decidedly bad. Steamers are small and stuffy and not safe. River boats are provided with few if any conveniences. Going up the Magdalena River in Colombia from Barranquilla to Bogota, a journey of about ten days, the traveller formerly had to provide his own sleeping accommodations and this _was wise_, and it always showed good judgment to carry tinned food and bottled water.

Appointments are more often honored in the breach than in the observance, more often forgotten or delayed than kept. Business for no apparent reason is deferred to “mañaña” (to-morrow). Time is not considered by our friends residing in the vicinity of the equator.

These and many more heart-breaking conditions will confront you every day of your trip through Mañaña land. Be a philosopher. Don’t grumble. You came for business. These delays and deprivations are only incidents in the game; they make the reaching of the goal all the more of a victory. Grit your teeth and forge ahead. If fleas and mosquitoes and bedbugs bite, don’t revenge yourself on your possible customer, by telling him what you think of his country and countrymen. Learn to smile. It helps more here than elsewhere.

Be a student from the day that you sail from America to the day that you hand in your last expense account. It will improve you mentally and help your firm financially. Study the needs of the various countries through which you pass. Observe what the people require. Listen to suggestions from all sources. European successes in these markets were greatly advanced by giving the people just what they wanted. Yours will come in the same manner. Remember that a vast majority of the population whom you will meet are either Indians or of Indian origin. Their tastes are sure to be primitive, to incline to gaudy colorings and lack practicability. Remember, too, that they are paying the bills. If they want the things that offend your educated, æsthetic eye, forget it and explain to the house why they should make them as desired. It is always easier to follow styles in vogue for centuries than to create new ones and foist them on the public.

Latin America has always been a hotbed for disease. Be abstemious in eating and drinking. Alcoholic beverages should be taboo, inasmuch as they unnecessarily heat the system. Water supplies are inefficient and often polluted. Your drinking water should be boiled; if good water is not obtainable otherwise drink some reliable mineral water. Remember that plague comes from the bite of the flea, and yellow fever and malaria from the bite of the mosquito, so avoid as much as possible the places where these pests are to be found. Daily baths are apt to remove danger from flea bites and sleeping under a net minimizes the possibilities of contracting yellow and malarial fevers. Personal hygiene should always be observed. In twenty years of the roughest and toughest travelling up creeks and down tropical rivers, through forests heavy with dew, across barren, wind-swept plains, over mountains, in high and low altitudes, by exercising these suggested precautions I have had only one serious illness, yellow fever. Conditions have vastly improved since I first began my trips and are getting better every year. With judgment one could now take a journey all over Latin America without any physical dangers or serious illness intervening, and with less risk than he would be liable to encounter on a trip between New York and Chicago.

From a perusal of the requirements necessary for a salesman in this territory, and I may add that I have not overcolored, or underestimated them, it is apparent that the right man will be difficult to find. If a house cannot see its way clear to enter this field with the right kind of a representative, it had better remain out of it altogether or combine with several concerns in allied lines and send one high grade man to represent them jointly. It is extremely doubtful if any one could do justice to more than five firms in such a venture. The plan adopted by European houses is to send a capable young man to one of the countries and let him live there until he has acquired the language, the customs of the people and their ways of doing business. Then they put him on the road. This serves to demonstrate the thoroughness which marked every step of the European conquest of these markets. Our American public schools are now instructing pupils in Spanish and Latin Americans are coming to this country to acquire English in increasing numbers right along, so that the possibilities are that within a few years these conditions will change for the better. To-day, however, the efficient, competent and reliable salesman for Latin America is so rare and so much in demand that he can practically name his own salary.

Nearly every country in Latin America requires that a license to sell goods must be taken out by the salesman before he can do business within its territory, and as a result there has arisen much cause for complaint. As a rule these taxes or fees are entirely too high and out of proportion to those charged anywhere else in the world, thereby creating a natural tendency to evade the law by every possible means. In some localities runners about the hotels stand in with the authorities and for a small sum provide guests with the necessary paper entitling them to sell goods, while in other places the law is practically ignored.

