Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-04-01

by concentration on this northern
route as to reduce it's cost by land and
sea, and thus-following the law that
always flows along the lines
of least resistance-turn into this
cheaper channel on the shorter, lines
of latitude the main stream of the
commerce of the world. The full car
load is thus the unit of power in a gi-
gantic scheme of commercial concen-
tration which will pour a new and
more Astounding food of commercial
and industrial energy into the six
states which it has been recently
sought to array against it.
The lawyers and politicians who
have been fretting and Tuning about
the supposed effects of the so-called
merger on local freight rates have
been oblivious to the grandeur and
potential beneficence of the economic
forces called into play by this scheme,
and which will insure a much greater
reduction of local and transcontinent-
al freight as a necessary consequence
of an immensely increased volume of
traffic than would otherwise be posi-
BILE. -
Our local statesmen are not to be
blamed for the narrow local view they
have taken of this question, or for their
inability to take in the broad horizon
of it's Worldwide relations. For but
few who have not studied the question
have any conception of the enormous
trade with the orient which lies within
the grasp of American enterprise, but
which for lack of an effective organiza-
ton of our commercial power we have
heretofore permitted other nations,
and chiefly Great Britain, to appro-
pirate. For the seven years ending
with and inclusive of 1898 not an
American steamship entered a Philip
pine port. Since the treaty of peace
we have done better but the major
part of that traffic is still borne in
English vessels. In the ffty-two years
from 1S4S to 1900 inclusive the United
States lost in their traffic with the
Philippines over $275,OOO,O0O in trade
balances against us, Or enough to have
paid all the expenses of the Spanish
war. And this does not take into ac-
count the Philippine goods carried to
English or German ports and trans
shipped to this country.
In twenty years the United States
has heretofore paid out over the coun-
tiers of London Berlin and Paris owe
a billion and a half of gold due Asiatic
nations for trade balances. In this
amount of money had been saved tc
the American people it would have
bought out the steel trust and the
Northern Securities company at Their
capitalized figures. In ten years end
ing June 80, 1900, we have lost $120.
100000 in Chinese trade alone, exclu-
sive of the trade of Hong Kong, which
- q LII VI SAAllQ, RI uAuCA
British auspices. And Jul ships have
not carried, l per cent of the foreign
trade of China or of the port of Hong
Kong. The latest accessible tables OF
the treasury department concerning
our sea trade show that Of our imports
from Asia in 1899, $74,0O0,OO0 came by
way Of the Atlantic ports and only
1872 100000 from the Pacific ports. Oh
our exports, $29,6Oo.OO0 went from
Atlantic ports and only S18,7OO,000 by
way Of Pacific coast ports. which
means that 65 per cent of our trans
pacific trade does not come to us By
way OF the Pacific at all, but rather by
the way OF European ports. being
t~ransshipped at Liverpool and Ham.