The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-10-07


Until President James ]. Hill, of the
Great Northern railway line, directed the
national attention toward The possibil-
Ties Of the Orient as market for Amer
lean products and as an unrivaled field
for American commerce, the idea seemed
entirely to have escaped the thought of
American public men that the farmers Of
the United States had as direct and ex-
tensiye an interest in the extension of
our foreign shipping commerce as any
class of our population. The address of
Mr.. Alexander r. Smith. of New York
city, delivered before the Farmers Ma
uonal congress, held at Boston, which
we reproduce in these columns, on "The
Farmers Interest in an American-BuiIt
Merchant Marine emphasizes in strik-
ing manner the general policy outlined
by Mr.. Hill in his written and spoken
contributions to this great subject
Were 1T not for the form of commercial
and industrial vassaIage which we have
chosen to bear toward England in the
past, and to the maintenance of which
so large a share of the energies of our
commercial classes are in many direc-
lions devoted, it would be Incompetent
sible to any man how We are content to
go on year after year paying tribute to
the shipbuilders and carriers of England.
Annually, as Mr.. Smith points out, and
as others have pointed out before him,
We ray tribute to England in the snug
sum of S200,00O coo to do our marine freight
carrying for us, not to say a word as to
passenger traffic For this purpose we
last year, in effect transferred to our
British competitors the entire value OF
our cotton crop. One-quarter of our corn
crop, one-third of our entire wheat crop
would hardly suffice to meet this volun-
tary contribution of ours We pride our
selves on the fact that within a few
years We have turned out number of
ships of war which have enabled us to
destroy in an hour the naval prestige of
Spain, and we close our eyes to the fact
that our flag is today, Notwithstanding
the vast latent energies of our people in
that direction and the vast expansion
which is going on of our foreign trade,
a stranger in any and every port of the
world.
For every dollar we pay to our own
shipowners We pay $40 and over to their
foreign competitors. We have known for
years that those who would be our COM
petitors on the high seas if we had any
merchant marine have expended year aft
er year vast sums with which to maintain
their prestige. Until within the past few
years we have not stirred a finger to en-
able US to shake off this terrible burden
on the energies of our commercial classes.
We draw a line of custom houses around
our land-a veritable commercial Chinese
wall - and we pay over to the
foreigners whom we pretend to
shut out from our internal COM
merce the largest proportion of the pro-
ceeds of the taxes we thus levy through
the CQSlOltl LO uses
And the remedy? The remedy we have
had in our hands at all times I'VE
must" as Mr.. Smith says in his address,
"by effective national legislation, put an
end to the policy of taking all Of the
money We collect every year at our Gus
tom houses and turning it over to for
eign shipOwners to pay our freight
charges on our foreign commerce; and
the farmers of the United States have it
in their power, by giving their approval
and lending their advocacy to the up
building of a great American merchant
marine, to not only save vast sums Of
money each year for themselves, but to
course with the rest of the world that
will assure 1t and it's people increased and
increasing prosperity"
Until we have done something substan-
ing on the national destiny by going on
in our present course upbuilding trade
and territorial responsibilities in other
lands for the immediate gain of the ship
owners of other nations
Gen Otis now says he viii treat with
Aguinaldo as q general. This Is a great
concession Otis must be sCme kind of
''corperhead" or traitor But Mr. Nc
kinley, we are told, is seriously thinking
Of sending Admiral Dewey over to Luzon
to arrange for peace. Here is another
concession on the very lines suggested
by what are called "anti-imperialfsts
The backbone Of expansion appears to
have suffered compound fracture.
Chicago, strangely, makes the day of
her greatest woe the date of her greatest
Joys. Chicago holds all it's big events
Oct. 9, on which day in 1871 occurred the
great fire which swept away nearly the
whole Of the business section of the city
After the jackies' smoker had been
pulled off in New York, the tables should
have been cleared off, more chairs
brought III, and a feast spread for the
crowd CT Americans responsible for the
sending of Dewey to Manila.
The Chicago Chronicle has an article
about +ba 1arpoct Geb IN +ba oooou DIT