The right to collect this tax in many countries is sold yearly by the municipal authorities for a lump sum to some individual, who always endeavors to collect as much as he can from the concession. Beware of the person who holds this right. He has at his beck and call a score of petty employes about the city and around the hotels who report your movements to him, and the result is generally disastrous to you, especially if you try to do business without his permission.

In the Argentine republic for example each province has a fixed fee for this purpose and the total sum, if paid, would eliminate the profits from the average amount of your sales. Failure to pay generally means a term in jail.

The merchant’s yearly taxes in many countries includes the right to sell goods by travelling salesmen and if he is approached properly by a non-resident representative will allow him to take advantage of his business foresight and use this permit, thereby giving a legitimate and legal opportunity to omit paying these obnoxious charges. By observing these suggestions and the exercise of diplomacy and good judgment, little need be feared from the authorities in this connection.

Before entering a foreign country for the first time, it is well to obtain letters of introduction to leading merchants and especially to government officials. They prove wonderfully beneficial and are highly successful in smoothing out the rough places which are sure to be met with in the paths of business. It generally pays to act implicitly on the advice given by responsible people living in the land wherein you are a pilgrim, for they are well acquainted with local idiosyncrasies, and can suggest the exact spot where a small tip will facilitate matters materially.

Be sure to cultivate the acquaintance of the high grade old time traveller whom you will be certain to meet sooner or later on your trip. You will find him pregnant with pertinent and useful suggestions, which will do much toward making your initial trip a success. Years of experience in the Latin American school of business have given him a marvellous amount of wisdom, which you will always find him willing to dispense if you are the right kind and not trying to impress the world with your superior knowledge.

Both as a matter of courtesy and as a good business proposition be sure to call on the American consular officer whom you will always find at the port. He is in touch with the local merchants, is generally well informed as to market conditions and can give you many practical suggestions. He also has a line on the financial standing of most dealers throughout his territory.

Be sure that your order blanks are printed in triplicate and in Spanish for all countries except Brazil where the language is Portuguese. Ample space should be provided under the captions “Terms”; “How Packed”; “How Invoiced”; “How Shipped.” When possible, I have always insisted on the buyer signing the order and filling in with his own handwriting the spaces referred to. There can be no cause for refusal to accept the goods, if you have complied with the written conditions of the merchant. Very naturally when the order has been signed the merchant should have a copy, another sent to the house, while you retain the third one for your personal files and for future reference.

If possible always carry your samples in one or more cases. Clothes should never be packed with them, but in separate trunks. Now and then you will find officious and over energetic customs officials. Treat them with courtesy, even if they irritate you. Remember that they can make you endless trouble and that they may understand any caustic remarks you may venture to make in English. As a rule, however, these officials are very considerate. If you are selling shoes, it is wise to bring only one sample of each pair. If you carry a line of silverware, have each sample sawed in half. This will at once remove suspicion from you as far as the customs are concerned.

If you are to travel the West Indies, Central America and the northern countries of South America, including Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, light clothes should be relied upon. Remember too that in the highlands and mountainous districts of these countries it is often cool, especially at night, and a light overcoat is therefore advisable. In the highlands of Peru, Bolivia and Chile, heavy clothes are always worn. The climate of Southern Chile, Argentine, Uruguay and Paraguay is much like our middle States, excepting that the seasons are reversed, their winter corresponding to our summer and vice versa. A trunk packed for a complete trip for all of Latin America should therefore include both summer and winter clothing.

