The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-02

ed States and China amounts to one
seventh of the entire trade of the en-
pire, being SO per cent greater than that
between China and Germany, and is
second only to that of Great Britain.
A score of years ago. and more. the
forecast of shrewd, far-seeing business
men in this country indicated an early
and constantly increasing demand by
China for our cotton goods. Already
these predictions are being verified.
Cotton goods to the value of $7,4S6, 900
were taken from this country by China
last year, or almost one-half of our en-
tire exports of this class during that
period, the sum total of which amount
ed to $17,7S1 ,000 The drillings and
sheetingS manufactured in the New
England mills are preferred by the
Manchurians especially, because of
their weight. These have, for the most
part, been shipped from New York
through the Suez canal, though more
recently, as has heretofore been men
toned by The G o e, some very
large shipments have gone overland TO
San Francisco, and especially to Puget
sound. and thence by the Pacific route.
China took, in 1896, $4,000, 900 gallons
of our oil, as against 2S,000,000 gallons
from Russia, which country is the
principal competitor of the United
States in this respect. The shipments
from here are in cans, and are made
from New York through the Suez ca
nal. The Russian oil is transported in
tank steamers.
The spirit of Western enterprise
which is rapidly taking possession of
the Chinese indicates, also, an early
and increasingly large demand for our
iron and steel products. 1t is unques-
tionably true that railroad construc-
ton, at which only initial attempts
have hitherto been made in that coun-
try, is on the eve Of rapid extension,
and that a large increase of contracts
for steel rails. locomotives and railroad
equipment and material is certain
to result. Already American flour is
growing in favor in China, wherever
introduced, and the expectation of this
product is increasing in volume year
by year. Certainly, by reason of it's
direct ocean communication between
the ports of the Pacific coast and those
of Asia, the United States nation, with
its enormous resources Of raw mate
rial, its manufacturing appliances and
skill, and it's superb transcontinental
railway systems, should, Of right, COM
mand with the opening of the new CEN
tury its just proportion of this ex-
banding and desirable trade.
The aggregate bank clearings ere
legitimately looked to to indicate the
condition of business. They represent
only payments made by means of
checks and drafts, and they, in turn,
represent either cash deposits or cred
its with collaterals. AS their volume
increases or diminishes, as it shows in
the clearing house statements, so the
volume of trade, the buying and SELL
ing and exchanging rises and falls
1t is significant of the improved condi-
ton Of trade that the bank clearings
for May are heavier than in any pre-
vious May since 1890. 1t should strike
the man who holds to the quantitative
theory of money with force enough
to SKATER his faith, this fact that the
ciearlngs Of the banks of the seventy
seven cities of the United States rep
resented in the clearing house asso-
citation aggregated $3.50, O0O, 900 in May.
That is to say that over $4,000, 00O, 900
of credit paper carried that amount Of
exchanges. It is one of the inexplicable
phases of mentality that minds capable
OF grasping ordinary economies, like
the self-binder, cannot grasp the econ
omy of our banking system.
Quite as important in its bearings
upon the war as is the news from San
tiago is the brief statement of the
financial condition Of the Spanish
treasury and of the Bank Of Spain.
The government is paying the interest
coupons on Spanish and Cuban bonds
in notes, the supply even of silver be-
ing exhausted. The run on the Bank
of Spain by holders of it's notes. anx-
ious to get silver for paper betokens
a loss of confidence that will grow into
panic. should the bank suspend silver
payments. The latest accessible state
ment of the resources and liabilities of
the bank. that of April, gives it a gold
stock of $46,S69, 1852. of silver S52,14.54S
and Of notes, $24S. 551,621
Aren't the Chicago girls rather hard
on the boys? A dapper young bicyclst
| down there the other day requested a
very pretty girl to give him a kiss. She
screamed and he was assessed S. And
yet the request was made politely and
might have been declined with or with
out thanks without cost to either