Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, February 01, 1903, Image 26
How American Goods Are Flooding the Netherlands ! DUTCH GIRLS LIKE THE3 AMERICAN 8EWINQ MACHINES SCENE IN THE SCHOOL, OF SEW ING AT ALKMAAR, HOI, LAND. (t'opyrlKht. 1903. by Frank Q. Carpenter.) 1OTTERDAM, Jan. 21. (Special Cor I reponlence of The Bee.) I lUDuca mjr toe on me American Invasion the moment I landed In Rotterdam. The obstruction was a equare box marked: Organ. Frnm MerMen. Cnnnectlcut. XT. fl. A. C. Keltnem Oroote MaRazlJnen van Planoa. Kalveratraat, Amaterdam. . A little further on were barrela ot ma chine oil from New York, and next to this a lot ot American aewlng machines in crates. Out in the river Maas, anchored to a floating buoy, were great fteamera un loading Minneapolis flour Into two large barges to be sent up the Rhino, and all along the Doompjes were American goods tf various kinds. I took a carriage and drove ror aeveial miles up the wharves, crossing the bridges to I hp NoordereUand and onto the left bank of (he Maas. We went by warehouse lifter warehouse, and everywhere I saw more or lesa stuff from the United States. ; Ou the Holland-American quay there vraa an acre or so ot cotton bales from Qalrea ton awaiting transhipment tor toa Dutch cotton mills. Nearby was a yard filled with resin barrela from Savannah which gave forth a amell like a canning factory, which stuck In my nostrils until drlvon out by the coffee warehouses where the rich smelling beans cf Java and Sumatra were btlng loaded on a ship for New York. At one place I stopped my caxriaga and photographed a wagon load of Standard Oil barrels, and at another I took a snap shot of a gang of Dutch emigrants about to board a ship for Nev York; I aw car goes ot American lumber, buckets and boxes of American meata, wagon loads of lard and tallow and all sorts of crates holding American machinery. One Item waa a cargo of Chicago mowing machines being loaded on barges for the Interior ot north ern Europe, and another was bargo after barge of American cottonseed oil which passed through under one of the draw bridge as I waited to croas. At the same time I saw a score of ocean steamers loading for Asia, Africa and the Dutch East Indlea and rode past miles and miles of river aud canal craft. Aa I went on I could aee something of the enormous business which the Dutch hae with the rest of the world. They are thu little giants of commercial Europe. They do not number as many as three tlmea the population of Chicago, but they have twlcv as much foreign trade aa - the 120,000,000 Russians, three times as much aa the Span lards or Italians and twice as much aa the whole South American continent. Holland standi sixth In the point of business done among the commercial nattona ot the world, and about one-tenth ot Its trade Is with the United States. It makes exchanges to the extent of more than $1,000,000,000 a year, and it annually buya more than $100,000,000 worth ot gooda from us. Let us stop a moment and think what this means. This little country has in round numbers just about 6,000,000 people, cr 1.000,000 families, but it buys $100,000,000 worth ot Uncle Sam's goods every year. Thla means that on the average every family buya $100 worth annually and thla notwithstanding its salea to us will not average more than $11 or $15 per family. Of course, lui'ch ot the goods are bought to sell again, and some go to the Dutch East Indies, which are eighty tlmea as large as Holland itself, but the trade la there all the same, and the business !s so big that it will pay the most careful nurs ug and the most enthusiastic pushlug. The 8outh American continent la less Im portant to us than Holland. Our . trade with the Chinese brings in nothing like as much as our trade with the Dutch, and In its possibilities it is worth as much as the business of any of the countrlea ot Europe with the exception of England, Germany and France and that undeveloped empire, Russia. Just now Is the best time to Increase this 1 L3T A " a trade. The Dutchmen do not like the English. They can't get over the troubles of their South African cousins, the Boers, and other things being equal, they will give the United States the preference every time. There are hundreds of articles which we make that ought to be sold here, and by studying the wanta of the people end drum ming the trade there can be an enormous Increase. But first let me tell you what our busi ness now consists of. I have before me the Dutch reports from the United Statea for the first half ot the year 1900. They are a little old, but the trade is practically the same today. I will give you some ot the Items. They consist ot cotton, cottonseed oil, lard, tallow, margarine, meat and to bacco, as well as a large variety ot othel articles. The cotton they bought amounted to 20, 000,000 pounds, equal to more than 3,000,006 pounds of cotton per month. This went to the Dutch mills and a large part ot It was made Into clothes for Java, Sumatra and different parts of Africa. The