RECIPROCITY 
363 
try. Within five years I venture to predict 
that as a result of this investment, our trade 
with Panama will have materially increased, 
owing to the fact that agricultural products 
heretofore prevented from reaching the con 
sumer will be able to do so with comparative 
ease, especially in the case of tropical fruits, 
cocoanuts, copra and sugar. 
American bankers have loaned the Argen 
tine Government $15,000,000 in 6 per cent, 
gold notes. The temperament of the public 
as to the attractiveness of the loan may be 
readily estimated when I state that the entire 
amount of securities to cover the indebtedness 
was sold before four o’clock of the day on 
which they were offered. The successful con 
summation of this business—the first ever con 
cluded directly between the Argentine Gov 
ernment and the bankers of this country—will 
serve greatly to strengthen the “entente cor- 
diale” now so rapidly developing between the 
United States and the rest of Latin America. 
Nor is this all. Movements are now on foot 
leading to investments of American capital in