The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-26
THE TRADE WITH JAPAN
WHAT NEW LINE FROM SAN DIEGO
 IS CARRYING ACROSS PICIFIC.

IS CARRYING ACROSS P1CIFIC.
 Wire Shorts, Beer, Flour, Cotton, Beef
 Mill Machinery, Nails, Cartoons, To.
 bacco, Etc.-yViII Bring Back Tea and
 SILK.
 Last winter the Santa Fe railroad
 company established steamship line tC
 Japan, with the eastern terminus at Sar
 Diego. There is an admirable harbol
 there, with plenty of water an easy ap-
 proach and perfect protection. It is sell
 dom that nature has provided everything
 necessary for the accommodation of
 commerce in such a thorough and com
 plete manner, and all that was left for
 the company to do was to erect a com
 modious dock, warehouses and other fa-
 cilities for storing and handling freight
 That has been done in most satisfacto-
 ry manner, and cargoes can now be sent
 between the wharf here and the city of
 Chicago over the same railroad with
 only one handling.
 Three steamers have already sailed
 from San Diego to Japan. The first was
 the Belgian King, which carried seven
 hundred and seventy-slx tons of wire
 shorts from Joliet to Shanghai two hun
 dred and fifty three tons of beer from
 Milwaukee to Hong Kong, fifty tons of flour from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, and 5,917 bales of cotton from Galveston to Yokohama and Kobe.
 The second steamer was the Carlisle City, which had even a more interesting cargo, consisting of three hundred tons of beer from St. Louis to Shanghai, S7S packages of mill machinery from Mill waukee to Hong Kong, 2,100 barrels of beef from Chicago to Nagasaki. 1000 kegs of. nails from Cleveland to Yoko- hama. 1,S10 bales of cotton from Texas to Yokohama, 2.64S bales to Kobe. and 1,200 bales to Shanghai, with three hun dred tons of flour from San Francisco to Hong Kong.
 The third cargo was sent on the Shan tung, and consisted of 2,457 barrels of beer from Milwaukee to Hong Kong, 4,050 kegs of nails from Cleveland to Kobe, fifty boxes of cartoons from Cleve- land to Hong Kong, 155 barrels of beer from Milwaukee to Shanghai, 3,799 bales of cotton from San Antonfo to Kobe and 648 bales to Yokohama.
 The fourth steamer is expected daily, and there is now awaiting shipment in the warehouses at San Diego 9,151 bales of cotton from San Antonio, 175 hogs heads of tobacco from Louisville, TIT tons of nails from Cleveland, 1,500 bar rels of beer from Milwaukee and 300 tons of wire from Joliet. s This makes a total of 10,272 tons of freight delivered here for shipment to China and Japan since January 1 last, and, as will be seen, it is contributed from all parts of the country The other day train of twenty-one freight cars loaded with beer from the Pabst brew cry at Milwaukee came in over the San ia Fe road.
 The chief object of the steamship line. however is to carry flour, cotton and iron to Japan, and bring back tea and silk. A. H. Butler, who has ready made contracts with the cotton manufacturers of Japan to supply them with a certain number of bales of cotton each year for a term of years at price to be regula- ted by the quotations on that staple In the Liverpool market This alone will furnish sufficient freight for the compa- ny to make the steamships profitable.
 Another important object of the pro- jectors is to furnish a market in Japan for the product of the Tepustet iron mine, at San Isidro, fifty miles south of | in Lower California. This mine, which produces a high grade of nfo ho1n tO r of San Francisco, who has offered to make contract to furnish ten thousand tons of ore a month, and samples are now being tested by smelting companies. MT. Butler expects to leave shortly for | Japan, with the reports of the smelters, | In order to complete the contract with the manufacturers of iron at Tokio and | Osaka.
 The Japanese now get thelr iron in Europe or from the Gulf ports of the United States by sailing vessels, but it would be much more convenient and profitable for them if they could make Ise of the enormous deposits in Lower California, which are so situated that title expense is required in transferring he ore from the mine to the ship.
 During the fiscal year ending June 30, S9S, we shipped, mostly from the ports 'n Puget Sound, 212,000 bales of cotton, valued at s7,50O, OO0 to Japan, and this mount would have been largely in- reased had not the transportation facil- ties been disturbed by the war and sev- ral of the steamers engaged in the traf- Ic chartered by the government for transports to Manila.
 Until last year very little cotton was fipped that way. The Japanese manu- acturers got most of their raw material rom Liverpool. It came originally from he United States, but was transshipped { the latter port, and commission was aid to the middlemen in Great Britain ( pr handling it. Largely through the { nergy of James J. Hill, of the Great Torthern railroad, this great trade has l urnishing the Cotton Manufacturers { ssociation of Japan with so many bales ' [ cotton annually for a term of years. { [e brings it from Memphis and other { Mississippi ports via St. Paul and the reat Northern railroad to Seattle and acoma where it is loaded upon the ( hips of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha com Z any, which Is subsidized and largely ' wned by the Japanese government. If cotton can be shipped proftably ( 'om the Gulf states to Japan by way of ] f. Paul and Seattle, there certainly ( 1ght to be greater advantages in send g it by way of the ports of Southern aliforna, and that alone will justify