cottonseed oil weighed Just twice aa much as the cotton Itself, and thereby hangs a tale. These Dutch are among the chief artificial butter makers of tbe world. They bought 43,000,000 pounds of margarine of us during that six months, but at the same time they used this forty-odd million-pounds of cottonseed oil to make other margarine and low-grade butter, for use not only in Holland, but In England and other parts ot Europe. There la one factory here which makea over 3,000,000 pounds ot such butter every month. A Frenchman invented tbe process ot mak ing this butter, but the Dutch have the biggest factories and they 1o tbe bulk of the world's business slong this line. They make alao cow butter for export, ao much, Indeed, that Holland has been called tbe dairy farm of London. Our biggeat Dutch export in point ot weight Is American corn. In this six months it amounted to almost 100,000,000 pounda per month and brought In several millions of dollars. What do you suppose It waa used forT To feed the Holatein cat tle, to furnish butter for London? No, the grass her is good and It makea the sweet est of milk. For cornbread for the people? No, the Dutch don't eat maize, though they take vast quantltlea ot our second grade flour and like it. What, then? I can easily ahow you if you will come with me to Schiedam, a little way out from Rot terdam. At that place are the great dis tilleries which make the Holland gin or schnapps. There are 200 of them, and their business is to grind up American corn and reduce It to alcohol, which mixed in a cer tain way with the juice of the juniper berry forms gin. Holland gin Is considered the best, and the Dutch think It Is the best drink of the world. They consume vast quantities of It and It warms them body and soul. It Is used not only here, but throughout the Dutch East Indies, where the hotels give you free gin cocktails be fore every meal and where the people drink gin almost every hour of the day. A large part of what Holland sells to t s li gin, alcohol and wlnea. She aends us Java coffee and something like 2,000.000 pounds of spices every year, all of which comes from her colonies In the East Indies. Rotterdam Is by far the best place for pushing our trade. It la, with the excep tion of Hamburg, the best distributing point on the coast of northern Europe, and It has fewer trade restrictions than Ham burg. The city is about alxteen miles back from the sea, built upon plies on both banks of the Maas. The plies are driven as much aa fifty feet Into tbe soli and upon them have bo.n constructed miles ot stone quays, enormous warehouses and a city ot about 350,000 people. The town controls all pub lic Improvements, and it la spending vast sums to Increase its shipping facilities rnd trade. If I remember correctly tbe cost of deepening the river Maas. so that the big- - I t: n ? mTffiT AMERICAN SKYSCRAPER gest ocean steamships could come right into the city, waa more than $16,000,000. This work, however, hi.s made Rotterdam au perlor to Amsterdam as a port, and it now ranks second among the ports of con tinental Europe, and U aurpassed by none in Its safety and In Ha conveniences for handling gooda. I have spoken of Its miles of stone qua) a. It has also shipyards and floating dry docka and every means of repairing and taking care of shipping. It has mooring buoys In the Maas, so that the vessels can unload Into the bargee In midstream, and its qusys are ao fitted with cranes that all sorts ot freight can be rapidly moved. At present there are seventy-flve ocean lines which call regularly at Rotterdam, and the river and canal craft which annually enter this port number 125,000. The river Is al ways free from Ice, and business goes on all the year round. In my ride around the wharves I was surprised at the number ot ships loading for and unloading from the United States. Our trsdo Is very Important to Holland. Of all its tonnage more than 26 per cent comes from our country, and the only rcuntry which surpasses the United States In this la Great Britain, which has about 76 per cent of the total tonnage, but some of this consists of American goods which come to Holland via England. There are more than 400 ahtps leaving Rotterdam every year for the United Statea, or more than one every day. There are thirteen regular ateamshlp lines, which do business between the two countries. The Holland-American line la the great est. It haa a passenger line to New York and freight steamers for Newport News. 5 '" - ' to, r f 1 J Li WAGON LOAD OF STANDARD - afqj A iruf Hit ; I' 1 1 6 IN ROTTERDAM. The passenger ships make the journey from Rotterdam In eight or ten daya, while the freight ht earners take from nine to twenty daya. This line Is making money and It has for several years paid dividends of 10 per cent aud upward. Outside ot the Holland-American line the chief steamship companies which deal with the United Statea are freighters, the most of the vessels going to the southern statea. There are tank steamers belonging to the German-American