362 SELLING LATIN AMERICA 
ing, native business men, never the politician. 
Commerce is a great civilizing agency. The 
higher in the scale of civilization a people are, 
the more secure will trade relations with them 
be. The larger and more important countries 
of Latin America have at last begun to realize 
that internal peace means prosperity, that 
prosperity attracts, yes invites capital, even 
from the timid and those whose government 
does not stand behind them in a dignified 
manner. 
As a consequence, despite the unfavorable 
attitude of the United States State Depart 
ment toward foreign investment, and with the 
idea of showing our Latin American friends 
that we are sincerely interested in establishing 
our trade relations with them on a reciprocal 
basis, American capital in large sums is be 
ginning to find its way into this hitherto, for 
us, closed market. Panama has just been 
loaned $3,000,000 American money to be used 
in the construction of railways and roads, 
thereby bringing the producer nearer to the 
markets and the shipping points of the coun