The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-04
MIR. M'DONALD's ADDRESS.
Our Foreign Commerce and Its Relation to
Indiana Productive Industries.
manuscript:


Our Foreign Commerce and Its Relation to
Indiana Productive Industries.
Gentlemen of the Democratic Editorial Asso-
citation of Indiana-In responding to the invita-
ton to address you, I have selected as the sub
ject of my remarks "Our commerce with for
eign nations, and its relations to the productive
industries of Indiana" 1t is a subject upon
which volumes might be written without
hausting it. To arrange and classify its most
important facts would require much time and
patient labor. All l can hope to do on this occa-
sion will be to collect together few of its most
striking and instructive features, and present
them as subjects of future investigation and re-
Election. In every age of the world the wealth
and power of nation has been judged more by
the extent and character of its commerce than
by any other standard; and in ancient as well as
i'll modern times those nations that displayed the
most enterprise in commercial pursuits have led
the van III the march Of civilization. OF the an
cient nations, the Phenicians are undoubtedly
entitled to the front rank as com
mercial people. Their landed possessions were
not important consisting of a strip of country
not more than twenty miles wide and 100
miles long lying north OF Palestine, bounded
on the west by the Mediterranean
and on the east by the Lebanon mountains. Its
whole extent did not exceed 1000 square miles,
and was little else than the foothills Of the Leba
non range, with here and there promentory
iutting out into the sea. On two of those prom
ontories were founded two of their chief cities,
Tyre and Sidon. The mountains of Lebanon
furnished them materials for constructing their
ships. Their supplies were drawn from the
island of Cyprus, and soon the then known
world paid tribute to them. Eight hundred
years before the dawn of Christianity they had
reached the zenith of their power. Their colo
MES had been planted on both sides of the Med
~, H., lei 81
most notable of these was the Carthagenian
public on the African coast. Their ships had
taken sOundingS in every bay and inlet of that
sea, and had passed through the Hellespont and
Bosphorus and explored the Black sea. but not
content with the land waters of the Med
iterranean and Black seas, they pressed their
venturous sails through the straits Of Hercules
into the Atlantic ocean. and sailed as far north
ward as the British Isles. Their wise men We're
their pilots, and they are the first people, so fan
as history has informed u.s. who trusted to the
guidance of the stars in traversing the trackless
ocean" These cities became the work
shops as well as the marts for the worlds
commerce, and the raw material brought
from distant lands by their ships was turned
into all manner of merchandise The skill of
their workmen and artisans has given them an
immortality which their monuments erected for
that purpose failed to secure The Prophet
Ezekiel in speaking of Tyre, the chief of the cit
les of PhCenicia, said 'Thy builders have per-
fected thy beauty; they have made all thy ship
boards of fir trees of Senir they have taken
cedars from Lebanon to make thy masts.
Fine linen. with embroidery work, from Egypt,
was that which they spreadest forth to be thy
sails; blue and purple from the isles of Ellahah,
was that which covered thee. The in
habitants of Gideon and Arvad were thy mari
ners thy wise men of Tyre were thy pilots"
The destruction of their cities put an end to
the power of the Phenicians upon the sea as
well as upon the land and no other nation in an
Gent times seems to have come forward to assert
Of tha inf nod NV
them. Much of the skill and some of the arts of
navigation appear to have been lost to the world
in their downfall A few of the Grecian states,
particularly Athens, achieved distinction as mari
time powers; and the Carthagenians inherited
some of the seafaring qualities of the mother
country" and as long as they maintained their
ascendency the sea- baffled all efforts of their
great rival Rome, to destroy them.
In modern times the discovery of America
gave an impetus to commerce unknown to the
world before the happening of that event. Spain,
under whose flag the discovery was made, took
the lead in this new field of adventure England
and France were not slow in claiming share in
the 'new discoveries" and in the end England
took the lions share. Among those European
powers that sought to extend dominions over the
new world there was one that deserves more
than passing notice.
THE ADVENTUROUS NETHERLANDERs,
Long after the discovery of America the
United States of the Netherlands were depend
encies of Spain. But they were bold and lib
orty loving people, and soon revolted from Spain.
Occupying country in the northwest part of the
continent of Europe, fronting on the North sea,
much of which was below its level and inter-
sected by the passes of the Rhine, pierced by in
lets and estuaries, their first labor to rescue
their country from the sea by dykes and drain
it by building canals Then it became necessary
to build ships and boats, as well for inland as
foreign commerce But no sooner had they
achieved their independence of Spain than they
boldly entered the ocean with their ships and
speedily became one of the leading maritime
powers. Their adventurous sails We're in every
ocean and sea, and their colonies were estab-
lished and maintained in every quarter of the
globe. They were the first to explore the
North American coast from Hudson's bay
to the Delaware. They entered New York
bay and took possession of Manhattan
island, established colony upon it, and
founded the city of New Amsterdam, New
York. Their restless enterprise brought them
in sharp competition, and sometimes in conflict
with other maritime nations, In the wars which
followed they proved an oyermatch for their