The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-18


Ter to sell his goods depends mainly on
the price of the raw material and of
labor. In some lines we have a decid-
ed advantage on the raw mater.
1al' In others we have no such advan-
tage. In these lines it will be impossible
for us to meet foreign competition with
out putting the price of labor in our
country on the same basis with that
of the competing countries This is ac-
tually being accomplished and very rap
idly at that, not however by depreciating
the price of labor in this country, but
by raising it in other countries.
taking everything into consideration,
the workingmen of Northwestern Eu-
rope are practically just as we'll off as
our own, some say even better. This is
attested by the fact that the immigration
from those countries has practically
ceased. We have ait present a very
strong immigration, but it does not
come from Germany and the Scandinavian
countries as it did twenty years ago.
1t comes from the backward and unde-
veloped countries of Southern and East
ern Europe, mainly from Poland, Hunga.
ry and Italy.
In this connection those that point
with pride" make a great ado about the
fact that our exports exceeded our i'm
ports by about $500, Goo 900, but when we
consider, as a London banker lately
pointed out, that we have to pay to
England annually some $780, O0O, 900 inter
est on British capital invested in this
country, We soon realize what became
of the surplus exports and instead of
eXulting over it, we have all cause for
humiliation. Here it might also be per-
tinent to point out, that the sums which
We have recently, with great flourish of
trumpets, lent out to foreign nations, are
but tri1e compared to the enormous
amount of foreign capital invested in
this country. Foreign capital came be-
cause here it could find more profitable
investment than anywhere else, and it
will remain and continue to come as
long as it finds such an inducement here.
We will not cease to be a debtor nation
and become a creditor nation by lend
ing money to foreign countries until our
economic conditions have come down
to the same level as those of other
countries. Our capital will not leave our
shores until it can find a better and more
profitable investment in foreign countries
than it can at home
1t is, however, quite true that our
economic conditions are rapidly APP
preaching the same plane as those of the
leading European nations, and this re-
suit, as IN the case of labor, is brought
about, not so much by a deterioration of
conditions in this country as by an i'm
proVement abroad.
Periods of prosperity as we'll as great
panics are not local affairs. They affect
all civilized countries and all the mar
kets of the world. The principal effect
of the present period of prosperity has
been to raise the price of labor and capt.
tai in the leading foreign countries, so as
TO enable US 10 enter without drawback
CT handicap as competitor into the mar
l1ets of the world. The growth of our
population made this step an imperative
necessity. 1t was fortunate for us that
economic conditions produced the neces-
.sary equalization, not by,reducing wages
here, but rather by raising. them in Eu-
rope. If economic conditions had not
thus favored us, it would have been
necessary to secure the same result by
reducing wages here and that could not
have been accomplished without serious
disturbances and great hardships to the
laboring classes.
Pessimists tell. us that this prosperity
will be followed by a great panic before
we realize it. 1t may and it may not
AS one of the strongest arguments
against this theory, it might be well to
point to the fact that immense markets
in Africa and Asia have been opened up,
and this will not fail to stimulate the
commerce Of tee world still further.