The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1891-03-28
DAILY

many natural advantages that only
foresight, enterprise and public
spirit are required to enable US to
maintain the long start in the lead
We have made. 1t is unfortunate
that We have no coal in our imme-
diate neighborhood, and, because
of that fact, IL is hardly likely that
certain important branches of manu-
featuring will ever take deep root
here. The cities around Puget
Sound will ever have an enormous
advantage over us in that, as we'll
as in some other particulars. The
coal, iron and lumber of the North
should make that the shipbuilding
and manufacturing center of the
Pacific. But San Franctsco's ad-
mirable position on the map of the
world ought to give her an assured
future as the commercial entrepot
for this ocean. But will it? Elk
perienced men of the world, ac-
quainted with great cities, and with
the methods by which commercial
supremacy is maintained, are not
just as sure OF what San Francisvo's
future is going to be as some of US
are, with whom tho wish is father
to the thought. Perhaps it would
be we'll if we listened OCCASION
ally to little adverse cri
ticism, and calmly investigated 1t
for all it might prove to be worth.
A German merchant. for many
years connected with the China
| trade, recently said, in passing
through this city, that it was
doomed to slow progress and to
loss of rank as a commercial center.
Upon being pressed for reasons for
the faith that was in him, he said
a few things that were exaggerat-
ed, and not few that were exceed
ingly dlsquieting. He said, among
other things, that San Francisco
has no large or available back
country to depend upon. All the
country east of Salt Lake City
was tributary, be said, to Chicago,
whilst west of the City of the
Saints there was little but alkali
plains and sterile mountains. 1t
was true, he admitted, that there
was valuable territory to both the
north and south of US, but the rail-
road had made those regions rivals
of, and not feeders to our trade.
In regard to our foreign com.
merce he said that was now wit
Messing its best days. In every
direction there was q loss in sight.
The completion of the Nicaragua
canal would cut us off from the
trade of all the Americas lying south
of US, as wei. as from that of Aus
tralia, New Zealand and the South
Pacific Islands. In China and japan
we should soon be almost unknown
commercially. Canadian Pacific
enterprise, he declared, would put
US to shame. The new steamers
from Vancouver to Yokohama and
Hongkong, as we'll as those by way
of Hawaii to Brisbane and Sydney,
would surpass in speed, comfort
and cheapness any vessels ever seen
in these waters, and even our own
people would 60 north to take pas
sage on them. He said that in the
matter of building and operating
sea-going steamers we could not
compete with either the Germans
or the British. Furthermore, be
declared that San Fruncsco's mer-
chants did not, as rule, put them
selves in line to win foreign COM
merce. The system of credits upon
which the worlds commercial trans
actions are based, he said, was prac-
ticed here to so limited an extent
as to render it next to imposs' Bile
for foreign merchants to do bust
ness at this port in anything save
wheat and -four. Though the
Southern California boom was over
done for time, matters there will
come out all right, because, as the
unsurpassed and unsurpassable or
chard of the United States, that
region has a basis for a certain
kind of prosperity that cannot be
disturbed.
Northern California may produce
citrus fruits, but cannot produce
them so abundantly or so cheuply as
Southern California. San Pedro and
San Diego are good enough ports for
all that region. The area from the
terminus of the Canadian Pacific,
along both shores of the great lakes.
and thence along the canals to the
Atlantic, is to constitute the future
back bone OF the industries and COM
merce of the North American Con.
tinent, and Canada and the United
States will find q complete union
indispensable. Such at any rate,
are the views vf a travelled and ex-
perienced merchant familiar with
this coast and countries of the
Pacific generally. rs. F. News