Petroleum com pany and the American Petroleum company which ply regularly between Ne York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Rotterdam, and there are tramp steamers which cairy oil. The Neptune line has one or more steamers a week to Baltimore. The Coa mopolltan and the Kevstone lines make regular shipments to Philadelphia, and the Johnson Blue Cross line and North Ameri can Transport line do a buainess between here and Norfolk and Newport News. Then there Is the Charleaton Transport line with Irregular sailings, the Tcxaa Trans port and the Terminal Transport, with steamers to New Orleans and Galveston, and the Gulf Stream line, which sails bi weekly to the same ports. Barnard & Co. have ateamers from Savannah to Rot terdam, and the Cuban line goes fro-n Rot terdam or Antwerp to New Orleans every three weeks. There is alao a line from Holland to Boston, r-lth steamers eve"y ten days and other linea to Philadelphia and New York. So you aee that tbe Dutch American trade keepa the Gulf stream siz zling tbe greater part of the year. I have lettera from Chicago to the Hol land representstlves of Armour Co aud A, V: f c f T 4 OIL BARRELS. Swift and Company, and I asked my porter at my hotel where to find them. He took me to the corner and pointed to . a big white building facing the river at the end of tbe Boompjes. "That," said he, "la the Wltte Huls. It la the only American build ing In Holland and Is the headquarters of the chief American firms." 1 crossed several bridges and, strolling down to It, found It even ao. The building is on the American plan, although It was erected by a Belgian. It is made of bricks faced with white rorcelain tiles. The Dutch call It a sky-scraper and talk of the dangerous height, although It has only ten stories. It la, I am told, the only ten-story bul.dlng in Europe; It is a giant in Rotter dam, although in New York it would ba but a baby. It la perfectly plumb, notwith standing 900 trees were driven down into the eand to make lta foundation. The av erage building of Rotterdam Is of from three to five stories, and many bullatuQ Buu iiiui ou inai pane 01 ins city are apparently drunk. The American house has electric elevators worked by little Dutch boya dressed lu white smocks. It was by them that I went from story to etory calling on aome of our largest American agents. I find that the meat men here are selling vast quantifies of our meat and lard not only to Holland, -but to all tbe countrlea along the Rhine! and that the American Cereal company U pushing Its goods Into this part of Europe. It haa Its offices In the American building, and Its advertlsementa are everywhere. In deed, the Americans are far better adver tisers than the Europeans and you aee "Kwaker Oats," American typewriters, ko daks and California fruits everywhere. I find a great many American sewing ma chines used In Holland. They are acattered over the continent, and are considered far superior to any made in Europe. One r two of our firms are pushing their foreign busi ness more than any other, and especially the Singer company, which has its adver tisements everywhere and branch houses In all the cities of Eng!and and the conti nent. In fact, I found a store here ou the Hoogstraat the Broadway of Rotterdam which had photographa ot some of the sew ing schools of Holland, In which the little Dutch girls are working away on American machines. One of these pictures Is of a school at Alkmaar, one of the oldest towns of Holland. Not tar from this shop are hardware storea, with a great variety of American gooda. Including Philadelphia lawn mow ers and Michigan pltchforka, and in the music store. Just over the way, I saw win dowa filled with the marchea of Sousa printed with the American flag on the cover. They are made by a Rotterdam Arm and sell in sets at 40 centa a copy. The American shoe does not seem to b walking into Holland aa rapidly aa could be desired. The climate is so wet that thicker soles than oura are needed. Never theless, it Is no worse than England, an.j our shoes will sell if properly push? There Is one store in Rotterdam with a bi sign above it advertising American foot wear, and another store, which was in tended for selling American shoes. Is vacant. The Dutch merchant opened his place on contracts which he had with Americans, leasing one of the best places and planning to make our shoes a specialty. Hla gooda, owing to the carelessness of the American exporters, failed to come on time, and the result was that he compromised his lease and gave up the business. Indeed, the Americana have a bad reputa tion in Europe as exporters and traders. We make the best goods, but we don't know how to sell them. Such trade aa we have is because our gooda are so good, and not because of our business ability in selling or care In filling orders. Take for Instance an order which a sta tionery dealer here sent to New York and had filled at a loss. The man hut a shop right next to the Wltte Huls. and I dropped (Continued on Seventh Page.)