The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1902-03-28
THE TRADE OF THE ORIENT.
And Wh0e 1t Means for Minnesota and the
Whole Northwest.

Mr. J. J. Hill was recently reported by
the New York Journal Of Commerce as
he Is bud1s for the Assnc trade c9nd
with foreign ships in spite OF the higher
wages paid to American seamen II our
navigation laws permitted better selec-
ton and control Of crews. The reason
for this confidence is plain. 1t is because
vessels the same principles which have
made the Hill methods of organizing
transportation famous as one Of the
the simple principle that the bigger the
trainload the less the cost Of hauling it
per ton per mile. He has made his ships
tation that they will carry full cargoes
and that It will cost but little more to
operate them thus filled than smaller
ships carrying fraction OF the tonnage.
These ships will carry cargoes at much
lower freight rates than have heretofore
In the development Of the Asiatic trade
fleet Of similar ships. B1t; to III even
TOR Fat Ees p % theS
are to be loaded Of a much larger volume
of exports to Asia than has heretofore
been offered: The t5aft1e Of the Great re;a
tain them. These ships are constitu-
ent part Of the arrangements whereby
the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific
operated in harmony. and subsidiary to
the same general end. The momentous
significance Of these arrangements can
stood that their purpose is to make, these
two great transcontinental railroads
the chief highway. Of the commerce Of
1t is to carry out in the whole vast field
of intercontnental traffic the same
principle Of concentration which Mr.. Hin
cargoes--to so increase the tonnage
volume by concentration on this Northern
route as to reduce its cost by land and
least resistance-turn into this cheaper
channel on the shorter lines OF latitude
World. The full car load is thus the unit
of power in gigantic scheme of CONNER
cial concentration which will pour a new
and industrial energy into the six states
Which 1t has been recently sought to
array against It,.
The lawyers and politicians who have
been fretting and Tuning about the sup
posed effects of the so-called merger on
local freight rates have been obliyious to
the grandeur and potential benefcience of
the economic forces called into play by
this scheme, and which will insure much
greater reduction Of local and transcon-
sequence Of an immensely increased
volume 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
its 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
our Commercial power we have hereto
Great Britain. to appropriate; For the
seven years ending with and inclusive OF
1898 not an American steamship entered a
Philippine port Since the treaty t or peace
of that traffic is still borne in English
vessels. In the fifty-two years from 1S4s
to 1900 inclusive the United States lost
$275, 900 in trade balances against US,
or enough to have paid all the expenses
Of the Spanish war. And this does not
carried to English or German ports and
transhipped to this country.
In twenty years the United States has
London. Berlin ai and Paris over a billion
and a half Of gold due Asiatic nations for
trade balances. II this amount Of money
it would have bought out the steel trust
and the Northern Securities company at
their capitalized figures. In the ten years year
Of the trade Of .Hongong, which Is a
warehouse for all China. under. British
per- cent Of the foreign trade rS Of china {s;as,
ecce es tables Of the treasury depart
of %en our roi Imports from Asia in 1875. ST..
ooo, 600 came by way Of the Atlantic ports
ana only from 60 t the nm P9c anf
69sA Atlantic 1f cur por fsp snS only f bS
vav Of Pacific coast ports, which means
that 65 per cent Of our. trans-Pacific
trade does not come to US by the way OF
Of OF European ports, being. transhipped
at Liverpool and Hamburg for New York
Or Pnadeph.a,2 Tne total d trae ST ShMa
Of this was sarried in American bottoms.
Yet one line of steamships like that
d 9oEble that total and would put into
Manila, Shanghai, Hongkong. and other
Chinese and japanese ports agents for
themselves felt in the interest Of our
manufa cturers The current Of CONNER
cial exchanges thus established between
the un anG wden un tie ds s nto o1
Swelling tide the tributary streams of
every state in the Union and OF every
country in the world All along the course a
merce this broad and deep current will
set in motion the wheels Of commercial
and industrial activity. But IL is ma!ily
in Minnesota, whose chief cities. standing
at the head Of the great interior lines
of water transit. are the terminal head
quarters and gateways of these great
systems of transcontinental railway that
its influence will be felt in making them
far greater marts of trade than II they
depended on the narrower range Of trib-
utary country around them. 1t will tend
to make them the emporia for the distri.
button Of the products of the Orient
through the Mississippi valley. 1t Will
lift these cities and this state to COM
manding position among the interior
states and cities Of the continent.
When the lawyers and politicians get
to thinking about this matter In It's larg-
er relations they will probably come to
the conclusion that there Is something
besides a question Of local politics In
this matter of the so-called merger
that it does not mean. as they imagine.
the extinction Of competition but such
a marshaling of commercial forces and
mercial power as will enable this great
system Of transportation traversing the
northern belt of the temperate zone:
which nature has marked as the chief
path Of commerce throughout the world.
10 enter into successful competition with
the rival systems which are endeavor1ng
to attract this great tide Of transmun-
dane commerce to more southern lati-
tvdes and that, whatever technical OBJ
3ootionc LAWYERS NAV find fancy