30 SEPTEMBER 1916, Page 19

The Future of South America. By Roger W. Babson. (Duckworth

sad Co. 7s. 6d. net.)—This book is written by a shrewd American business man for the benefit of American merchants and manufacturers, who apparently know much less about South America than we do. His remarks on the energy of America's trade competitors in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, and on the apathy of his own countrymen, have a familiar ring, though in this case it is the English merchant as well as the German who is held up as a model, and not as the melancholy failure our pessimists believe him to be. He declares that " before we can succeed like the English in either investing or trading, we must get the respect of these people for our Government." "Our people," a Brazilian told him, " are afraid to cheat an Englishman or a German, but

they have no such fear with you ' Americans.' " What South America chiefly needs, in Mr. Babson's view, is a strong and industrious middle class.