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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 1903)
How Commercial Travelers Should Work Europe r j ' " - . . . . wz'T&ik - ,- -w:-: - - .... .4,te rv ... - SIBERIAN VILUAOa m (Copyright. 1903. by F...k O. Carpenter.) lAM.nl KG. Uermuny, utu it.-vv clal Correspondence of The llee.j Uncle Sam Ix tlte best manufac turer and the poorest salesman on earth. Ha knows how to do busl- mus it homo, but he tags along at the tall of the procession In his buslntss methods abroad. Ho makes treat Mules because his goods uro bettor than any others, but his trade Is conducted in a slovenly manner and It might be Increased a hundredfold. Nevertheless, tt ustonlshes the nations. We are now Helling $1.000,WpC.i'0 worth of goods every year to Kuropo, and our total foreign ale amount to something like $3,000,000 a day. Our profits ore about $1,000,000 a day, anil we might do twice us much and make double the money. What we need Is live men on the road, yo want Slmon-puro Americans, who are educated for the trade. "We should copy the Germans. They send their salesmen abroad to study the languages and coun tries where they are to work. They study the people and make and pack their goods to suit them. I have Just come from Russia. The Ger miina ore doing more businiKS there than any other nation. I met their salesmen on every train and found their commercial agencies In every city. The most of my In terpreting wag done through Germans who spoke Russian. I found that nearly every mun bad a large acquaintance and thut he knew the standing of the different mer chants. Several of them told me they hnd sot aside the Russian trade for their life work, and that they expected to stay with it until they had made their fortunes. Home of these men are also handling American goods, but they always put the German goods first. It Is one word for the United States and two words for Germany, and as a result the American product has to bo by f.ir the better to moke a sale. Indeed there la not a better Held In Kurope than Russia for the Ameriean drummer. The market there Is beyond conception, enormous, lta Imports are close to $l,mi0.000 a day, and they will double within a few yeurs. Russia Is in the Infancy of its de velopment. The wants of the people are like ours, and our goods please them better than any other. They are our friend.", and they would rather deal with Americans than Germans, Knglish or French. Any bright young American with good commercial Instincts can go to Ftus.la, and make a succcs.-iful life business of handling American goods. - He will havo to learn the language and study the market und try to supply it. He might get a chance at the government business, which ulone would give him a respectable Income, and he could build up a trade which will net him a fortune. There Is room fur scores of our young men there, and especially in the Asiatic province. I met a number of American salesmen In Russia. The most of them were handling renpers and mowers, threshers and heavy farm tools. The opening there for such machines is enormous. The HuKslan empire Is the greatest farm upon curth, und it is now a century behind the times. Steam plows, steam threshers and steam engines of all kinds can be sold. There is a big opening for American pumps, wind mills and gasoline engines. Heavy plows are needed, for the country is jiow only scratched, und where deep plowing Is dene there is little danger of a drouth. Our goods are popular und the drummer who peaks Russian will have no trouble in mak ing sales. Another Important field Is Siberia. That country Is bijjKer than all Kurope. und the southern part of it compares with cur wheat lands of the northwest. It is rapidly settling and the openings for American good axe very great. 1 have told of Knoch ST. av i t:-Ki'J,f?t5: .v.-.-r 1 I fa -A , 1 1 r .!. ' r . .11 t urn . . wrzvm iJKf ' ill. Pt i a - w jl 7 mm UK' i:lif ?o .Mm HUNGARIAN FARM SCENH Emory, the Cape Cod boy, who made $l,0"0. OuO in working the terrltoi-- In the pust. He tells me the opportunities for building up a business lit Siberia are enormous. The Ger mans are attempting it and succeeding. They have big houses at Vludivostock, Ir kutsk and other places, und there is one German firm which has eighteen branches Belling everything from a needle to a thresh ing muchine, and from a seidlitz powder to a fcteain engine American inuchlnery Is al ready well known In Siberia. Many of the locomotives on the railroad came from the United States, rome of the biggest bridges were built by Americans and the people, favor American trade. The man who goes there must ttuiy Ger man and Russian. He must makrt his own acquaintances und learn the standing of thu merchants. He should have cata logues and prico lists In the Russian lan guage, using Russian money, weights and measures, and. If possible, he should carry n siock of goods with him, having a ware house or supply point here and there along the Trans-Siberian railroud. I am told ihit goods will bring 25 per cent m re if they can be delivered at the time they are sold. The Siberian Russians like to tee the gooJs btforu they bu them and to carry them away when purchased. Much of the Siberian busine is done upon credit, but the people are sound financially, as a rule, and they puy their notes, not objecting to a good round inter