proper shipping facilities and the use of the
Canal or by going to California, the saving in
freight alone should be sufficient to interest
some progressive concern in the handling of
this article direct.
Europe sends its wool buyers to Argentine
and Uruguay. I have attended these markets
and have yet to meet an American buyer rep
resenting any of our woolen cloth manufac
turers. We buy much of our wool from Eu
ropean markets, thereby giving Belgians,
French, English and Germans who have ini
tiative and enterprise a profit on their busi
ness acumen. Is this sensible? It only adds
to what each one of us pays for our clothes.
Ecuador’s chief product is cocoa. It is the
largest grower of this commodity in the world.
The bean is perhaps the richest and most
highly flavored and is in great demand in the
trade. Europe buys 80 per cent, of this article
and although we are the biggest individual
users of chocolate on earth, our merchants pur
chase but 20 per cent, direct. Then England
and Germany, and even little Switzerland,