The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-17
TIE PAx-sPANIsH CONGRESS.

1t is a fact not generally lnen-
toned much in this country, that
ever since our war with Spain,
our Spanish-American sister repub-
lies have been watching our course
Of action with keen suspicion and
even genuine alarm. They have
lurking idea that We have gone into
the conquest business for good and as
they know only too well that we are
not in the habit of doing things by
halves, they are trembling in their boots,
lest we should Eke a notion to come
down there and knock their little cock
pit and bear pen governments into
smithereens.
\ result of this feeling is the present
pan-Spanish congress at Madrid, to
which the Spanish-American republics
have sent delegates to confer with those
Of Spain. for the purpose of securing
closer relations and possibly even ar
alliance with their mother country The
point of this movement is outspol1enly
directed against the United States and
England from whom they think they
have most to fear, and its first and chief
object is to curtail the trade Of the
United States and England in the Span,
ish-American countries by fostering
their commerce with Spain
A great deal of sentiment has been ex-
pressed on this subject during the SEES
sion of the congress, but whether it wilt
produce any results remains to be seen
Commerce as a rule is a very cold, cal
cuating sort of an affair and absolutely
refuses to be governed by sentiment
Blaine tried to work on the sentiment
plan through the pan-American con-
gross, but the pan-American congress
was practically barren of results Eng
land tried to influence commerce through
sentiment and produced just the opposite
effect of what was intended English
manufacturers viewed with alarm that
Germany was flooding their market with
certain classes Of cheap goods and so
they induced parliament to pass law
that all foreign-made goods sold in Eng
land had to be labeled with the name
Of the country where they were manu-
featured. Their idea was that an Eng
lishman seeing the label MADE in Ger
many on an article would refuse TO
buy it and take the English-made arti-
Gle instead. But it worked just the ether
way. 1t proved to be the biggest and
CPp
that German goods ever got anywhere.
Commerce is not governed by senti-
ment. The rule that governs commerce
is the rule CT the best goods at the low
est price The nation that sells under
this rule viii never lack customers Sen
timent may enter into commerce in so
far that where a man can buy at an
equal advantage from two or more diff
ferent sources, he may let his sentiment
decide the choice-but that is about all
1t would take an excee dinghy strong SEN
timent to make a merchant buy at dis
advantage.
And so, in spite of all the fine
talk and lofty enthusiasm. the
great pan-Spanish congress is a
very DOUBTFUL quantity If Span
ish commerce can meet the com,
petition of other countrtes-good and
well-tlis congress may have a lin
tied effect If not why then il will turn
out as mere fash in the pan a sort
Of sky rocket performance ana nothing
more But this rotten old borough of
Spain has very slender prospects Of com
peting with other nations in the markets
of the wcrld. There is too much polite al