It is wise to pay much attention to the style and nature of your correspondence. American business men for years have been concentrating and condensing their thoughts—saying in a few words the same thing that formerly were expressed in pages. The Latin American has not yet practiced this conservative method of expressing himself and as a result his correspondence is voluminous and he indulges in word paintings that are picturesque and unique but not practical. If you are not as excessive in this respect as he is, the chances are, unless he knows you exceedingly well, that he will construe your letters as brusque and far from courteous. His letters will be filled with the sentimental phrases of past ages. This is his idea of politeness and should be your guide in addressing him. You cannot be too verbose in your communications. He comes from a race noted for its grandiloquent declamations and this typical characteristic, this desire to figuratively gild refined gold, add a perfume to the violet and a whiteness to the lily, means much to him. It is one of his ways of estimating your educational worth and of calibrating your standing as a gentleman. I know of no better exemplification of this than a comparison between the flowery way Latin American letters are terminated and our own. It is more personal, more deferential and more impressive to sign yourself, “Your attentive and secure servant who kisses your hand,” than briefly and harshly, “Yours very truly,” yet the former method is the one in which practically all letters close coming from these sunny lands.

Avenida Central, Rio de Janeiro
]

Bills, catalogues, price-lists, in a word all “literature” should be in the language of the country for obvious reasons and in having these translated be sure to employ only experienced and able translators. Nothing paves the way for so much ridicule as poorly expressed and badly produced business documents, for the keen eye of the Latin notes errors with great precision. Efficiently produced and artistically printed materials of this nature impress one in these lands and help materially in giving you and your firm a high standing in the minds of the native merchants, while poorly got up pamphlets and the like open his flood gates of criticism and prejudice both against you and your goods. All weights and measurements should be in the metric system.

Be sure always to bear in mind that first-class mail to Latin America, excepting Panama, Mexico, Cuba and Porto Rico, cost five cents an ounce or fraction thereof and three cents for each additional ounce or fraction thereof; all printed matter, one cent for each two ounces or fraction thereof. Be careful therefore to put full postage on all correspondence, otherwise your mail will be delayed and its recipient subjected to a series of fines for your sin in short postage which will have the effect of hurting your cause. Mistakes of this kind are unwarranted and you should caution the house and the one in charge of the mail to put proper postage on letters. Latin American merchants always look upon letters short-posted as a shrewd Yankee plan to make them pay part of the expenses of your establishment. From their point of view this is not far from right either, for they are never guilty of this fault so very prevalent among Americans.

If you have no fixed address instruct your correspondents to send all mail in care of the consul of the United States of America, at each port where you intend stopping. Remember that consuls are to be found only at seaports. To address a letter Care of the Consul for the United States of America, Bogota, Colombia, would practically mean that you would never get the letter, for the reasons that these officials are found for example in Colombia, at Barranquilla, Savanilla, Santa Marta, and along the seaboard. It is unwise to send mail in care of the General Delivery. Later on after you have been over the territory and established friendly relations with some dealer or merchant, mail may be sent in his care.

Passports are unnecessary in Latin America.

Funds should be carried in the form of Letters of Credit. It is wise to take one of these in Dollars and Cents and the other in Pounds Sterling, as there will be many opportunities to use one of these advantageously in selling exchange when the other cannot be so employed. This all depends of course on the local demands for foreign exchange, and before buying money, it is wise to ascertain which letter of credit can be used more profitably. The saving which can be made in the course of a long trip in closely watching the price of money and buying when conditions favor you, is worthy of your best attention.

XXIII
CUSTOM-HOUSES AND TARIFFS

No one can fully appreciate what difficulties custom-houses and tariffs can cause until he has had experience with those in Latin America. The custom-house officials deem it their duty to harass, embarrass, annoy and add to the troubles, worries and expenses of the merchant in these lands. They are veritable boulders in the path of business progress. The charges, fees, tariffs, taxes, and the hundred and one incidental and unwarranted expenses which exist in no other custom-houses in the world save in those of Latin America, change from day to day and are susceptible to as many interpretations as there are government employees having any work to do with the goods under consideration. It would be the height of folly to attempt to give tariffs and other custom-house charges in any Latin American country to-day, for by to-morrow fully half of them would be changed, and let me add that the alteration is always in the form of an additional charge and never a reduction. Tariffs are extreme and exorbitant, subject to the whims and financial needs of those in power and liable to complete variation without warning. Customs officials are recruited always from the class of “politicos” hereinbefore discussed. The positions which they fill are the political plums of the land. These men have not the interest of their country, their countrymen or the merchants within their borders at heart. Their desire is to acquire wealth by exploiting those with whom their official duties bring them in contact, and they have reduced this to a perfect science. The doings of Tammany are in the kindergarten class as compared with these exponents of the theory that to the victor belongs the spoils. The schemes designed and resorted to by these modern inquisitors are almost beyond belief, and could only emanate from the brains of those whose ancestors received their schooling in the days when the “_auto da fe_” was common and Torquemada reigned supreme. Let me illustrate by a few custom-house rulings taken at random from different Latin American ports.

