The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-02-28

Commerce: What Is 1t Worth! from the
standpoint of cant and can't. What the
Spanish war has cost the United States
In round millions, and what might hayo
been accomplished with those round mill
lions In the way Of internal improve
ments, he groans out with Jewish &C
cent, going over 1t much as belated anti
slavers groaned at the cost Of the war
Of the rebellion. 1t would have built the
Nicaraguan canal and improved all our
harbors and waterways, he cries. True.
1t would; but five hundred millions was
not an acceptable thing to Spain for her
West Indian possessions until after the
battle of Manila. And five hundred mil
lions could not be listened to by the
Spanish ministry until too late. And II
there had been nothing patriotic about
the Spanish war. upon our part, the pros
pective cutting off of a trade balance
against us of over $150,0Oo,00o per year
for coffee and sugar would have amply
Justified the expenditure.
But the Oriental trade. Mr.. Atkinson
has always and uniformly been an urgent
admirer of the English-of our trade with
Europe He has in no manner fallen
away from that, for he again plumes US
upon our exports of food and fbers to
the United Kingdom and to Western
Europe He is somewhat slowly joyful
oft ho 70 t hof mt Of foreign
exports In 1899 amounting to $f.227, s03, 0SS.
Europe and the United Kingdom alb
sorbed 81, G5S, 1913, 1876, the greater proportion
of which was products Of the soil and
mine unmanufactured goods. He says:
1--WE purchased from them a far less
quantity and value of goods. but we sup
piled them with the crude or partly man
ufactured materials. and with the food
which enabled them to convert our sup
plies into manufactured goods. and TO
export finished products to other parts
of the world. to which they open the
largest markets free of duties on crude
or partly manufactured products
"Free of duties on crude or partly
manufactured goods But upon the fin
ished products each English colony has
it's own little tariff wall. against which
the American and German manufactur-
ers must run in seeking trade with Brit
ish territory. That Is the exact trouble
1t ur to US for admiration. Over 5000, Co.,
600 in exports to the United Kingdom
alone, and over three-fourths of 1t TODD
stuffs and hber-wheat, provisions and
cotton-sold to them at their own prices,
Liverpool quotations, to enable them to
manufacture the fbers into goods to
competition.
Turning to Latin America, Mr.. Atkin-
son finds that $1,000, 900 of people in the
South American continent took but $751;
952, 143 of our products; and then to Asia.
and finds our total sales to So0, 900 900
of people were under 10 cents per head.
or $1,000, 0OO-less than our sales to Cam
ada; ard that our total traffic with all
the Orient and with Africa was only
one-tenth of our trade with the United
Kingdom From these facts he deduces
most discouraging conclusion for the av
erage American looking for Oriental
trade s
But he fails to state that the total for
eign trade of the Orient, including Aus
tra1asia, exceeds that of the United
States, boastful as we are. and that the
bulk of it is In the hands of the English,
Germans, French and Dutch. He even
sees but one side of the Philippine trade.
The Philippines, he says, have always
bought Of us less than half million dol
lars worth per year, while we have pur-
chased from them literally in hemp. sugar
and tobacco. But he says nothing Of their
purchases from Spain and Germany.
amounting frequently to as much as ten
millions per year in manufactured goods
Spanish operatives who were fed upon
our flour and who loomed our cotton into
stuffs fit for the Oriental trade. Euro
pean goods shipped In English. Spanish
or German vessels which on return trips
brought hemp and sugar to San Fran
cisco or New York, upon which we paid
the freights.
eff we only stand and wait. that COM
merce is at our feet says Atkinson, af-
ter reluctantly conceding that Asia, At
RIGA and South America are but at the
threshold of their development by the
steamship and the railway. "Stand and
wait" indeed! What a blind and new
ling kitten OF a nation we should be, to
stand and wait, while the strong arms OF
Western Europe are outstretched for
every advantage of trade and territory.
Go to. Mr.. Atkinson. The measure Of the
Oriental market to us is not what the
United States has heretofore sold to
them, but what they have heretofore
bought from the whole world, plus the
capacity of the United States to hereaf-
ter compete for the trade, and plus that
expansion of the demand for goods which
will be created by the civilization of the
steamship and the railway.
In the case Of the patient at the ST.
Louis insane asylum who was permitted
to wander into the surgical dress
ing room and consume sufficient poison
to kill him, the question arises whether
the patient or some Of the attendants re-
quired treatment at the institution.
Study of literature meets with small
encourag cement in Chicago. Telegraphic