The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1890-03-22
DIFFERENT POLICY.
Two Examples from South America of
How Shipping May BE Built Up.

wv ~ o~ss ~
How Shipping May lie Built Up.
There is another United States in
which the men who make laws pursue a
policy for the building up of domestic
shipping entirely different from that
pursued by us.
This is the United States of Colombia,
in South America, of which the 18TH
mus of Panama forms a part. This is a
country in which vast forests of the
choicest timber abound. and this timber
varies from the tropical palm to the
hardy Alpine types. There are also vast
mineral resources, such as copper, lead
and iron, and the precious metals are
abundant, too.
Although the United States of Colon
bia raises nearly all of it's revenue
through tariff duties, still its law max
ers do not go to the length of refusing to
let the citizens of that country buy their
ships abroad and enter them for registry
as Colombian vessels. They have not
yet learned that way of building up
home enterprises.
Accordingly we hear of a Pittsburg
firm which is building two light draught
stern wheel steamers for use on Colon
bian rivers.
We do not learn that there are any
wise Colombian statesmen who would
like to refuse entry to these vessels.
Evidently the peculiar type of states
manship which prevails with US has few
imitators in this backward South Amer
lean state, and the example of our own
country as the leading American nation
has not been properly presented t. these
old Spanish fogies of the tropics.
How is it that these men are so dull Of
perception as not to see that the true and
only way TO develop Colombian ship
building is to shut out these Pittsburg
river steamers? The Cauca and the
Magdalena rivers of Colombia-are they
not better than all the rivers of Pennsyl-
vania?
AT the same time another dispatch
reaches us from Chill, which states that
the government of that country will
shortly take steps to reduce materially
the duties on raw materials in order to
encourage CHILEAN manufacturing en-
terprises.
Those persons seem to make a great
mistake who assert that the prestige of
the United States will make it from this
time forth the model of all our southern
sister republics.
On the other hand, it seems clear that
the South American delegates to the
Pan-.American congress did not come up
here to learn political wisdom from us.
How little the Chilians are disposed to
follow u example as the leading nation
is further illustrated by an occurrence
which happened some years ago. A
commission was sent from this country
to South America to effect reciprocity
treaties with the various nations of that
continent. When the commission came
to Chill they had a hearing with the
president Of the republic.
But what did they accomplish?
The Chilian president politely told the
commissioners some things which must
have struck them as founded on very
queer and eve heretical principles of
political economy.
|. This is what he said:
st is out Of no want of respect for the
United States, but it is my settled belief
that all treaties are needless. There can
be no control by any convention Of the
laws of trade. Men will buy and sell
where it is most to their advantage, and
this cannot be aided or materially in
fluenced by national compacts. Chill
opens all her coasts to the vessels Of any
nation, the United States included, and
in turn the Chilian flag ought to have &C.
cess to the ports Of the United States on
the same terms"
The commission accomplished nothing,
and reported that ''of course it was not
worth while to dwell upon this avowal.'