Durango semi-weekly herald., 1902-12-15
INTERVIEW WITH JAMES ]. HILL

'niANAT me lialifA du Interest T.
ing interview with James G, Hin, the
railway masnate which win be found
Of interest Mr. Hin. among other
things, says:
The Northwest is already getting
so crowded that more than -. .000
farmers have gone over the line into
British Columbia. The Canadians
claim $4,000. but that is excessive.
They We're good farmers. industrious.
intelligent and wellto-do, and had the
capital to bay outright from 900 to
1000 acres OF land from the Dimnion
government and have taken the oath
OF allegiance 10 King Edward. We
could have kept them on cur own side
of the border if we could have given
them irrigated lands.
One thousand acres with irriga-
tion is as good as > 1000 acres without :
that is. as many people can be main
tanned upon thousand acres under
irrigation as upon 5000 acres OF fer
tile soil depending upon natural rain
fall. Therefore. II VIZ can make one
acre of land to do the work of five.
it is worth while trying it, Irrigated
land sells for SIS and $40 an acre.
| Arid land without irrigation is prac-
| tically worthless, and l can think of
/ no better investment for the govern
ment; no more profitable speculation.
so to speak, than to build a few res
srVoirs and irrigating bitches in fav-
orable districts where it can be done
at small cost and thus convert worth
less Ian into twenty-dollar-an-ac
farms. 1t would need only small
amount OF capital to start with, and
the proceeds could be set aside as a
fund to keep the scheme going-to
bGild more reservoirs and more irri-
eating bitches until the profits grew
into enormous sums, when they could
be added to the public revenues.
See what England is doing in
Egypt and in India and you realize
that there is great danger to us from
hat competition-so great that our
statesmen ought to be thinking about
it.
We are building up a trade in
-four and other breadstuffs in China.
We are cultiyating among the Chinese
an appetite for our flour, and by and
by we hope that they will like it as
well as rice, but we have to furnish
it as cheap as their rice, and must
get ready to meet the competition of
Egypt and India flour in those same
markets. If England continues to re
peat her Indian and Egyptian irriga-
zion enterprises she won't need to
htIN ,xhpat aud Of
az and when England stops buying
our grain ii Will rot in the fields and
he elevators. 1t is the fashion to
abuse the English. but we ought not
to forget that they are our best Gus
omers. and also that they are the
only nation that does not discriminate
lgainst us.
What is going on in China?"
There is to be an enormous de
velopment in China. They are get
ting ready for it over there Our ex-
ports increased rapidly until the boxer
rebellion, when business was all brok-
IN up for about two years, but it has
been resumed and is growing faster
than before. But there is great dan
ger that the United States may not
be able to participate in the profits
'or several reasons. In the first
place, our American manufacturers
lropped the trade when they found
hey could sell goods to equal advan-
age in the home market. They
were very short sighted When bust
less was duh in the United States we
gave a very low rate on all kinds OF
freight. We carried wire. nails and
commercial iron of all descriptions
rom Buffalo and Cleveland TO Hong
1ong for i5 cents a hunderd. and -four
10 cents a hundred. the same price
'ou pay to have your trunk taken to a
ailway station and we gave a simi-
lar rate to Australia from all Lake
Erie ports, 1000 miles by rail and
5000 miles by sea, while the rate to
New York was 25 cents a hundred in
he summer and 80 cents in the Win
er The merchants and manufac-
turers who went into it did a good
business until business began to pick
up h re in the United States. when
they concluded that they would rather
sell their goods at home than ship
them China. Hence the effort to find
| market for general merchandise in
he East was practically abandoned,
Dur merchants voluntarily withdrew.
he Germans went in and got the trade
and will keep it.
IT'S the same old story; you have
heard it over and over again. The
experience has been repeated in
Brazil and Africa and elsewhere
When our manufacturers have lot of
oods that they cannot sell at home
hey spend time and money working
p a foreign trade. and as soon as the
ON market reyives they neglect
heir foreign cus.ouCr5 and lose them
'e mistt have had the best Of the
hinose trade if We had kept our boat
the stream but It's all going to be
worked up again, and you can never
'egain what you have lost
Another disadvantage that our
manufacturers will have to meet is
hat it costs so much more to manu-
'acture things in this country than
in Germany and Europe. Our ma.
| chinsry and agricultural implements
will take care of themselves. They
| are So much suuprior IN eVPrythiup q