The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-11-07
SATURDAY, NOV. 7, 1908.
HOW TO BUILD UP TRADE.

All those who are acquainted with
the facts agree that the one splendid
opportunity before this country and
adequate to the needed expansion of its
trade lies across the Pacific. The ad-
dresses made at dinner at the Min
neapolis club the other evening were
notably instructive and straight to the
point. The advocates of governmental
favoritism, the treasury grabbers, the
subsidy hunters, all the people who
are trying to get something for nothing,
are shouting that if we want more
trade we must buy it from somebody
at the public expense. We must pur-
chase at fancy prices somebody elses
pasture, while building the fence high
er around our own. We must bride
people to fetch and carry, in order
that the current of commerce may run
strong and free.
Not so, say those who best know the
conditions of business and have had
most to do with creating and improv-
ing them. President Hill sounded the
keynote when he asserted that what
we need is to create business. If we
open new markets and capture them.
the ships to carry the business will be
available fast enough. In China there
is a practically unlimited market for
the products of the United States. It
has been already sufficiently exploited
to prove that the people want to deal
with us, and that they will consume In
immense quantities the commodities
that we have to offer. The rapid ex-
pansion of our trade with the Orient
is one of the most striking phenomena
of the times.
How has this business been secured
and built up? BY the energy, the far
sightedness, the business sagacity Of
masters of transportation. We can
enter the Chinese market in competi-
ton with the rest Of the world because
freight charges have been established
so low as to create for us practical
monopoly of the trade across the seas.
This was strikingly expressed by MI.
Hill when he said barrel of flour can
now be carried from Minneapolis to
Hongkong for about the same that it
would cost to transport it from the lat
ter city 800 miles into the interior.
Mr.. Kingsland Smith, who was one
of the guests of the evening, confirmed
these views. He finds that the markets
on the other side of the Pacific are
encouraging for us. Australia is buy
ing instead of selling. The flour trade
in particular bids fair to find indefinite
expansion among the trans Pacific
countries. The Importance of this is
not confined to the milling interest by
any means, or to the transportation
agencies. 1t affects every man in this
country directly.
If our markets in the Orient extend
the demand for our grain product is
increased by so much; and the supply
that we now send to Europe and else
where is correspondlngly diminished.
This means better prices for the farm
er; not only the farmer of Washington,
but the farmer of the Dakotas, of Min.
nesota and of every state in the Union,
since the prices Of farm products in
all of them depend upon the relation Of
demand and supply in the larger field.
When the farmer prospers, everybody
prospers. He is the corner stone of
our prosperity, the handspring of all
active successful business life When
ne. has money he buys freely and every