Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1902-03-27
WHAT IT MEANS
""AhhABLE POSSIBILITIES
OPENED BY THE RAILWAY
MERGER.
NORTHWEST WILL PROFIT BY IT
ENORMOUS TRADE WITH THE oRI-
ENr WHICH LIES WITHIN
oUk GRASP.
NOT TO DESTROY COMPETITION
POTENTIAL BENEFICENCE OF THE
ECONOMIC FORCES CALLED
INTO PLAY.
NORTHWEST WILL PROFIT BY IT
NOT TO DESTROY COMPETITION

Mr. J. j. Hin was recently reported
wy ave" hork journal of Commerce
n"'ihs SAID that the two mammoth
eIips he Is building for the Asiatic
u"ue could be operated in successful
eoHhpetltlon with foreign ships in snite
Va the hlgher wages paid to American
seahleh IL our navigation laws permit
Ieu d better selection and control or
crews. The reason for his confidence
~ pam. 1t is because he has appIied
70 the construction of his vessels the
same principles which have made the
HllI methods" of organizing transnor.
tatlon famous as ore of the great
uloLey-SaNing inventions of the age
the simple principle that the bigger the
tralhload the less the cost of hauHne e.
per ton per mile. He has made his ships
bigger IMAM any now afioat in the ex-
pectatlon that they will carry full car
goes and that it will cost but little
more % operate them thus filed n
smaller ships carrying a fraction of the
tonnage.
Ihese ships will carry cargoes at
much lower freight rates than have
heretofore prevailed, and are. there
tore, the pioneers in the DEVELOPMENT
or the Asiatic trade which will eyentI-
ally require a larger fleet of similar
ships. But 10 fill even these for regu-
lar trips Will require the massinga
at the Pacii2 ports where they are TO
be loaded Of a much larger volume of
exports to Asia than has heretofore
been offered. The traffic of the Great
Northern alone would not suffice to
sustain them. These ships are a con-
stituent part of the arrangements
whereby the Great Northern, the
Northern Pacific and the Burlington
systems are to be operated in harmony,
and subsidiary to the same general end.
The momentous significance of these
arrangements can only be appreciated
when it is understood hat their pur-
pose is to make these two great trans
continental railroads the chief high
way of the Of this country
and of the world with Asia. 1t is to
carry out in the whole vast field OF in
tercontinental traffic the same principle
Of concentration which Mr.. Hill applies
to his carloads and his ships cargoes-
10 so increase the tonnage volume by
concentration on this Northern route
as to reduce it's cost by land and sea-,
and tkus-following the law that com
merce always flows along the lines of
least RI Sistance-turn into this cheaper
channel on the shorter lines of latitude
the main stream of the m of the
world. The full carload is thus the unit
of power in a gigantic scheme of COM
mercial concentration which will pour
a new and more Astounding food OF
commercial and industrial energy INFO
the six states which it has been recent
ly sought to array against 1t.
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 OBJ
livious to the grandeur and potential
beneficence of the economic forces
called into play by his scheme, and
which will insure a much greater re-
duction of local and transcontinantal
freight rates as n necessary conse-
quence of an immensely increased vol
ume OF traffic than would otherwise be
possible.
Our local statesmen are not to be
blamed for the narrow local view they
have taken OF this question, or for their
inability 10 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 nave
heretofore permitted other nations ana
chiefly Great Britain, to appropriate
For the seven years ending with n IN
elusive OF 1898 not an American steam
shin entered a Philippine port. since
the treaty Of peace we have done better
but the major part of that trafhc Is
still borne in English vessels. In the
dfty-two years from lS4S TO l9oo, IN
elusive. the United States lost IN thelr
attic with the Philippines over Sz'0'-
600 600 in trade balances against us, or
enough TO have paid all the expenses
~ he's panish war. n this does not
take into account the Philippine gooos
carried to English or German ports anu
t~rapshipped to this country.
IN twenty wears the United states
has heretofore paid out over tne w
tors IF London. Berlin and Paris over d
billion and a half OF gold que ASIA.
nations for trade IL 'nS
amount of money ndu peSh
the American people 1t would nave
bought out the steel trust ana inc
Northern Securities company at tneir
capitalized figures: In the ten yea yssn
eps,og June 80. 1870, we have lost Wv
ooo ooo in chinese trade alone. exclusive
~ the trade OF Hongkong. which Is
warehouse for all China, under Britlsn
~ansnices. And our ships nave hos
carried i per cent Of the foreign lraue
80 CHINA or of he port of Hongkong.
the latest accessible tables OF tne
treasury department concerning our
Gao trade show that of our imports
From Asia in 1899, $74,ooo,coo came py
wav OF the Atlantic potts ana oh1y
sss GOO, 900 from the Pacific ports.
our exports. s2s, 900, 900 went from A.
,on,,c norts and only SIS, 100000 by way
~ Pacific coast ports. when lh
that s5 per cent of our trans,ra IN
trade does not come to us by tne .,h s
Of the Pacific at ALL but ra.ner Se,ne
NAV Of European ports
.nt,,aa A. Liverpool ana riaph