l, 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 relati