South America;

              18 HASKINS & SELLS March
South America
Notes on a recent trip by R. C. REIK, of the firm
AS the economic demands of the world
compel the searching out and develop­ment
of new fields for the use of capital, so
must public accountants follow and be
available to serve business, first, with the
"shock troops" of capital in the investiga­tion
of investment possibilities, and later,
in safeguarding the employment of capital
and in verifying the accounting for its use.
The extent and continued growth of the
practice of our firm requires our presence
(either through our own established offices
or through the representation of and affilia­tion
with other public accounting organiza­tions
of world-wide reputation), not only
in South America but practically in every
country on the globe. In the fall of 1928
the firm considered that the time had ar­rived
when we should become better ac­quainted
by first hand knowledge and
information with the development of cer­tain
of the South American countries.
Hence, my visit to Brazil, Uruguay, Ar­gentina,
and Chile, with port calls at
Barbados and Trinidad in the West Indies,
covering the period of approximately three
months from October 27, 1928, to January
23, 1929.
At the mere suggestion of a trip to South
America, involving days of passage through
the equatorial region, one naturally thinks
of a number of handicaps. But life is
replete with compensations, and, in spite
of its "ups and downs," travel in the tropics
(on land as well as sea) is not necessarily
a hardship. Travel facilities between the
Americas, North and South, are very good
and are being constantly greatly improved,
sailing schedules are ample, and the
steamer accommodations are more com­fortable
than might be expected, al­though
facilities for railroad travel on land
are not as extensive as we are accustomed
to find at home. Nevertheless, to the ex­tent
to which rail facilities are available,
and that covers a great many of the most
important points, the service does not
suffer from the lack of modern and com­fortable
equipment.
If a trip is prescribed for business or
pleasure purposes, especially during the
Northern winter season, let us say from the
snow and ice-bound region of Niagara to
the warm sunshine and the glorious moon­light
of the tropics, can one say that the
"medicine" should be a subject for com­plaint?
Some there were who considered
me lucky to have the opportunity of
making this trip, and they and others con­sidered
me luckier still to have safely re­turned,
and numerous inquirers have asked
if I carry a rabbit's foot for luck. Ad­mittedly,
I was fortunate in my travels to
have missed by one trip being a passenger
on an ill-fated vessel which sank during
my voyage south; to have crossed the
Andes Mountains westward by train on the
last trip immediately before and returned
eastward, on the first trip immediately
after a serious washout and landslide which
caused a suspension of all rail transporta­tion
on that line for nearly one week; and
not to have suffered any physical injury
nor to have entirely succumbed to fright
during a series of earthquake shocks in
Chile, in which I was an unwilling partici­pant.
I am not particularly reliant upon
tokens of good luck and do not carry a
rabbit's foot, because, for one reason, I
cannot overlook the fact that at one time
such a talisman must have belonged to an
animal which had four of them, and cer­tainly
it did not bring him any good luck.
Whatever the element of luck or fortune,
the trip will remain a never-to-be-forgotten
event.
The lesson in geography itself was almost
worth the trip. With apologies to Ripley,
but in true "Believe it or not" style, how
many of us know that the distance is