The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-09-11

Francisco. passes through the Straits of
ShimonosiH and enters the China sea
with goods and passengers for Port Ar
thur, Shanghai, Hongkong and many
other points along the whole length or
the China coast But this ship cannot
distribute these goods to-, all Of these
points; that belongs to the coasting trade
Directly across the sea from the straits
Is Shanghai, but the halbor is shallow
| The Yangtse river brings down vast
quantities of mud, which has filled up the
mouth Of the river and the sea for fifty
| miles around, so that deep-draft vessels
cannot approach that part of the coast,
and medium-draft vessels can only go
up to Shanghai at high tide. Then the
ships from America, instead of going
| west across the sea to Shanghai, turn
| southwest from the straits across the
China sea and go down the China coast
for six or seven hundred miles and un-
load their cargoeS at Hongkong, near
the south end of China Three-fourths
OF these cargoeS are then carried back
northwest along the coast and the route
Tor seven or eight hundred miles Is the
same, or nearly the same, as that over
which the cargo was taken to Hongkong.''
The objection which will at once rise
to the lips is that we are not in China
in search Of territory or ports or spheres
of influence; that to carry out Judge
Canty's idea would be to give the lie to
all our professions of freedom from all
! thought of greed or conquest in our rela-
tons with the people of China. Yet such a
view is without any real foundation and
is mere weak sentimentality If in rep
aration for the wrong done the citizens Of
this nation in China we ask of the Chit
nese to establish free port which will
be as convenient for US as Hong Kong
is for England, or Fou Chaou is, or will
be, for Germany, or Port Arthur for Rus
STA, our request by no means involves any
undue exercise of national prerogative.
it does not represent an effort to estab-
lish territorial sway in any sense in which
that term is understood through the
claims or pretensions of other govern
ments toward China.
The trading ports of other nations have
long existed asong the Chinese coast.
China herself can, without the surrender
of spark of national self-respect or a
shred of national interest, grant such a
concession to the United States It need
carry no more significance with reference
to sovereign rights than the concession Of
coaling station. The establishment OF
such free port viii be good thing for
the internal commerce OF China, and will
tend to promote the construction of rail-
road communication into the interior.
Located within a reasonable distance of
the mouth of the Yangtse river it would
lend added national value to that splendid
waterway, and be conducive in the high
est measure to the promotion of the line
of commercial policy which is understood
to be involved in the doctrine of the
open door.
The state department will doubtless
give the idea, which Judge Canty sets
forth so convincingly, the gravest consid-
GRAFTON and will urge such a concession
on the Chinese imperial authorities.
Standing, as we do, on the threshold Of
the withdrawal of our troops from China,
without reference to the interests or
wishes of the other powers, save so far
as those wishes or interests involve the
peace and security of the foreign born res
idents Of China, such a suggestion from
the United States cannot be misunder-
stood, and must be accepted as in line
with the avowed policy Of this nation
toward China from the outset