St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-12

tons were a further recognition
that one nation is more or less de-
pendent upon another and that the
barriers that impede international
exchanges were evils, as yet sup
posed to be unavoidable, but whose
mischief was to be minified as much
as possible. There have been reac-
tons, as in the case of Germany
and Austria, where selfish interests,
seeking abnormal gain, succeeded
for while in re-erecting the old
barriers, but, as we have seen within
the decade, the broader interests
were too imperious to be thus ham,
pered, and commercial treaties have
lowered the barriers that greed and
shortsighted statecraft raised. Then
came the installation of the arbitra-
ton Of the disputes of nations, itself
the most signal evidence of the de-
cadence of the ferocity that sought
causes of war with eagerness, and
of recognition of the fact that
interstate trade had created inter
ests that the nations could not af-
ford to jeopardize or sacrifice. One
hears less now than fifty years ago
of the talk of foreign wars that
would bring advancing prices to our
products, subsistence due to the
growing perception that any tenn
porary gain would be more than Off
set by the reaction that would surely
follow. Each individual is best
served when he and all other pro-
ducers are engaged uninterruptedly
in producing and exchanging, and
the good fortune of one is, in one
way or another, the good fortune
of all.
The persistence Of this idea was
never so clearly shown as in that
most strikingly inconsistent policy
of reciprocity embodied in the Nc
Kinley act. W. D., better known as
pig Iron" Kelly gave voice to the
true spirit and logic of the policy
Of that act when he prayed that
the oceans might be converted into
seas of flame, in order that this
nation might not be impoverished
by buying the products of the peo-
pies Of other nations. The reciproc-
ity features were but a bending to
the force of a commercial current
of thought and interest that is gain
ing strength with the years, and will
not cease flowing until it shall have
swept away every barrier that fool
ish policies have erected athwart
the channels of international trade.
The tendency is shown in the efforts
for an imperial federation of the
British empire, and in Carnegie's
proposition for the unification of the
English-speaking peoples under one
government. Another step, one of
the series that are inevitable, each
one making possible the next. was
the international postal union tina
makes communication possible be
tween the inhabitants of the civil
lied world. Sooner or later this will
be followed by a uniform postage
rate. Already Canada and Mexico
have the same rates as the United
States. Then there is that other.
and, now, indispensable adjunct of
commerce between nations, the
oceanic cables, as yet in the individ-
ualistic stage of development, But
bound to surrender to the inevitable
and become public servants of the
public. There is a logical connec-
ton between the public mail and the
telegraph service that will not for
ever brook the delays and defeats of
legislation caused by powerful pri-
vate interests. Commerce, which
carries with it the interests of every
individual in every nation, demands
the utmost freedom and cheapness
of INSTRUMENTATION, whether be-
tween the citizens of the single state
or those of different states and
nations.
In dim light, that obscures the
ultimate end from present view, the
movement for international none
tary conferences, as yet only seeking
the smaller end of utilizing one of
the ancient money metals, now I'M