The Saint Paul globe., 1900-05-22

ton production, and have constantly IN
creasing surplus of goods for export.
Europe now takes cotton to the value Of
more than $2O0,COO.O0O per annum, and
exports cotton goods to the annual value
of over $450, 100000, besides supplying her
own markets, which are the most consid-
erable on earth. Certainly England and
the continent, including Russia, must con-
sumo as much in cottons as they all to-
gether export, and something over, or.
say, to the total consuming and export
ing value of 81, ,OGO, 100000 That is to say,
with rs, ,OO0,0 -spindles, Great Britain and
the continent produce cottons to the an
nual value of five times what they pay
for the raw cotton, while the American
mills, it is to be pTeSum-
per pound OF raw cotton consumed,
or, to the value of $340 10000 per annum.
But if our spindles are doubled in num-
bers, and the product Increased In fine
ness Of texture, the annual value will
reach more than half the total value of
the European production. We should
then be compelled, as they are, to seek
markets abroad, and the question at once
arises, where and what?
Have the governm n at Washington and
the ship owners of the country antici-
pated such state Of affairs in our cot
ton industry, or is the South building up
another boom" like that of the later
eighties, only to fall back into deadly
sleep for another ten years to await the
preparation of markets for her surplus
goods? OF course, it cannot be expected
that the surplus of the new cotton mills
will find very profitable market abroad
in the face of the competition of the Eu-
ropean mills with their splendid agen-
cies and shipping facilities, but if the
MINNEAPOLIS flour mills can sell abroad ut
a loss in order to grind the wheat at home.
the cotton miller can for some years do
likewise. But he must be shown the
markets He must be enabled to reach
them without transshipment at Liverpool
or Bremen or Hamburg, and must be
enabled to escape the Scylia of English
or German agents at the point OF final
sale For If he falls into that first dan
annihilation by the underselling of Ed
rope which will wind up his career
abroad.
There are also certain duties falling
should not be overlooked. Agents abroad
are not the same as those at home We
are accustomed to putting up with certain
freshnesses on the part Of commercial
travellers that will not be brooked at all
by South Americans or Asiatics. Our
universities should set the pace for first
class men to go abroad as representatives
of our commercial houses, equipped not
alone with the languages, but
with the manners and methods
that will win favor in any
country on earth. Our trade journals
are full of the recitais of failures by
American commercial travellers who have
carried into South America the same
methods Of procedure that had been pur-
sued by them at home The foreign COM
mercial traveller must consult the people
with whom he seeks to establish rela-
tions Our iron and steel men are wide
awake on this question. Our universities
and our govegnment alike must also
waken to the proposition that all indus
tries, including the cotton goods line,
must be fostered and looked after by the
best intelligence the country possesses.