The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-02-22
J. s. MISSION TO ABYSSINIA
(continued from First Page.)

(Continued from First Page.)
 American citizen, or the advantage of official contact, our cotton sheetings, by virtue of their excellence, have forced themselves into Ethiopia, where for years they have constituted the prin- cipal article of import. The sale is at the present time greatly restricted by the fact that these sheetings are sold principally by the important firms which handle the coffee crop of the country, and which naturally maintain prices at the highest possible figure as 8 means of getting the coffee on the lowest possible terms!
 'Ethiop.a being without a seaport and hemmed in by three European powers, each one striving to supplant our nler- chandise, we came none too soon to protect this trade by the negotiation of a treaty which should guarantee such equal treatment to our merchandise, not only in respect to import duties, but, more important still, in respect to equal rates of transport.
 While the demand for miscellaneous merchandise is extremely limited in Ethiopia. it should be recalled that the country is at this moment in state of transition, and that the population is acquiring new tastes and new needs in consequence of closer contact with western civilization and the creation of the new railroad, which permits of the sale of Ethiopian products and conse- quently enables the population to be- come purchasers. While these require ments are relatively unimportant at this time and cannot vastly increase until the completion of the railroad two or three years hence, tastes are now being formed and markets are being created, the full importance of which can only be appreciated in future years, and experience has shown that the manufacturing nations, which have been the first on the ground i'll neutral markets of the world, have been the first to profit when those markets have acquired important proportions.
 Ethiopia is wealthy in resources be- yond the power of any man to calcu- late. Gold, silver, asphalt, petroleum, iron and coal exist in combination with salubrious climate, agricultural pro- ductiveness and a population of singu- lar docility With watchful eyes upon the future the emperor seeks to pit one European power again another in order to preserve the political independence of his people, which has been handed down through the centuries, and in the meantime he hopes to develop the in- telligence and resources of the popula- ton to such point as to enable 1t to withstand any pressure from without. The empire holds out no attractions to the commercial adventurer with limited means. Too many Europeans now in the field are of that class, and the em- peror, with just reason, is weary of the constant clamor for concessions from all sorts and conditions of persons whose only object is to find a purchaser at an exorbitant figure. On the other hand, enterprises planned with skill and backed with sufficient capital may be undertaken and carried out with every assurance that property interests will be respected by the government, and that promoters of such enterprises will he welcomed with a catholic spirit.
 s,Ar annual importation of cotton sheetings from the United States to Ethiopia to the value of S579,000 may be definitely traced. This trade is increas- ing rapidly, and with lower prices to the consumer, which would result from the reduction of the number of middle men employed, the business would double itself very rapidly. The figures above quoted are within the mark, as large quantities of merchandise filter across the long frontier and fail to se- cure customs entry"