Warren sheaf., 1901-08-22
Capturing the Oriental Trade.

Minnesota may we'll be proud OF be-
ing the home OF James j. Hill, one
of the greatest financial geniuses OF
this age. He is far seeing man,
capable OF originating great plans
and carrying them to successful is
sue. That he has done great deal
for the upbullding OF the great
Northwest, no one denies. And it is
also self evident that the Northwest
has done great deal for him. The
man and the opportunity have come
together. At present he is maturing
a scheme thatis bound to be OF world
wide significance and ofgreat import
ance especially to the farmers OF this
country, namely his efforts to devel-
ope our trade with the orient. With
his line OF mammoth steamships now
building for use on the Pacific, he ex-
poets to reduce the cost Of transport
alton to such an extent that America
will have a big advantage over
other nations in capturing this
trade. In recent interview Mr.. Hill
gave his plans in detail.
Mr.. Hill, for the first time, gave
some details of how he will han
die the Orential trade with his
ocean leviathans. OF $4,000 tons
capacity, which, he said, would carry
the cargo OF the White Star freight
er, Celtic, at present the largest ship
afoat, and lift the bulk almost equal
to that OF the latter ship in addition.
Mr.. Hills new ships for Pacific trade,
which are now building at New Lon
don, will cost 81, 100000 each.
"There is an enormous trade wait
ing development in China and other
Asiatic countries" said Mr.. Hill,
"but in order to capture it we have
to deliver goods to them more cheap
ly than anybody has done in the
past. 70 get our share OF the busi-
ness we make the things more cheap
ly than merchants OF other nations,
and to build up the trade in interior
points OF Asia we must, OF course,
reach a level OF prices much lower
than has ever been before attained.
There are myriads OF Orientals who
live on 10 or Is cents day-some
for less-and we mustgive them cheap
food and clothing. Now, how can
this be done? II we cannot lessen the
cost OF production we must get the
cost Of delivery down. We can apply
the same principle in ocean naviga-
tlon as in railroads, carry much
larger quantities at once. The rel
ative cost will be less. We expect
with our large ships to be able to
reduce the rate of transportation to
shippers and still make "a good profit.
As result we shall secure a large
amount of new business in the ORR
ent.'' S.. j.
''If the -four trade, for sample, with
China and Japan should double or
quadruple during the next few years
which is easily possible-just see
what the benefit it would be to the
Pacific slope and some OF the states
east OF the Rocky Mountains. 1t
would furnish an outlet for a still
larger surplus than atpresent. There
need be no limit to the expansion OF
our trade if properly handled. "
ut is 2,70O miles from the wheat
fields of Russia to Port Arthur, and
the Russian railroads would charge
probably $3.50 per 100 pounds to
carry the grain to that seaport.
Now with our big ships we can deliv-
er it for less than 80 cents per 100
pounds at Port Arthur. It is there
fore plain that not much grain can
reach Port Arthur from Russia and
we will have opportunity to put
this commodity into Siberia if we
want to. .
''But how will the Great Northern
and Northern Pacific Steamship lines
be operated without friction when the
steamships Of the former are so
much larger than those of the lat
ter?'' was asked.
"There. will be no trouble said
Mr.. Hill. "These: two companies are
working in harmony. There is uee
for all the vessels, large and small.
The smaller ones can be put on differ
ent routes where they will answer
just as well as the larger ones.''