River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-01-16

about SEQ. coz, 00O Of which the United
States share is less than one-ffth. The
total foreign trade in China in 1890 was
about IS cents per capita; should it in
crease in the next twenty years in the
japan has increased in the past twenty
years, the foreign trade OF China would
amount to 900.
1.-THE Chinese race is q commercial
mercial ability and integrity will rank
with those Of any other nation. The Rus
through Siberia to Manchuria and Port
Arthur, an open port all the year round.
This will give Russia an opportunity to
distribute many of her products in China
and will place her in a strong position.
The treaty between China and japan at
the close of the japanese war secured to
to make use of ports and rivers and pro-
vide facilities for that purpose. Under
the most favored nation clause in the
treaty, each has the same privilege as
respects trade relations, as is secured by
Japan by it's treaty.
IF we are to enjoy fair share of the
trade it must come from finding a nnarkte
for the necessities Of life, nearly all or
of which come from the farms.
1.-THE farm bears a relation to the mar
ket, and a vital point of national pros
perity and happy social condition VIII
be in proportion to our nr success In f Se
orient men get from 10 to 90 cents per
day. they cannot buy luxuries; their ei
ties Of life-food and clothing; A few
years ago / sent a man to emma ana
Japan, keeping him thre yaer, to ma
out and report upon the commercial COLI
ditions of these countries and to learn
what was necessary for this country TO
do in order to create new market for
our rapidly increasing products Whlch
were being sent to Europe and sold, not
to the highest, but / might say, to the
lowest bidder, because of the surplus we
had to sell.
fOT TIC
During the past six years the, flour
900 or 10000 coo bushels of wheat per an
mum, and if there was a supply OF cheap
ocean transportation, this amount could
creased. If we could take 25000,0O0 or
3OOO0,OGO bushels a yaer out of the sur
plus, that is sent to Europe, it would
nearly offset the average exports OF the
Argentine. If the new order of things
following the recent war in China is to
ton for. life. and property. the develop
ment Of China cannot fail to be very
great, and [ see no reason why it may
not be as great as that of Japan. In
that case we would be called OH to fur
nish one-half of our entire surplus grain,
taking this amount out of the European
markets and greatly advancing the price
of every bushel exported from this coun-
try feu vears 400 some very intelligent
Japanese gentlemen were in my office,
and 1 asked them why they did not
use American cotton to mix with the
short staple cotton from India? They did
so much superior to that which they
were in the habit of using. [ told them
if they would try few carloads OF our
their advantage to use it, l would pay
the cost of the cotton. They ordered
few carloads. The result has been that
we have not been able to find transpor-
tation to supply the Oriental demand for
American cotton from that time to this
During the months of September, Octo-
Der and November just past we shipped
about so 900 bales of cotton to the Orient.
This was all we could find shiproom to
carry. The amount could have been dou-
bled had the shiproOm been aVallab bic.
During this time other roads have also
carried their share of cotton to the east,
and their experience has been practlcally
the same as our own.
Remarkable Increase in Land Values.
Give years ago land in the Red River
valley and in North Dakota was selling
at from So to 500 per acre; today the de-
mand for this land has made it worth
extended our railway lines throughout
the northwest our first object has been
to settle up the country, along these
ports of 1890 and 1900 shows that in
Minnesota in forty-three counties reach
ed by our lines, there has been an in
crease of 900 people; in North Dakota,
in twenty counties, over $4,000 people.
SIN fifteen of the counties in North Da--
kota, most depending upon the Great
Northern for their railway service, [
find that the vacant land in 1898 was g.,
356 900 acres in 1901, 100000 acres, show
ing that in the eight years there had
the lines of the Great Northern road s.,
O5O,OOO acres. In Montana the increase
in counties on the line of the Great
in Washington 10000 people,. This yaer
the indications are that the influx of
new people will be greater than at any
IT,, y ictnr Of hn
try. More people will come in to make
their homes with you and help you as
neighborS and fellow workers In the .qe-
velopment of your state than ever be-
fore.
Community of Interest Takes in Farmer.
cat the presnt time we hear much
about the community in interests be-
tween the railroads. [ want to say to
munity of interests that there is, or
ever can exist is the community of in
terests between the producer of tonnage
and the carrier; the man on the farm,
in the forest, and in the mine must be
able at all times to sell the products
of his labor and his lands with a profit,
ing to sell. The railroads depend for
their existence on the products Of the
lands served by their lines; they have
no other source of income. individuals
may come and go, we will all sooner or
later pass from active life, but the land
the country-its resources and the rail-
will either prosper together or be poor
together. There is no other community
of interests that can ever exist against
this one While ii is necessary for the
railroads that the farmers, the lumber
men, and the miners shall be prosperous,
it is also necessary that the railroads
should prosper.
''Much is being said about combination
between railroads, and that the country
for it's prosperity must rely upon con-
tinuance of competition. The law of the
survival of the fittest must inevitably
end such competition as exists by the
destruction of the weaker by the strong
err This has already been done in the
East. and to the extent that throughout
all New England the hundreds of original
railway CORPORATIONS are now mostly con-
solidated into three or four, and the peo-
pie are better off than ever before.
Twenty years ago 1t was supposed
that competition was necessary to re-
duce rates. I think we have shown in
the Northwest that, without competition,
rates have been reduced faster than any
where else in this country. Today the the
farmers can ship their grain from the
Red river valley to the Twin Cities or
the head of Lake Superior at from Is to
20 per cent lower rates than the farmers
living in the Des Moines valley and
Western Iowa. where there are many
lines, can ship to Chicago. the same dis