a conservative disposition to
continue to buy from us.

In the effort it is important to remember that there is much to live
down in criticism of methods of the past. One Latin-American gentleman,
an enthusiast for American commerce, exclaimed to me in despair: "Son
hombres capazes de poner una hacha Collins con vidrios para ventanas,"
which means: "they (the American exporters) are capable of packing a
Collins hatchet with window glass." Others told me how leading firms
always stamped their letters for domestic and not foreign postage. The
office boy simply would not learn geography. Nobody minded paying the
deficit, but through local red tape this seeming trifle sometimes caused
two or even three weeks' delay in the delivery of important letters.

Certain of our strongest firms have been calmly ignoring shipping
directions. What did they care if the packages had to cross the Andes on
mule back, and if mules could only carry packages of a certain size and
weight? What did they care if the duty remission for materials on some
Government contract, or the customs classification of a shipment,
depended on adherence to specific directions? I could multiply examples
of the most amazing casualness and careless disregard, of bad packing,
of ungenerous credit, which have enraged the importer.

A European merchant, many years established in a South American city,
and knowing the community, has been selling pianos in this way: The
manufacturer would quote him a price and deliver the piano, giving him
long credit at an ordinary rate of interest. The merchant would finally
sell the piano on the installment plan, receiving interest at a higher
rate on the deferred payments, the merchant trusting the buyer, the
manufacturer trusting the merchant, both thus making good profits, and
the purchaser being accommodated. This man found the American
manufacturer entirely unwilling to deal in this way.

European houses on the spot, whether independent or financed by large
home houses, give credits for as long, sometimes, as a year. They would
not continue to do so if they lost by doing it. Often this fits the
customs of the local domestic trade. In one country the local retailer
is expected to be paid within eighteen months. Naturally, our exporters'
demand for "cash down on receipt of documents," even when the customer
is well vouched for, does not appeal to him.

He prefers to get long credit from a European house, and pay interest
for