The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-04-19

which are now paid to foreign laborers
ana the vessels which our own ship
WrlghtS constructed would give employ
ment to American sailors and save the
enormous sums which our merchants are
now paying to European companies for
the transportation of American commod-
tiles
The portals of the Orient will not sud-
denly be thrown open. AS the gates
slowly swing ajar, the great mercantile
nations of the West will throng the en-
trance. Americans will have no monop-
oily oteAsiatic trade. The competition for
the commerce of the far East will be in
tense and incessant. Our European ri
walls will avail themselves of every aid
which careful frugality and applied sci
ence can afford If our countrymen
would be successful they must organize
victory. In every branch of production
they must practice the economics which
have so effectively contributed to the en-
our foreign trade largely depends upon
the lnltlal savings of our productive in
dustries. No detail of growth or manu-
tacture is too insignificant for conSidera-
ton. Every Improvement in the methods
or tllage in choice of seeds, in farm
tools and machinery, in processes and in
VentlonS for manufacturing, in the con-
structon of better roads for leSSening
the expense of primary transportation
from field and mill to rail and river, in
shortening the length and increasing the
efficiency of railroads, and in facilities
for cheapening the cost of expectation,
would materially promote the expansion
of American commerce.
OF all the agencies for the extension
of our Oriental traffic, the Nicaragua
canal is the most important. The argu-
mentS in its favor are supremey con-
elusive. Assured of its utility as means
of national defense and commercial ex-
panSIon,- the American people are impa-
tIent OF congressional delays. In view of
the fact that the total wealth of the
United States is now. more than SCI, ,000,-
OOQ,O0 the heSitancy of congress to incur
a debt of $3.50 OOO,O0J for a work that will
10 no. 1nYNsa
sources is simply preposterous. One of
the United States canal commissioners
lately said that this shipway would an
nuaily save IN time, treightS, wages, fuel
and insurance a sum larger than it's orig
inal cost. Interests of transcendent i'm
portance urge our Southern states to in
SlSt upon an early completion of this wa
terWay. This channel opened the eXpor-
tation to the Orient of cotton fiber and
cloth would soon develop to enormous
proportions. Every consideration of self
interest prompts the South to hasten the
construction of this great work. For the
naval protection of our shores, for facili-
tating the traffic Of the Pacific coast with
our Eastern states and Europe for the
development and control of Oriental
trade. the Nicaragua canal will be an
efficient and invaluable factor AS every
efits all of the states should unitedly de-
mand the speedy completion of this inter-
ocean ship canal.
LAKES TO GULF.
Mr. Lyman E. Cooley, Of Chicago, spoke
about The Lakes and Gulf Waterway
He said in part:
The idea of a waterway from the great
lakes TO the gulf of Mexico is very old
The ordinance of Virginia, of 1887, for
the government of the Northwest terri
tory, now included in the states of Illi-
nois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and a
part of Ohio, declared the tributaries of
the st. Lawrence and Mississippi and the
portageS connecting the same to be for
ever free to all the citizens of the United
states. Various waterways of the Old
fashioned and now obsolete type were
built or projected through this territory
before railways had developed theE func-
tlons as a system of transportation, and
been abandoned, while others are still in
use.
THE railway development is now so far
advanced that we can say, with probable
truth, that the small waterway is DOOM
ed, likewise the movement by water over
short rouceS. In other words the func-
ton of the future waterway is to carry
in large quantity over long routes There
need be no fear that a waterway of large
capacity, available for a regular and safe
service, will fail to hold its own for there
is smaller margin for Improvement in
railway service than in water transporta-
ton.
1.-THE waterway has other functions
than mere competition with railways and
reduction Of freight rates. Nothing can
take the place of the railway in gather
ing up and in distributing and in it's de-
tail relation to modern civilization At
the same time 1T Is too expensive a serV-
ant for the fullest development of all our
resources. In this fullest DEVELOPMENT
which wise waterway policy will per-
nit, the railway gains through the larger
growth OF hlgh-grade traffic. 1t is a
case where the monopoly of a partial de-