414 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May 1, 1914. 



Panama makes a small spot on the map of the world, but 

 the world is big and the world is going to Panama. The 

 republic, little as it seems, is more than half as large as all 

 New England. There are millions of acres of fertile land, 

 most of it untouched, or scarcely touched by man. But the 

 marvelous growth of the tropical plants is not more rapid 

 than will be the transformation of those acres into gardens, 







mm ^^^^'hu^-^ 



I'i'f X 



Courtesy of Puck, New York. 



The Awakening of Rip Van Winkle Uncle Sam. 



with the world for a market. Yesterday Panama was rocks, 

 swamp and tropic forest. Tomorrow it will be city and gar- 

 dens. Those who doubt it are the same men who said that 

 Brooklyn bridge never could be made to pay. The canal 

 zone will be an arcade, a fair, a mart for the world's goods, 

 a meeting ground as well as a passage way for the merchants 

 and manufacturers of every land. 



Let our business men make no mistake about this matter. 

 If they establish agencies in Panama with full lines of samples 

 they will gain customers in Norway and Kamschatka, as well 

 as in Panama and Costa Rica. The cost may well be met 

 by the local trade, and there will be profit from the beginning 

 for those who manage wisely and are early on the ground. 



Panama is nearer to New York than is Salt Lake City, both 

 in miles and in cost of transportation. The familiar excuses 

 for sloth on the part of our business men are absolutely lack- 

 ing. Order is maintained by the little republic and guaran- 

 teed by the United States. The money system is identical 

 with our own. The sanitation, in charge of the United States 

 government, is the best in the world. Health conditions are 

 better than in any city of the United States. Banking facili- 

 ties, good now, will soon be identical with those of the 

 United States, through the establishment of American branch 

 banks, provided for in the new currency law. The postage 

 rate from the United States is the same as that within our 

 own territory. Panama is at the beginning of a "boom," the 

 greatest that the world has ever seen or ever will see. It is 

 an event unique in the history of the world and one which 

 the physical conformation of our planet decrees shall remain 

 such. It is the beginning of an era, not transient but en- 

 during while the world shall endure. 



New York is more than three thousand miles nearer 

 Panama than the average of the European ports from which 

 sailings for the canal will be made. Yet the European mer- 

 chants are preparing to take the Panama trade and the 

 Americans are letting them do it. The reports of the activity 

 of the former and the inactivity of the latter are too per- 

 sistent and too precise to doubt. More than that, the Ameri- 

 cans are actually turning away trade which is offered them, 

 through a provincial insistence in following their own accus- 

 tomed methods of business. In Panama, as in the rest' of 

 Spanish America, and, indeed, the rest of the world, business 



is based on a system of long-time credits, and there is no use 

 expecting a merchant who sells on credit to pay cash for his 

 goods, especially when othe;-s are ready to supply him with 

 the credit. The wisdom of extending this needed credit — with 

 due regard for ordinarj' prudence — is obvious. An agent 

 on the ground need have little difficulty in knowing to whom 

 he may give credit. 



Fortunately, the new currency law makes it possible for 

 the American merchant to be more liberal in the matter of 

 credits than has been the case in the past. Our system of 

 narrow and rigid credits has been largely the result of our 

 inelastic currency system. But the new law, which provides 

 for bank note issues based on sound commercial paper, re- 

 moves the dread of a panic from the business man who, in 

 the past, has dignified his timidity with the name of con- 

 servatism. It is the opinion of the leading financial authori- 



Copyright by Underwood & Underwood. 



First Boat Passing Through Gatun Locks. 



ties of the country that there never will be another panic. 

 "Nor is there any reason," said one of them in discussing the 

 measure, "why a good business man with a sound business, 

 should ever again be forced into bankruptcy." 



The business man who has assets can now borrow money 

 and be free to conduct his business on a more liberal scale 

 than before, both in the matter of volume and of credits. 

 Thus is removed the last "lion in the path" of the American 

 manufacturer who would add to his profits by foreign sales. 

 Panama oflfers him opportunity for his first world venture. 

 Any kind of goods can be sold there that can be sold in New 

 Orleans. If he has the intelligence to produce good wares, 

 the same intelligence will sell them. Is he a lineal descen- 



