Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-05-16
fo- nowhere else is the community Of mer

for nowhere else is the community Of mer-
chants more stable and solvent, and credits
NAV safely be extended to them. Mr..
Scott declares that the Venezuelan mer-
chant is kindly disposed toward us, and
prefers to trade with us, but we do nothing
whatever to encourage this disposition, for
our manufacturers and shippers appear to
be wholly Indifferent to the tastes of the
people, and disinclined to comply with the
demands of the market, and thus they suf-
fer large and lucrative commerce to fall
into the hands of the Europeans. The
complaint of Consul Scott does not stand
alone; probably three-fourths of our Consu
lar agents abroad have made similar COM
ments during the past five years. With a
very few exceptions, we are not energetic
in pushing our foreign trade; we do not
prepare or pack goods with reference to
distance and markets, and very rarely
adapt our product to the foreign demand
We have had occasion to detail numerous in
stances of this character, as set forth
in the consular reports, but they do not
appear, though the State Department has
widely published the reports, to have had
any marked effect rs yet. in the matter
Of packing, it is complaint from Mexico
TO Greece, and Russia to Chile, that our
people are suicidal in their neglect, but
still bad packing continues. 1t would
really seem that American merchants and
manufacturers are Indifferent to the con-
troll of some of the most profitable foreign
trade. 1t will be remembered that the
French Government sent II. L. Lourdelet
to the Boston Exposition Of Foreign Prod
uct5, and that on his return he made a re-
port in many respects complimentary to us,
but also full OF singing criticisms. That
report we referred to at length at the time,
and especially that part of it in which he
referred to American incompetency to sell
our surplus products in foreign markets.
As Consul Mason, of Marseilles, puts it,
the European merchant says TO us in reply
to the worn story Of our home activity;
Oh. yes. your country. in comparison with the
Old World, is remarkably prosperous. AS long
as your people have new lands and rich virgin
mines to develop, and receive every year q vast
immigration to absorb all that your country can
produce the United States viii continue to pros
per. But there viii be an end OF all this some
time and then will come the rub for which
your Government and your exporters VIII not
be prepared; If your people were only as great
In pushing their goods into the markets OF Asia,
Europe. Africa, and South America, as they are
in making the most perfect manufactured mer-
chaudiSe with the smallest possible expenditure
of tine and labor, the case would be very Serl-
Gus for us over here; but that is a part OF the
business which the Yankees, with their clever
ness, seem incapable of learning. Their navy
and their merchant marine have been allowed
to degenerate into mere wrecks OF what they
once were, and at q time when England, Ger
many. France, and even Italy and Holland, are
strengthening and extending their consular
service and opening direct commercial relations
with ports in which the American flag is never
seen, the United States seem inclined to shut
themselves up within their own frontiers and
forego their proper share in the progress and
growth of the commercial world
The European critic, says Mr.. Mason,
ascribes our short-sighted policy to undue
cagerness for immediate results, an I'M
willingness to build up slowly and secure
~ system which will yield its fruits only
after some little lapse of time. That this
criticism in just, few, if any, thoughtful
Americans will deny. We do have too
much OF self-content. 1t may serve us
very well for the present in this new
country, but it is certain that our children
will live to see the day when we must
either cease producing or manifest greater
energy and concern with regard to our ex-
ports. France vas at one time in pre-
cisely the position We are now content to
occupy, and was unconcerned as to what
transpircd outside her oyn bounds. She
repoeed in the belief Of the superiority of
her products and their capacity to make
their way unaided and create a demand.
But presently the French awoke 10 the
fallacy Of this doctrine, and they were
forced to set about recovering the
trade Germany and other nations had
won away from them, and in
the meantime they suffered from CONNER
cial stagnation in most lines of French
Mr. Mason believes that
when the same energy, perseverance and
foresight which are now displayed in the
of American goods are turned
to the work Of selling them, there will
Gonna .i,a crisis Of c,m,otitioo which En-,
rope will have cause to dread. When
American merchants establish permanent
agencies in the new countries where Ger
many, France and England are now COM
peting for commercial advantages, when
young men are sent to these agencies to
learn the language and study the habits |
and wants of the peopl, when American
goods are made, packed, marked and in
every way adapted to the peculiar notions
and requirements of the people for whose
use they are destined, and when the for
eign service Of the United States is placed |
upon the secure and sustained footing that
has been found most advantageous by other |
nations then it will be seen that the peo-
pie who have created a great nation within
a century are merchants rs well as manu-
facturers and farmers; that they know |
how to sell as we'll as to create. He adds |
with something of eloquent force:
There will then be heard far less than now of |
strikes and crises in American industry, and |
the United States will have taken the high and |
position rs commercial nation TO |
and the energy, enterprise and progressive spirit
Of its people.
TIE rXnr,cr rnD Ephun