est. At present the demand there is for oar agricultural implements and farm tools. There is also an opening for all kinds of milling and mining muchienry. The gov ernment owns viMt tracts, and Its orders for foreign tools are large. The commer cial traveler will also have a chance to work among the villages, many of which own lands in common, buying their ma chinery at wholesale. In such trades the sales aro made to the head men of the vil lage, and the drummer should be something of a diplomat and a good mixer. During the past year I have been travel ing chiefly in northern Kurope along the trucks of our commercial invasion. I am told thut our talcs are Increasing In south ern Kurope os well, and thut there la a big field there for the American drummer. We are already sending something like $30,000, 000 worth of stuff every year to Austria Hungary. The American reaper and mower is now cutting the wheat along the Danube; our flour rnilling machinery is used In Kuda Vest, the Minneapolis of Kurope; and Vienna Is importing so much American foods that the home manufacturers nre try ing to prevent them coming in. It is the same with American leather and the Amer ican shoe, the mechanics having risen up In arms again?! our footwear. Indeed, no country In Kurope is so opposed to Amer ican products as Austria. Nevertheless, the government has recently placed contracts for American machinery to he used In its public Improvements to the amount of $100, OuO.uuO. I met the other day a man who had Just come from Rarceloiia, Spain. He ays that city has Anvrienn street car., but they have painted out the namns of the Ameri can makers and put Spanish names In their places. He says that Spain is using American goods onder foreign labels, and that the market Is now open to American Importations. Spain has a foreign trade of about $225, 000,000 a year, and a large share of this should come to us. This is especially so, as by the acquirement of tha Philippines and Porto Rico we have become to a cer tain extent Spanish, and are fast acquir ing Spanish npeaking commercial travelers Our drummers who go to Spain should be able to speak the language. They should carry a full line of camples and should ex pect to do their business by talking rather than by letters and cataluguej. Tuo t-pan-lard reads little, but he likes to tulk, and is always ready to look at goods. Theoietic ally the commercial traveler is expected to pay a tax in Spain, but he seldom does so. There is also a good opening in Portu gal, but the drummer who goes there must call on the governor of the first pjrt at which he stops and get a residence permit. This will cost him and If he cstablisnes tlmself for general business he will have to pay a tax of from $150 to $250 per annum. The American drummer will have little trouble in Italy If he speaks French or Italian, or even Spanish. He will find a wideawake country and one that is doing an enormous amount of farming, mining and manufacturing. Italy is three limes as big as Indiana and its population is more than one-third that of the United States. It Is a country of wealth, notwithstanding the many statements that it is poor. Its foreign trade amounts to more thin $00, 000,000 a year, und it buys almost &,CO,OJJ,000 worth of goods annually, one-tenth of its purchases being from the United States. We send Italy farm machinery, farm tools, food products and raw materials in tha shape of cotton and other things. The country has 2,000,000 spindles in its cotton mills, and they turn out a product of $t0, OOn.000 a year. There are 80,000 hands em ployed In these cotton mills. A large busi ness is done in iron and steel and ulso in silk and flour. At present the branches of our trade which are selling most are those dealing in heavy farm machinery. Italy hus some thing like 50,000,000 acres of farms, and al-' though parts of the country, like the plains of Lomburdy, are well cut up by mulberry plantations and irrigating ditches, our hay rakes and reapers and mowers can be used. The McCormlcks, the Deerings and a num ber of other harvester companies havo their agents on the ground and they tfll me their trade is increasing. There is considerable business done in electrical machinery by the General Klectrio company aDd tha WeKtlughouse company. Many of the towns already have electric railroads and electrlo lights, and telephones are being put In al most everywhere There Is an American In Florence who Is making carbide for acetylene gas and there are American Importers in Milan and Genoa. I am told that it would pay well to open American warehouses In both Genoa and Milan. Genoa has direct connection with the United States and It Is to a large ex tent the commercial center of Italy. It has one of the best harbors of the Mediter ranean sea, having spent something like $2O.0u0,OC0 during the present generation on harbor Improvements. This is to be still farther increased by a breakwater which will cost about $6,000,000. I understand that American contractors have offered to un dertake the Job and to accept bonds in pay ment therefor. Milan has something like 500,000 people. It Is the center of trade for the Lombardy plains and is a splendid place for the sals of farming tools and farm machinery. It has many factories and its wholesale houss have connections with every part of Italy. (Continued ou Page Fifteen.)