The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-08-21
China Is the Worlds Field and Offers
a Market for Products of
the West
"A LANDLESS NATION IS
NOTHING BUT GREAT MOB"
Flour of the Northwest May Be Taken
to China for Fifty Cents a Hundred
Money Wasted by Congress Should
Be Spent on Irrigation.
(For Proceedings Of the Trans Mis-
sissiPpi Congress See Page y

The feature of yesterdays session of
the Trans Mississippi Commercial
congress was the address of President
J. J. Hill, of the Great Northern rail-
way, on "Our Trade With the Orient"
Mr.. Hills address opened the after
noon meeting, and was delivered be-
fore an assemblage considerably swell
ed by local business men.
Mr.. Hill spoke as follows:
Mr.. Chairman, Ladies and Gentle
men: The subject upon which 1 am
asked to speak is a very large and a
very old one. The trade of the Orient
is the oldest commercial trade in the
world; and all the commercial nations,
from the earliest dawn of history to
the present time, have sought it. 1t
has built up more cities in the world
than, might say, any other trade.
The trade of the world in matter of
time-the facilities for interchanging
property, exchange of money and of
ideas-has been so improved that to-
day the remotestS corners of the earth
are as open to trade as were the states
of the Union with each other at the
close Of the Civil war;
Increase of Japanese Trade.
The trade of the Orient is compara-
lively new to our country, although
our navy opened up trade and COM
merce with the empire of Japan. In
twenty-five years the foreign trade OF
japan has increased about ten-fold.
Ten years ago we imported from
japan about $4,000, 900, and sold to
them about $5,O0O,OOO. At this time
we are selling them over $50 000, 900,
and our imports are about $4,000, 900.
Japan has population of something
over 100000. The people of the ORR
ent with whom we might trade consti-
tute practically half the population of
the earth.
The great nation that is now about
to be opened up to the commerce of the
world is China. There IS no reason
why. China should not make as great
or greater progress in it's foreign and
domestic commerce than Japan.
Commercial Ability of the Chinese.
The Chinese as commercial peo-
pie are the abler of the two. The gov
ernment of China in the past has not
protected the individual rights of the
people. They are subject to what they
call squeeze" Official tax collectors
have way of making it burdensome
for those who are enterprising or
prosperous; consequently, they are
compelled to cover up their business.
They have been in the past, for that
reason, unable to extend their busi-
ness in their own country
The interior of China-and the coun-
try is very, very large one-is large
ly agricultural Manchuria is not un-
like some of our Middle States; it
raises the same crops, and some of the
agricultural district of China would
favorably compare with those of any,
where else in the world. But the grear
population of the nation is along the
in y,
but a few of the better class of China
men. No people in the world are able
to drive an intelligent Chinaman out
of commercial proposition.
transportation Is China's Handicap.
Our traffic to the Orient is largely a
matter of feeding. A people working
for 10 or Is cents a day are compelled
to study the most rigid economy They
produce the articles that they use for
much less money that we could furnish
them, provided they have the material.
But transportation on the rivers and
on the backs of coolies, and in North
ern China on the backs Of camels, must
be hight is high, so high as to make
a practical barrier between the interior
and sea coast.
The traffic of this country with the
Orient is susceptible of enormous de-
velopment. Other nations will contend
compelled to cross two oceans to get 1t,
while we have to cross but one
What China Buys.
There are some heavy articles of
iron and steel, such as machinery and
other manufactures, which we can fur
nish them. Again, we can furnish them
with raw cotton. We can furnish them
with flour. We do. A few years ago IL
was entirely new to them to use Amer
fl1cyfe II
the fact that the war had restricted the
use of flour in China, they used enough
flour to consume from fifteen to eight
cen million bushels of wheat 1t is
only few years ago q think six) that
the first American cotton went to
China or Japan. 1t came about in this
way:
Some Japanese on their way to Eu-
rope were in my office. They wanted
to buy rails for their railroad. / ask
ed them where they proposed to bhy.
They said they would buy either Eng
lish or Belgium rails, delivered on ship
at Antwerp or MiddleSboro England.
asked them why they did not buy
American rails. 1t never occurred to
them. 1t had never occurred to them
that we could deliver rails in Japan.
The Opening Wedge.
At that time we had made a contract
with the Japanese Steamship COM
pany to run to our Western terminus,
Seattle, and by making a low rate and
getting the Illinois Steel company to
bid on the rails at about six or seven
dollars a ton less than they sold them
to us Qaughter), they outbid the Eu-
ropean railmakers, and the first $4,000
tons of American rails went to Japan.
1 asked them also why they didn't
Continued on Fourth Page.