The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-23

100000 in 1878 to 1920, 100000 in 1898, and
$S42 100000 for the calendar year 1899. For
almost twenty years our exports OF
manufactures lowered along between
by magic with the discovery of the Min
nesota soft iron Ores flew up to s22S, OOo,-
coo and then to $S42,ooo,OOO.
But wheat and flour and provisions kept
on going to Europe at the old pace AS
if our only salvation had been in keep
ing the mill hands Of Europe from en-
igrating to America and setting up shop
in Georgia or Alabama, where they could
buy our flour and pork at first hands.
And we have permitted all but per
cent of this freight to be carried in for
eign vessels, while in our dealings with
North American countries we have car
ried about 40 per cent of the freights In
our own vessels.
Who can tell to what height the Amer
production, now that he has reached his
sources of supply2 He is the most coura-
geous of all Americans, and knows how to
finance, how to organize, how to handle
men, how to produce craftsmanship; but
he has yet to learn that his best market is
not in Europe, and that he must join
hands with the cotton goods maker, and
search the interiors Of Asia, South Amer
lea and Africa for his most, profitable
markets.
To sell wheat and flour to Europe, at
Minneapolis prices, is to undersell our
selves To enter European markets with
iron and steel and cotton goods Is to
fly in the face Of fortune, to carry Goals
to Newcastle. Let the electric goods man
| and the novelty maker try his hand at
that. The iron and steel man and the
| cotton mill man should turn their minds
to Asia, Africa and South America, where
| they should measure success not by the
amount Of goods they sell, but the snare
| they get away from, or in proportion to
European sales. AS long as we sell to
| Europe, Europe will carry the goods, I'M
| less we substitute at an enormous eX-
pense, as proposed by the Hanna-Payne
| bill. But once shift our vision from adj
miration to hustling, and very moder-
ate subsidy bill, based upon actual
freights carried, will serve to put the bulk
of our ocean freights under the flag OF
| the republic, and the traffic itself will
yield larger returns. Shift our exporta-
lions from flour, wheat, corn and cotton
to petroleum, to iron and steel, to cot
ton sheetings, calicoes. copper goods, rub
| bers and woolens, and subsidize our ships
| according to the tons of goods carried, In
| or out, and we shall soon have a mer-
chant marine that will carry the broom
! of ocean commerce at it's masthead, as
American railways now do in the way OF
| internal commerce. Freights carried
that is the true test of the value of the
vessel to its flag. Has it an agent
| abroad? If it has, is he alive, is he doing
business? Those are the questions that
the subsidy bill should ask of every YES
sci master If he comes in with a cargo
Of tropical fruits or fbers, or rubber.
will he hustle for a cargo Of steel and
! iron or cotton goods out? A cargo OF
wheat? That is too easy. He can get it
without asking. But bridge work, water
pipe, steel rails, farm machinery-per-
haps he may have to lie in port ten
| days or a week waiting to get enough to-
| gether to make a cargo. viii he walt,
| and will he hustle among the factors and
agencies to SECURE such load, or will he
sneak off and try for load Of wheat or
flour for Glasgow in competition with the
English and Norwegian vessels that
swarm in every harbor? These are prac-
teal questions. tests Of any ship subsidy
| bill that seeks to make the ship respon-
sible to the flag.
Wheat and flour cargoes to Europe are
| but a species of prodigality, and should
not be subsidized any more than small
shipments of machinery to Africa by way
Of English subsidized lines from Liver
pool or London. Subsidize the freight car
rier, the barge if necessary, at the same
time that the needs of the navy are
cared for, and let the rich traveller pay
for his own trappings and luxury, an6
the expensive trade Of Europe pay its
own losses.