The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-04-27

those waters. This association has been
active and constant In its endeavors.
was established to gather from the world
over practical information for the ex-
porter. Later on the American Asiatic
association was formed; then the Amer
lean Association of China. Our consuis
We're directed to report monthly the con-
ditions and requirements of the foreign
markets. What has been accomplished?
Last year we imported in round num-
bers s767. 900, 600 of goods, and exported
$l,302. 600, 600 of our products, leaving
balance of over $500; 900 in our favor.
Kingdom. How have we achieved this
success and at the same time paid our
workingmen on the average double the
wages our rivals paid? In part. but not
10 account for our exports of agricultural
products. Hungry people bought our
Wheat. needy manufacturers our cotton,
craving. appetites our tobacco. But the
products of our manufactures were COM
PEELED to meet the fiercest competition to
seek the same markets sought by Eng
this commercial war the advantages
were not all with us. Our coal and iron
were accessible while our rivals sought
them tn ne1h deep e,I. down In the bowels of the
e,iothed, housed and paid than theirs;
did more intelligent work and accom-
pnshed pnSi,s greater eat. results The inventive
superior to theirs. We had another adj
vantage. Transportation was lower with
us that with them-a very important item
IN IN ,,ln the GO cost of the finished product. Our
raiiroads, traversing every portion Of
the country, are today Carrying freights at
an average charge of 7S-100 of a cent
per ton per mile, not one-third what 1t
actualiy cost them in 1865. In 1884, when
our average rate was one cent, the Lon
oon Economist asserted that If the same
Hmerica Ia1e had prevailed in ENGLAND as IN
nave been over 100000. 600 a year
DECREASE IN RATES.
~, Our great stretch Of sea coast. our
most important part in the commercial
drama. On the water freight can be car
ried by steam, on long voyages, for one
cost by rail. Water rates have decrease
ed rapidly the last decade, and the car
riers have been able to make the reduc-
hon. fon by about doubling the capacity Of
caiied for q corresponding Improvement
IN In the depth of our rivers. harbors and
lake channels. And congress fairly well
between Chicago and? Buffalo, 1897, s4l3 a
ton: 1885, Sl.53 ton. Iron ore between
Lake La Superior and Ohio ports 1887, $223;
rior and Ohio ports, 1887, 80 cents; 1898. 4S
cents. - -o''' ~
"A very able writer in one of our recent
reviews we claimed that this reduction of
cll1t1es for loading and d1scharging car
goes enabled US to compete with the
world In iron, steel and their manufac-
lures, and accounted for their increased
importation; that such rates were only
made possible by the increased tonnage
OF ships. and that their operation was
made feasible only by improved rivers
and harbors. Here is surely something
to the credit Of that much and falsely
abused river and harbor bill. Having no
occasion to investigate, few men appre-
c1ate the enormous domestic commerce
carried on our waters. They hear and
correctly, that we have lost our ocean
carrying trade, and forget our lake. river
and coastwise. While in the former we
employ only 600 tonnage; and pay
$5O0,0OO dollars a day to foreign ships to
carry our exports and imports, in the
latter our tonnage of documented and
undocumented vessels exceeds seven mil
lions, is nearly If not quite eight, is great
er than that of Englond, France and Ger
many combined in like trade. = 1t took
last year nearly four millions tonnage to
carry our freights on the Mississippi river
alone. More ships sail the Detroit river
than either Liverpool or London. The
Suez canal, which carries the commerce
Of the world, passed last year $4,000 coo
tonnage, while there was floaeed through
the locks at Sault Ste. Marie 16,500, 900 in
eight months. This fleet moves annual
ly 16S,000,OOO tons of freight and nearly
200, ,000,000 passene ers. This IS a protected
industry, no foreign ships being allowed