In a certain Central American country, clinical thermometers are admitted duty free, according to the government tariff schedule. Laboring under this belief a local druggist ordered one hundred. Imagine his surprise when the customs collector charged him the duty assessed on cut glass decanters, classing the thermometers as “etched glass containers.” Their contents—mercury—was classed as an explosive at a prohibitive rate and for “trying to evade the customs” a fine of $500.00 was added, or instead of getting the goods in, without charges, the importer was obliged to pay $642.50 or go to jail.

In a shipment of pickles, because the invoice failed to state whether they were put up in vinegar or mustard, a fine of $100.00 was collected.

On a box of candy weighing five pounds, sent as a present, the nature of the ingredients of each separate piece of candy was not indicated, and a fine of $80.00 imposed and obtained.

The bar of a famous ex-prize-fighter has been for years in a Latin American custom house because the importer never could raise the money to pay the arbitrary fine exacted. Brass pays a high duty according to the schedule of the country to which this bar was shipped, because cartridges can be made from it, although there is not an ammunition factory in the entire land. In the decorations of the wooden pillars at the end of the bar, there were one or two strips of brass about two inches wide. The whole bar was assessed as of this metal and a duty and fine amounting to several thousand dollars imposed, which caused the American who bought it and who had intended to open a café in one of its cities, to get out of the place on the first ship, leaving the bar as a souvenir.

An iron bed, with four hollow brass balls as ornaments on the end posts met with the same treatment in the same custom-house, paying a duty of $200.00.

Theatrical appliances are free everywhere, especially if the property of a traveling troupe. Despite this fact and a positive statement to this effect in the tariff regulations, I knew one large Latin American country, wherein a _carousel_, or “flying-horse” outfit, was refused admission unless the owner paid the duty charged on live stock, each wooden horse being assessed at the rate of $25.00, which is the tariff on breeding stallions.

Thefts by minor employees of the custom-house are only too common. As a rule these men are poorly paid and add to their scanty income by appropriating whatever comes within their reach. I have known of cases of soap, provisions, perfumes, shoes and the like to be entirely confiscated in this manner. There is absolutely no redress. Very often the higher employees are implicated in these nefarious practices. In one of the largest and most progressive of Latin American cities, all the foreign and native merchants had been receiving cases short of their invoiced contents. Complaints to the authorities did not remedy matters. Finally the thieves became bolder and the thefts more extensive, many merchants being offered their own goods for sale at prices less than they originally cost abroad. Concerted diplomatic pressure was brought to bear, and an investigation promised. The day before the official hearing, the entire block of custom houses involved was burnt, a strange coincidence being that the four car tracks in front thereof, were occupied with loaded freight cars so that the fire engines could not get near enough to stop the conflagration. All records were thus destroyed and nothing could be done, the loss, involving millions of dollars, falling as usual on the foreign merchant.

Pages could be filled with similar data. All of our consular offices are cognizant of these outrages, yet nothing definite has been attempted to stop them. No matter what precautions the exporter takes, or how closely he follows the shipping instructions, his customer can always be victimized by these scheming officials. European nations suffer equally with us and it would seem that the time is ripe for some united action on the part of the great exporting countries to remedy this growing evil, for that it hurts trade cannot be denied.

Not only are there unwarranted and excessive duties charged on imports but on exports as well, and on these exports we as the largest user of the things produced in Latin America pay the bill. These conditions should be attended to at once, and it should be the business of our State Department to adjust them properly.

