DE LIMA ON EXPORT SITUATION

"For the college trained man with perseverance and ability, the South American trade offers opportunities for advancement and broadening commercial experience unequalled in any other branch of business," was the advice given by Mr. E.A. de Lima, president of the Battery Park National Bank of New York, in a recent interview, Mr. de Lima, who has been serving as the chairman of the United States Sugar Board, is known on Wall Street as a leader in the movement to establish firmer commercial relations with the South American countries.

"No other business and few professions offer as broad a commercial education as the exporting business. For the successful exporter must be familiar not only with the mechanism of international trade, but also with the industries whose goods he exports and with the general financial situation. He who has served an apprenticeship with an exporting house will find that he has had a training which will make him an asset to any business.

Thorough Training Required.

"But, in spite of its many real advantages, the exporting business has a glamor about it which deceives the inexperienced. Far too many people think of it as an easy road to success. The undergraduate who contemplates entering it should be undeceived.

"In the first place, the exporting business is a highly technical one, requiring a long and arduous training in more or less mechanical ground-work. It is not exaggerating to say that it requires as thorough a training as medicine or law.

"But, unlike medicine or law, this training must be gained in the offices. A medical school can teach anatomy because the student can practice on a human body, but a business school cannot teach the mechanism of foreign exchange because it cannot actually ship goods. The college graduate entering the exporting business will find that his education will help only in so far as it has developed his ability; has taught him to think clearly and work effectively.

"For this reason he must be prepared to start at the bottom and realize that advancement, until he has mastered his trade, will be slow.

Future in our Hands.

"As for the future of the South American trade, that is an open question. At present, of course, we have a fairly firm hold on it. If Europe does not soon recover herself financially our supremacy in the South will be unquestioned, provided only that we can give South America the goods she wants. If, on the other hand, Europe regains her Industrial strength, the question will be whether we can compete with Europe. Personally, I believe that we can hold a continually increasing share of the South American trade whether or not Europe re-enters the field."

When asked if he considered that the dollar would supplant the pound sterling as a standard of exchange in South America, Mr. de Lima replied: "The dollar exchange can be firmly established in South America in two ways: first, by establishing American banks in South America; second, by passing Federal Reserve laws allowing the Federal Reserve banks to rediscount South American commercial paper. At present a movement for realizing both these conditions is well under way."