The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-26
OUR WORK IN, RUSSIA
HOW WE SEND OUR EXPORTS TO
 DOMAINS OF THE CHAR.
Why Americans are Welcomed at St. Petersburg-op Opportunities for in- vestment and Enterprtse-A
 Yankee in Czar's Cabinet.

Commercial AdverGeer. u... Wherever have entered Russian ports I have been struck with the evidence oa Russia's dependence on America TOT tne material needs in the development ol nne yastest contiguous empire known to time: Al Port Arthur, Russia's nearest port to Pekin. 1 have seen Cossacks guard, ing mountains of American tools ana equipment, destined for the Manchnrlan
 Halfway. which is practically, ftom cross-ties to locomotives an American built railway. At Vladivostock, the way, I have observed the million dollar pier of the railway covered with Yankee
 machinery and equipment for installa- tions in the various factories and ma chine shops springing up in the far East: At Odessa, on the Black Sea- miles or American reapers and harvesters line the
 wharves, awaiting transporlatlon .So gx- p tersburg, on the Baltic, Is lanoed the heavy machinery for the mills and fac,
 tories springing up about Moscow ,,snd and the powerful engines and crushers useo | in the gold mines of Siberia.
 Yet our government stausticians polnt out that we send but $l1.OoO.0Oo worth or our products to Russia annually. TITS, however. is but the report Of direct snip. ments and does not include the great
 bulk of our commodities gen gent into ere tne
 many, Japan and China. for as yet we
 have no regular steamship lines between
 American and Russian ports, save the
 SetMeen Ne% snd 
 Ftock. Siberia. That our field of commerce in Russia
 is all but boundless may be seen ,w wneH nat given to manufacture, relying almost en- tirely upon outside aid in the develop ,nIent of her natural resources. Mhich are
 Unce within the Czar's domain, it B ne
 longer possible to look at anairs Tn the
 far and near East through British eyes as we have been taught. Looking at
 matters as they really stand today, Rus sia, a country spread over one-seventn
 of the earth's surface, from the Atlan-
 ry everything before its mighty sweep,
 Sea to the torrid Indian ocean; Eng aggression in Asia has been drowned by the noise of conflict in South Africa. and the ciamor Russia loudly raises at to the entire Orient From the Caspian and Lake Balkai Russian railways are being rushed forward toward India ard
 China while masnty & mspatonb birb bss SI nne nof been known. in all history of Asia, is
 setting in from Russia toward the far
 East. It is England. not Russia. that IS yellow continent.
 ,, The sleeping Slav seems to have awak-
 cred at last; from the borders of the the Baltic and Black Seas to the far-on Gull
 of the Pecheeli new industries are spring ing up owing their inception to Russian
 initiative and activity. but still depen- Sudden demands for every form of ma terial needed in developing the latent re- sourceA of vast country are sprung | caught mapping but America is wide | awake. Her engineers have hastened
 across the Atlanuc at command of the | sian rivers and harbors the mlghtiest | dredges the world has seen. Cargoes of
 machinery greater in tonnage than any
 crossed from America to Russian ports, The Pacific teens with vessels bearing
 material from our Western seaboard for
 trans-shjpment in Japan to Siberian
 Asiatic railways. American locomo-
 tive works and machine shops
 ars being installed S,. ,ron ysvncys syery
 seed grain and wheat is grown in both the
 Russias, to be harvested by American
 machinery and ground into flour by
 the beginning, for Yankee@ tools and | Southern cotton cloths promise to drive
 out all competitors from Asia, as Russia
 extends her domain over the richest of
 earths continents. In every direction
 the Slav is opening up new and bound 1 less field for every form of Yankee in- | vention; in fact, Russian enterprise goes
 still further and introduces our wares | to millions of consumers that have never
 heard of us. Yet, in spite of all this, the
 Amreican seeks only immediate orders in I
 ture there, tempting fate and the Ger
 mans to, deprive us of the markets we
 have had thrust upon us.. | American export trade is filled with
 surprises. In setting out to follow our
 experts of machinery and other com
 modities to the final place. of destina--
 was met with a most astounding fact at
 the very start. My first lesson fin the ex-
 port trade was the, discovery that as | often as not the manufacturer does not knnW Of
 sian Empire his goods are to be shipped. | In fact, unless Russian orders are ac-
 companied by cash they are still apt to
 Russia Is bought through brokerage firms. | The brokers, who usually incorporate
 themselyes under firm name and pass | which they can secure an order buy their | goods, pay for same f. O. b, New York or
 San Francisco, and take upon themselves | all risks of final delivery and collection
 of payment. Often the broker knows as
 little about the final destination of the
 goods he is forwarding as does the man.
 the cash and large profits on the first l and perhaps only order. The marvel is
 that we can sell through middlemen, who
 usually demand 20 per cent. profit, and | still compete with Europe.
 Before leaving America studied great
 packing cases on the wharevs of New
 York and San Francisco the contents of
 which l knew were destined for points | in Russia yet these immense cases were
 invariably marked Hull, Hamburg or | Nagasaki. and entered in the govern
 ment reports as our official exports to 1 England. Germany and Japan respective l ly. It was only after following these
 cases to foreign parts that I was grad ually enlightened as to some of the req | sons why transshipment is usually made | of American goods destined for Russian | ports. First and foremost, of course, is | the fact that we lack direct steamship communication. but even when direct steamships are available shippers who | have had one experience with Russia $ voicing prefer to ship through those who have made a speciality of untanglng the mystfying intricaoies of Russian tar ih regulation and aggravating require ments of ports of entry. Often the broker who buys after he has sold. and knows the destination of his purchase. does not wish the manufacturers in America, or his fellow competitors in other parts of the world, to know where he has f0und or created a market.
 As has been stated. most of our exports to. European Russia, are reshipped at
 either Hull or Hamburg. Sometimes, how ever, a shipload Is sent direct to ,Reval on the Baltic Recently special train wait ed at this port to receive the equipment for the Siberian mines worked by Amer jeans, over million dollars worth of Yankee machinery was entered free and carried over the Russian railway thou sands of miles at a merely nominal rate; while machinery of equal value from our Western States reached Chinese ports at about the same time. destined for Sibe-
 rian mines, overland by camel and cara van.