On hides, coffee, rubber and sugar, which are the leading exports from these countries, the United States charges no duty, or a merely nominal one. The remarkable feature of this trade is that every Latin American country imposes on all of these articles heavy export charges, which according to their own laws are unconstitutional, and we pay the bills, at the same time allowing them to impose exorbitant duties, outrageous port charges, and illegitimate fines on our exports to them. It may be argued that in the end the cost is finally borne by them, but the fact nevertheless remains that there is much work here to be done by our government to overcome these conditions for the benefit of all parties involved. It is decidedly unfair for a country to collect revenues both ways, namely, on its exports to us and on our exports to it.

The importer is the one who bears the brunt of these burdens. He is continually paying bribes or fines which are of course added to the cost of the goods. Failure on his part to “come across” means delays, loss of goods, higher port charges and incalculable annoyances. One of the great objections to this system of robbery aside from its basic principle of error is that one shipment does not serve as a means for calculating a price on the next one. A new custom-house official (and custom-house officials are changed in these lands as often as a chameleon changes color) may have come into office between shipments requiring a higher standard of fines and bribes to placate. This obviously hurts the sale of any article and makes the merchant hesitate to renew orders. Both importers and exporters have preferred to be harassed, fearing that their failure to comply with these unwarranted and illegal demands would result in the exclusion of their goods from the country, a condition which has often been imposed. Concerted action on the part of all nations to stop this blackmail would meet with the support of the merchants and importers of these lands, and the sooner some step in this direction is taken the better.

Under the condition of affairs now existing, and the long-continued attitude of our government toward all of Latin America, it seems as if there is no hope for our people or merchants and that we must submit uncomplainingly to these iniquities. There can be no doubt but that the existence of such a state of affairs has done much to retard the healthy growth of trade relations between all of these countries and the rest of the world. Latin-American merchants are absolutely powerless to remedy the situation by themselves. Attempts to improve must come from the outside and be presented through diplomatic channels and most emphatically insisted upon. A determined effort on the part of this government would do much to bring about a change and would be a most potent factor in extending our trade relations in these lands.

It may be argued that despite the system of fines, bribes and graft which are so intimately associated with the Latin American custom-houses the lands are prosperous and their merchants thriving, but the fact cannot be disputed that the practice is decidedly wrong and reflects materially on the integrity and dignity of the nation permitting it and positively hampers the legitimate growth of trade.

XXIV
TRADE MARKS

The registration of your trade mark should be attended to as soon as possible if it is your intention to enter the Latin American field with the article which you manufacture. In many of these countries the laxity of the laws governing this important commercial protection work great hardship on legitimately established enterprises. I regret to state that in nearly every one of these lands, it is legally permissible for anyone to register any trade mark on fulfilling certain simple conditions and the payment of a small fee. The result is that a class of men without scruples are continually on the lookout for articles which are being well advertised in this country, knowing the probabilities are that sooner or later there will be a demand for them throughout the world and especially in the place wherein they reside. Magazines and periodicals of all classes are watched with care and as soon as extensive publicity campaigns are launched in the United States or Europe, the chances are that the trade name of the article being exploited will be simultaneously registered by a native in many Latin American Patent Offices. The next step in the technique of these rogues is to wait until some shipment of the goods in question arrives, a fact easily ascertained by noting the shipping news from the States and reading the invoices and the names of consignees, data which is eagerly sought after and published with great detail by all the papers of the port. An injunction is then immediately obtained and the entire shipment is either prohibited from landing or held in the custom house pending wearying and tiresome legal complications, with the result that the quasi owner of the trade-mark in question is always victorious and the shipment either excluded from the country in toto or awarded to the unlawful owner of the brand, in lieu of court costs and legal fees. In the latter event they are then sold, and the money derived therefrom goes of course to the pirates who had the foresight to register the name. These men often wait for years before accomplishing their purpose and with the idea of ultimately making money from their venture have been known to renew repeatedly the trade-mark, when it expired owing to legal limitations.

