The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-02-05


against us on the ocean is tremendous.
commonly quoted at 5000, 900, 600 per year,
but in reality reaching much more for
midable figures, for it reaches into trade
prices and home resources.
For look you: Flour. at $3.50 per bar
rel at Minneapolis. brings $3.50 at Glas-
cow or Liverpool, pays IS cents per bar
rel freight. 6 to 10 cents commission
or middleman's profits. and sells in Bos-
ton at $3.50 to 81. Thirty-five cents per
barrel Is, therefore, one-tenth Of the to-
tai value of the stuff shipped, or about
the same burden imposed upon a bushei
of wheat from Fargo to Duluth or Min
neapolis by the railways. Flour, Of
course. is q bulky product, and pays
good prices for transportation. but its
makers are large operators and good
f1nanciers, and secure much lower rates
than can be had on some other lines of
export. Upon that basis, then, one-tenth
OF the total value of all our foreign trade
goes into the pockets Of vessel owners,
and with foreign trade of over $1,000,
100000 per year, SITE 100000 Of which is
carried by foreigners. we are paying a
tithe that may be ground out of peo-
pie by religious duty or enthusiasm, but
which no sane farmer would voluntarily
pay over to his neighbor for the pleasure
of it. AS it is with flour, so 1t is said
70 he with hfpUalaS tynaurjtnrc OF
bridges, watches, and what-not, that
our manufacturers are selling in Europe
all going as surplus al a loss, the
freights going to Europeans-while the
Europeans are selling their goods at a
profit the world over, and paying the
| freights to themselves We are selling
bulky products at a losing figure, while
Europe is selling her concentrated goods
-cottons, woolens, raw Silks chemicals
| tin plates-which pay only a small pro-
portionate freight, relative to cost Or
value Ga yard of silk worth 81 paying
perhaps not more than a mill per yard
to cross the ocean)-and paying that
freight to themselves, as stockholders in
their own ship companies.
It was regarded as an extraordinary
enterprise some years ago when the Min
neapolis millers built the 500 road and
the line of steel vessels to run from
Gladstone on Lake Michigan; but that Is
common sense over in England; the ship
owner there having such intimate asso-
citation with the factory man that their
interests intertwine at the same head
quarters Office in London, and their an
nual reports of dividends go to the same
board Of directors. with a sea-dog thrown
in for practical direction. One-tenth of
the value of the goods sold is paid to
the foreign vessel owner, and the ships
master and factors all work in the inter
est OF the board of governors in London.
| That is the condition Of our trade with
foreign nations. And SC, 900 900 worth Of
South American India rubber came to US
by way of England last year, the car
! goes out having been British goods in
British vessels. with British masters and
British factors looking for further British
cargoes of steel and cotton goods In
those Spanish markets. And the Ameri-
| can congress haggles over a bounty sys-
TEN on foreign exports that will fill the
holds of American vessels with American
goods and send American vessel masters
and factors to trade into every Asiattc
| port.
That was a fine thrust of Cecil Rhodes,
| just prior to the South African war, that
| We Americans should look to South
America for our future trade But it
| will be understood that we have suf-
| ticiently disposed of the South American
properly performed our whole duty to
| the new island possessions. For we shall
have sugar and coffee and tobacco ga
| lore, and our coastwise vessels engaged
| In trade between Baltimore and Puerto
| Rico, U. S. A, will find occasional dull
! opportunities to engage in South Ameri-
can trips under engagements to American
! manufacturers. But upon the Pacific
| KEGS should learn the lesson early and
| send concentrated goods to frontier mar
/ kets at good prices and low freights, in
| ships owned at San Francisco or ST.
Paul. There was never a land grant to
| a railroad company that could do more
| for American commerce than a suitable
subsidy to such ships, but it should be
| in the line of freight carried, and not in
| the line of pleasure craft.
To guide such business to the adj
| vantage of home interests requires home
! offices and home boards Of directors
| The hand upon the lever should be in
St. Paul or New York, so that convul-
slons In financial affairs will not be Gre
ated by enormous drafts Of exchange
every few years for hidden balances Of
trade or ocean carriage. Wages and ex-
ports would then have some correlation
! In the minds of the common people, who
would learn to understand that to have
| gold we must buy at a bargain and sell
at a profit abroad as well as at home,
and that unless we have gold and credit
! we must and will have panics destructive
/ OF every Institution, and with the panics
| social discomfort.
COUGHING THE TAXPAYERS.
When the sheriff of Ramsey county re-
ceives list of delinquents who have not