Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-17

"You talk about your merchant princes In
this country. your coal barons and your
steel kings. and all the rest of them said
the who had just returned from big
game shooting in Africa. but II you want
to find a real. genuine merchant prince you
must go to Abyssinia and introduce yourself
to Menelik.'
Menelik is the greatest OF royal traders.
AS a trust magnate he can give American
industrial promoters cards and spades.
Throughout Abyssinia he is a whole trust
In himself. He controls not one industry or
one line of trade but every industry and
every line of trade.
There is no autocrat on the face of the
earth more despotic than he and he isn't
in the king business for his health, He
works it for all 1t is worth. He runs stores
and factories, buys the products of the ma
tives at his own price. and sells his Eu-
ropean imports to them for whatever he
chooses to ask.
There is no nonsense about interstate
commerce restraint of trade with Meme
lik. He is the one great merchant for the
whole country. the buyer of all that goes
out and the seller of all that comes in.
Anybody can compete with the king. IL
he cares 10 try. Men * does not OBJECT.
He might sehd a file OF soldiers and maze
he priGes himself on lie ng civil Zed mon
arch and lie has a be ter scheme than
that.
He is the tariff commission as we'll the
lord high everything e.Se in the country,
so he can charge what customs dues
he likes on the goods that his rivals I'M
port, and exempt his own goods from SINH
lar duties. IT. tired OF importing. they try
to become exporters, he PUTS them out OF
business with export duties. until they are
glad enough to sell their stuff to him for
whatever re cares to pay.
Royalty in Trade.
No otLer merchant On earth has such
sure profit this dusky potentate. and
naturally he is millionaire many times
over. Tie dollars come rolling in to him all
the time. hut he is very liberal in spend ng
them fer the good of his people.
Menelik IS probably tie only monarch in
existence who is also great merchant.
with personal monopoly of the commerce
of his country. Mos, kings think trade de-
rogatory, but Menelik holds different ews,
though re has a pedigree as long and a title
as proud as any of them He claims lineal
descent from King Solomon and the Queen
of Sheba. and his royal title is 'Conquering
Lion of the Tribe OF Judah. Menelk. APP
pointed of God. Negus of Shoa and Negus
Nagasti Ok ng of kings of Ethiopia" I'M
agine that title on the front of a store!
But though Menelk has such giants
power in matters of commerce., as In every
thing else in his country, he does not use it
giant. When he buys goods from his
people, or sells to them he fixes fairly rea-
sonabIe prices. He has sense enough not to
kill The goose that lays the golden eggs. He
knows that If he paid unreaSonably low
prices. the people would produce little or
nothing for export; and that If he charged
absurdly high prices, the consuming pow
ers of The population would approach the
vanishing point in regard to foreign i'm
ports.
1t seems strange that a king who won
his desrOt-c power as an invincible warrior
should ii shrewd merchant-and
it is the stranger because he is a man who
cares nothing for wealth or luxury. He
lives as simply as he did in the days of his
youth. when he owned nothing save his
horse and his spear. But Menelik is a far
seeing. many-si3ed man.
After the Italian invasion of Ethiopia
you must never call it Abyssinia in the
country, for the Abyssnians loathe the
name-most of the natives succumbed to a
severe attack OF ''swelled head They had
crushed the Italians. and they thought they
could easily do the same to any other in
vaders white black or brown, at any time.
Why He Wanted Money.
But Menel:k DID not catch the prevailing
epidemic. He knew something of the power
of the white nations. and also of their land
hunger. He saw the slow. resistless ad-
vance of the English through the Soudan
and the partition of many African king
doms among the European powers.
AT any moment" he reasoned to HIM
self. Il may have to face a far more Seri-
Gus attack. | must have money to arm my
troops as the white men are armed l must
buy cannons and hundreds of thousands OF
rifles. There is only way to get the
money | need. / must take all the trade
and commerce of my country into nv own
hands and make all the profit there is to
be made. 1t will not be too much for my
needs and it will be better for my county
than letting white make il tak 10 Z
away to Europe with them
This was, confessedly. his farsighted
scheme. Some people may think 1t was
economically unsound but it seems to have
answered to perfection His people stand
ready today to meet an .nvas' on ten times
more formidable than that of the Italians
ard give the invaders very warm recep-
tion.
Europe knows all this. and as result
Menehk King of Kings of Ethiopia is the
only African monarch for whose alliance
European powers eagerly compete and who
treats with them on a footing of fearle -
equaity 50 proud is he that he will
not permit the Russian, French and Italian
representatives at his capital to fly their
national flags over their residences The
only foreign flag that floats at Adds Adah,
- tI.e hri'ish- The British representative
hoiS'eu IL. as a matter of course and him. :
ly refused to haul it down when rho ahvs-
sinians demonstrated. Menelik recoen;,ad
IN MN I, kindred spirit. and told his officials
u .e' tlie nag stay The other foreign en-
voys asked permission. and were sternIv
refused. '
An Unfortunate Mistake.
Some foreign ENJOYS have been very un-
fortunate in their dealings with Menelk
Ihey made the mistake Of regarding him
as nothing more than an ignorant savage.
VINO could be bamboozled and nattered
into anything.
iS he