The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-18
OH. EOREiGN TRADE

The growth of our foreign commerce.
is certainly enormous During the past
twelve months, tt8has passed the two
billion dollar nlarkssand, in so doing, sur
passed the BEST previous record by more
than $500, 600, OCO
The reasons for this increase might be
variously assigned. Did we produce more
and why did We produce more? Was il
due to greater demand for our goods
in the markets of the world and what
caused this demand? Or was it all due
to the supernaI wisdom of the present
administra tion.
No sane, Intelligent man needs to be
told that itsissbeyond the power of any
president or party to veFeate a foreign
demand for our goods The nation that
sells the best goods@a the lowest price
will always hold the first place in the
markets. of the world. In the matter Of
agricultural products, we have always
been an easy winner as we could produce
and sell in this line far cheaper than
any other country. Our production in
this line has not been materially increas-
ed during the past year, neither have our
exports, but what we did export brought
q, considerably better price and in this
manner helped to swell the figures. Our
foreign customers were willing to pay
more for our farm products because they
could afford to. The enormous gold
output and wars of the past few years
have wonderfully stimulated the COM
merce of those countries. In Germany
great manufacturing cities have sprung
up like mushrooms and the rural dis
tricts were denuded of men to fill the
factories and when. the harvest came,
the crops rotted in the fields for want
of men to gather them until the govern
ment detailed whole regiments of soldiers
to assist in the work Hundreds of
thousands of Po,es,* Bohemians and Ital-
ians are annually gushing into the coun-
try, yet for every new factory that starts
up it is almost impossible to secure the
necessary workmen without importing
them directly from Poland or Italy; and
the same is more or less true of all the
countries of Northwestern Europe to
which we are in the habit of exporting
our farm products.
In these countries, of course, the wages
of labor have increased accordingly. AS
a result the manufacturers there were
forced to raise the price of their goods
and thus our manufacturers were en-
abled to compete with, and in some cases
where we have natural advantages on
our side, they were even in position to
underseII the foreign manufacturers This
is especially true in the iron and steel
trade, for the reason that our iron and
coal deposits surpass those of any other
civilized country in quality, quantity and
convenience of location. The effect shows
itself clearly in our iron and steel trade
the exports of which amounted to $121,-
100000 ais
In other lines of manufacture we have
had temporary advantages Thus at one
time our manufacturers almost had a
complete mcn6poly4 of the bicycle trade
in Germany, but as soon as the demand
there were we'll established, the Germans
built bicycle factories of their own and
crowded our make out Of their markets.
During the past season there has been
great demand for American farm
machinery in Germany-Bitherto such
machinery as oself binders and narvesters
was little known there but this year the
great scarcity OF labor in the rural dis
tricts made such machinery an impera-
tive necessity. However we are not like
Iy to maintain whatever market we have
found there il. this lire, for as soon as
a constant demand has. been established
the Germans will build factories and
manufacture themselves whatever they
need.
In general it is well to remember that
the markets OF the world buy of the
manufacturer that offers to sell
his goods at the lowest price. OF