Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-07-25
CALIFORNIA; PERIL.
THE BRITISH ATTACK UPON OUR CoUN-
TRY's COMMERCE.
Eastern Cities Joining With England
in Order to Secure Local
Advantage.
rs. F. Alta California. July Sd. !

S. F. Alta California, July sd.
The Chamber of Commerce meets to-day
to raise the protest of commercial organiza-
ton against the diversion of trade from
San Francisco, either to satisfy the paternal
longings of the Government or to please
the Eastern communities which are boosted
by Canada as her allies in the attempt to
| put our transcontinental railways out of
commission and strike at the trade of San
Francisco. The Boards of Trade and COM
mercial bodies of the New England cities,
and those of Chicago, st. Paul and Mime
apolis, have, scarcely without exception,
taken ground against San Francisco. They
have cheered and encouraged Canada as if
| the Dominion were part of the Union, and
have assumed toward our own Pacific
coast an attitude that would be surely re-
scented If we were foreign country under
our own flag.
There are reasons for this treatment not
connected with any desire to do us harm,
but founded in cowardice Chicago has
| seen in the construction of the 800 I"
route from Minneapolis, by an air line to
| the Sault St. Marys, that she can be
| skipped, notwithstanding her size and pre-
| tentions. The 500" line is one of the
many thorns which the subsidized Cana
dian roads are planting in our commercial
path. Chicago has been hit, and her mer-
chants are covering under the blow. Other
cities, which have declared without shame
| their allegiance to Canada, are simply
selfish, seeking their own present advan-
| tage regardless of the effect upon the coun-
try of which they are political part.
San Francisco must begin the fight if any
is to be made for the commercial position
of this coast and her own standing amongst
the mercantile and financial centers OF the
world. We can realize that many mer-
| chant and banker may say that he has no
interest in the building of road into the
State of Maine by Canadian capital, or in
the invasion of our side of the great lakes
from the same source. But he has an in
terest, whether it is seen or not. 1t is
mistake for a city to sing itself to sleep
with song of geographical position as Sc
! curity for its future.
The world is full of proofs that COM
merce older and better adjusted TO its chan
nels than ours has been diverted and great
cities have been dismantled thereby and
forgotten.
Who hears or thinks of Cortland now {?
| Not half the children in the proper classes
at school know where 10 look for it. But
| for three hundred years Cortland COM
manded the entire trade between Europe
| and the East. The commerce of China and
Asia centred at Astrakan, penetrated Rus
STA by the Nolga, reached the Baltic Sea-
and at the metropolis of Gottlsnd was ex-
| changed for the merchandise of France
| Germany, the Low countries and England
| Thousands of ships and tens of thousands
| of sailors sailed under the commercial flag
| of Cortland. The wealth won in trade by
| her people built cethedrals more sumptu-
Gus than those of modern Europe 1t
walled towns, built fleets and guided with
gold the sashes of the windows Of the
Cortland merchants.
Traders from all over western Europe
| transacted their business there. On that
Baltic island the principles of our admi-
| rally law, as now daily administered in our
Courts, were originated. For nearly four
centuries this commercial supremacy was
updisputed.
Then one DAY Tamerlane, the Tartar Ma
poleon, appeared before Astrakan on the
| Volga with his countless hosts of Asiatics,
and swept that city off the face of the earth,
and then Cortland, 1000 miles away, felt
| the hand of the conqueror fall upon her,
though he never appeared before her walled
cities nor set foot upon that side OF the
| world. Her remote connections had been
cut. Conquests had obliterated her ave.
nnes of transportation. Trade between the
| Orient and Western Europe sought and
| found new channels through the Mediter-
ranean, or around the Cape of Good
Hope, and now Cortland is the
resort of the antiquary. Her quays
| bave rotted, the walls of her me-
tropolis is preached. Her cathedrals shell
ter the owl, and that which seemed a COM
mercial primacy that would defy Time and
accident have vanished and is not.
Venice and Genoa have the same tale to
| tell. Trade is not thing of chance. 1t
may for time be held by situation as to
| sea and land of a commercial point, but as
1t originates at the greater distance in pro-
portion to its value, so it is affected by far
away results.
San Franciscos first admonition came
| when British gunboats steamed up the IRA
waddy TO the conquest of Mandalay, for
| that meant an ultimate land route across
Burmah and China TO Hongkong, thence
by sea to Puget Sound, thence by land
| again TO the tides of the Atlantic 1t was
to utilize for England that splendid coup of
| Disraeli in getting control of the Suez canal.
! When Mandalay fell we warned our mer-
|
| due time promoted the grand scheme of
! English commerce by stupidity forbiddiDg
any difference in the rate per ton per mile
between long and short haul. This COM
| PEELED our transcontinental roads TO sacri-
ice either their through business or their
local business. To give up the local
| business meant immediate bankruptcy.
! To hold on to that and so let the
Canadian link in the English cinch that is
| squeezing the breath out of the wolrd take
the through traffic. would defer insolvency
for awhile and give time for a parley.
Already this rejection of the commercial
| principle which takes cognizsnce of differ
ence between the wholesale and retail trans
action has driven into bankruptcy an
American railway mileage equal 10 line
! across the continent. But in the last an.
nual reports the Canadian roads are able 10
| cheer their stockholders with the ipf5rma-
ton that the loss of income implied by
short crops in the Dominion was more
than made good by their invasion of the
carrying trade of the United States. At
first this invasion seemed to be to the ad-
vantage of such a fixed commercial point
and plant as San Francisco, but now it is
| apparent that the effect is to localize COM
merce at some terminal point in the Do.
minion on Puget Sound. The British
| Board OF Trade whose executive Off
Ger IS Minister in the British Cabi-
net, has no public opinion either TO
educate or consult. 1t considers the inter
ests of the British Empire and acts with
all the promptness which is in the power of
an executive that need make no appeal to
the Legislature. II has ample power and
ample facilities. Its plans are not change
able even by a change in the politics of the
House of Commons, for partizanship in
| Eogland never takes English trade and
transportation within its sweep This
powerful! and Independent executive has
shown Its power TO conjure entire groups OF
| our States into alliance with il, aud to pet
their willing assent to complete, stipend
Gus ,and appalling change in our whole
transportation system between the two
| oceans, to the damage OF our Own CONNER
cial centers and the benefit of those within
the British Empire.
Opposed TO this far-seeing, astute and
patient executive, we have only the far
separated points of commercial organize
/ ton In this country, which can do nothing
without hrs! making an appeal to public
| opinion.
This appeal San Francisco proposes TO
make now. Its impact should be felt.
Whether the remedy lies in repeal of The
! long and short haul clause of the inter
state commerce law, or 10 a treaty. that
shall consider inland transportation. or
! W bpg hn ,,, :