nce to build up a steady
trade, and prevented other ports in the United States from entering into
serious competition with San Francisco as a distributing point for
Central American coffees. The view taken by Rosseter was as far-sighted
as it was broad. He argued that with the end of the war there would be
no strength in a scattering distribution of Central American coffees by
New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco; and the only promise of
maintenance of the business for the United States would be in
maintaining unity of distribution in one port of the United States,
namely San Francisco.

The first year open to European competition after the war showed that
San Francisco was well able to maintain its lead in Central American
coffees. Today, the mortgages formerly held by European merchants on the
native coffee plantations, and the control thereby of the produce of
these plantations, are in the hands of American merchants; and what is
more, out of general merchandising and importing by merchants of San
Francisco there have developed expert coffee departments in all of the
larger houses. The years of the war brought the product of virtually all
plantations in Central America to the intimate knowledge of these expert
coffee departments; and today the advantage that Europe formerly had--of
knowing exactly what a specific plantation produced--is possessed by
San Francisco merchants.

This is no small advantage when we consider that in Guatemala and Costa
Rica, qualities vary from plantation to plantation, and that often on
adjoining plantations there is from three to five cents a pound
difference in quality, from the standpoint of cup merit.

One can not buy coffee in Central America as in Brazil, as these
countries are not highly organized commercially, and the importers here
are forced to assume the role of the Brazilian _commisario_ and banker.
The crop has to be financed from six to nine months before it is brought
to the port; and the securities covering such advances are at best of
questionable value, on account of political insecurity, and the
ever-threatening earthquakes, and the uncertainty of the elements.
Distribution of the coffee after it has been brought to San Francisco
also involves many difficulties, notwithstanding that the demand is
good. This will be better realized when we consider that the Pacific
coast, from Alaska to Mexico, and eastward as far as the Rocky
Mountains, embraces a population of ab