Of course on attaching a shipment of goods bearing one of these stolen and registered trade-marks, the native owner always offers to sell out his interest in the same, invariably asking a price absurdly excessive, particularly so when one stops to consider that he is asked to pay a sum for the right to use his own name. Knowing that he holds the whip hand in the controversy, and that you must meet his terms and conditions, if you wish to do business in the country, and further that he has you at a decided disadvantage in many ways, the situation which develops is trying in the extreme. Then follows a period of conferences, time-wasting interviews during which much patience must be exhibited until ultimately practically the original sum of money asked must be paid. This has been the general experience of almost every one who has been so unfortunate as to be confronted by such a situation.

Good business judgment therefore dictates that when you register your trade-mark in the United States, you should also protect yourself by registering it in the principal countries of Latin America. The easiest way to do this is through your patent attorney or legal adviser. If however you have failed to take this precaution, the first duty of your representative on arriving in each of the countries in question should be the registration of your trade name in the proper department of the government.

In order to give this his personal attention he should have a power of attorney authorizing him to act in this capacity. This paper may be prepared by your attorney, and should be in Spanish for all countries excepting Brazil, where the language is Portuguese. This document should be signed with the firm name by the individual having the right to do so and in the case of corporations by the proper officer, and the corporate seal attached. The signature should then be sworn to before a notary public, whose name and seal should be certified to by the Secretary of State for the State wherein the firm or corporation does business or is chartered. The notarial oath and the certificate of the Secretary of State may be in English. These papers should then be sent to the Secretary of State of the United States at Washington, D. C., who will in turn certify to the fact that the signature of the Secretary of State for the State in question is correct and they should then be forwarded to the Ambassador or Minister or proper representative of the Latin American country, wherein it is desired to register the power of attorney, who will in turn certify to the signature of the Secretary of State of the United States. Armed with this much verified and sealed document, your representative is then in a position to sign your name to the application for the trade mark on his arrival, and to conduct any further business before the local government arising therefrom. A separate legal document of this nature is required for each country in which you propose to protect your trade name.

In case your mark is not registered prior to the departure of your representative for Latin America, it is wise to pursue the course above outlined and have him take the matter up personally. It often happens that by the exercise of judgment and through acquaintances which will be made, or the prestige of the local attorney whom your agent will retain, many objections which might seem unsurmountable can be easily overcome by the man on the ground. Oftentimes too, the mark can be altered in word or design, so as to evade one already registered without in any manner affecting your rights.

When one stops to consider that much over 80 per cent. of the population of these countries are unable to either read or write, and that they are therefore forced to recognize an article by some distinguishing sign or character, the great value of an easily discernible, prominent and effective trade-mark becomes obvious. As a matter of fact the Indians who make up the greater portion of the purchasing public of these countries know goods only by brands and ask the storekeeper for them by their distinguishing names.

Another feature to be most seriously considered in selecting a name for your article in Latin America is that the Spanish alphabet contains no “W.” This letter is formed, when it is necessary to use a word employing it, by combining two V’s,—thus VV. Even to the educated native this letter is unpronounceable. It is therefore quite obvious that no word containing it should ever be used for distinguishing any brand. Such a trade mark, for instance, as “White Wings” instead of attracting custom, would act otherwise, owing to the extreme sensitiveness of the native in fearing criticism in pronouncing the words.

Once your trade mark is established, no matter how crude it may be, never change it. I know of a firm in Baltimore who formerly did an enormous business in lard with Brazil. The cans which they used for export purposes were a gaudy blue color and decorated with a pig of elephantine proportions. For economic reasons they decided to use plain tin cans, stamping the porker in relief thereon, but preserving his pachyderm proportions. The result was a package equally as good, as far as shipping purposes were concerned, with a saving of about two cents on each one. As a consequence of the alteration the merchant was absolutely unable to sell the goods shipped in the new container, and when later on the manufacturers tried to regain the field which they lost, by sending their former tins, the natives were sure that they were being deceived and refused to buy these goods also. Competitors who had eagerly sought this market took advantage of the situation and the Maryland house was completely shut out of the territory and absolutely lost their business.