Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1903-06-01
ASIA THE HOPE OF THE
AMERICAN FARMER
Enormous Possibilities, Presented in the
Development of the Orient, for the
American People, Says J. J. Hill.

could sell them one bushel per CAPT
ia it would take 450,O00,000 bushels to
:upply China and Japan alone, to say |
nothing of the Straits Settlements and |
other countries having large popula-
lations.
In the north and west parts of
China there is an excellent farming
country, where corn and wheat can be
raised, but the products are so far
from the dense population on the sea
coast that it cannot be carried there.
We may perhaps fear that Russia,
with the Siberian Railway completed,
may enter into competition with us
the Asiatic -four or wheat trade.
The transportation question settles
T'he average rate on the Rus
sian state railroads is Is cents per
ton per mile. If the actual cost of
operation amounted to but twO-thirdS
of this figure-1.2 cents per ton per
mile-this rate. applied to the dis
tance from that part of Siberia where
the wheat is grown, would give
transportation charge of $4.20 per bar
rel for -four, while it should be carried
from our Pacific ports to Yokohama,
| Nagasaki, Kobe, Shanghai and Hong
kong for % cents hundred, S. ton,
80 cents barrel.
Russia Is not in a position to com
note with us at all, even if the wheat
and -four we're carried for the naked
cost of its transportation to the gov
ernment. What applies in this re-
spect to our wheat applies to cotton
from the South and to every other ar
ticle we export. even to iron and steel
'If our home market, which we
have nursed so long for iron and steel
industries, is of so much value, let us
now go on and take some care of our
agricultural interests, and not leave
them where they are today-withOut
an iota of assistance from any point.
"A year ago you could buy nails
for $125 a keg;. now they are 1925.
You know how lumber has gone up,
and all other articles of prime neces-
sity on the prairie farm. Fuel has
advanced. Everything made of iron
has advanced. But the wheat croI
has not advanced, because it is sold
in open competition with the product
Of the world. And until we get Other
people to eat what it vii not ad
vance and We will go on hoping
against hope. We will not get high
price for our wheat until wheat is
made scarce. If we conld increase
our export to the Orient by 5O,0O0,00
bushels have not the slightest douh'
that it would advance the price oi
what we do send to Europe Is or 2(
cents.
'In the first place. what we would
send to the Orient would go from the
Pacific Coast. The grain of that Coast
is handled at present in a manner
entirely different from that which pre-
walls east of the RocEy Mountains
must be carried in sacks to prevent
heating. and not in bulk in the hui
of the ship, as on the Great Lakes OF
the Atlantic The grain is practicall.
all bought by three concerns, two o
them located in Liverpool and also In
j, terested in line of steamers, so tha
they can furnish their own shipping
The wheat is sent to England and solo
for what it will bring. 1t acts AS ;
market The voyage around the Horl
. is four months long, and by the tim'
: the first cargoes are reaching port th'
last are leaving, so that it is all afioa
!, at the same time. The buyer in Eu
= rope knows what is afloat. There th
buyer must send over and place hi
: order in advance Of shipment. Wit
. the Pacific Coast grain it must sell TO
what it will bring. The ship canno
be delayed and the grain cannot b
stored in sacks.
II I'VE can never get away from tn
practical proposition that We are i
n competition with every wheat raise
n in every country-the peasants on tn
d steppes of Russia the ryots of India
" and the Argentine farmers. most {
e whom went from Italy. We are
r. competition with them on an eve
,r whiffietree. We always will be S
Id long as We have to sell outside of OF
ye own country; and that our own cou