The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-02

W1Se uedQS TOT IHe great li1dC 4AA Sa6Ae' Only a short while ago the Minnesota cleared from Pacific port for the Orient with 70 locomotives, large number of railroad cars, quantities Of construction material, 10000 kegs of wire nails and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth or hardware, machinery and other pro- ducts of our mills and factories. This movement Is only the beginning Only a few years ago most of the shipping was from San Francisco through the Pacific Mall Steamship company; now there are dozens of steamship lines vieing with each other for this immense business, and the Puget Sound ports are getting the bulk of the shipping
 "The tonnage of the vessels in this trade has increased from 23,000 tons in 1897 to 150,000 tons In 1905, and the growth goes steadily on. Why Manchuria alone, the garden of China" is said to be as large as Indiana. Illinois, Iowa, Michigan. Wisconsin and Minnesota combined. with soil, climate and crop very similar.
 A Word About Rates.
 "what trade in this country alone we can get if we will only work for 1t. If our transportation lines will just keep the export rates stiff on raw material and give us lower rates on manufactured products the industrial growth of this country will be something phenominal.
 dI1 kldQ We HdNC I1dWdlls " axe Island, Samoa, Guam and the Philippines, and I am in favor of keeping and develop ing every one of them; they will furnish convenient coaling stations for our Pa cific shipping, now in It's infancy; forti- fed we can use them to protect our oriental trade. which is growing fast and will take on giant strides when the Pan anna canal is completed and the great Mississippi and other southern streams are improved and developed as they can be and deserve to be, and may say shall be.
 "The Chinese have a telegraph system extending to the chief cities of the em- pire; in this service l am informed the English language Is used; this means much for us.
 "Under a treaty with China proclaimed in January, 1904 the Lilxin tax Is abol- ished; in lieu thereof a surtax of one and & half times the import duty of per cent advalorem was put in; this Likin duty and other transit dues has always been a great barrier to trade, and their abolishment should increase our business in that country.
 ''There is nothing which will help and enrich the cotton growers like the up- building of the China trade; with that trade fully developed the world could take 20 GOO, 900 or 30000.000, or even more, bales of our cotton, and as the cotton we raise
  variety of goods in the production of which 1t can be used, we have monop- oly of it; if labor were plentiful we could raise all the world demands, as we have more land adapted to its growth not now in cultivation, although the British Cotton Growing association seems to think other wise as evidenced by statement Of their Mir Hutton at Manchester few months ago.
 ''The demand for cotton in a few years with this trade developed would double and quadruple the value of our cotton lands, and the growth of the staple VIII fill the pockets of our farmers If we are only wise enough to improve our oppor- tunity.
 ''The so-called Chinese boycott was recently inaugurated in China by the com mercial bodies gentry and guilds seeking to restrict and even discontinue trade in American merchandise, and means much to the United States, particularly to the south, and the southern manufacturer; it means even more to the cotton grower.
 'In May of this year the executive com mittee of the American Asiatic associa- ton, an association composed Of some or | the leading northern and southern manu- | faoturers and business men, received @ | cablegram from the American association of China, as follows: Chinese chambers | of commerce, gentry and guilds advise | people of the whole empire after August 1 to boycott all American schools, business, | goods, products and ships, unless exclu- | sion treaty guarantees equitable treat ment to travellers, student and mer- | chant entering the United States. Asso- l citation recommends Washington's earnest | consideration MT. Ford, the secretary of
 the association, in laying this matter be- | fore President Roosevelt said: I am re- | uuested to call your attention to the se- | rious consequences such a movement may
 have on American trade with China and | particularly on the prosperity Of the cot | ton textile industry of the United States, | which has been saved from a period of destructive competition in the home mar
 ket by the outlet which China has af- | forded for It's surplus products.
 Gravamen of Situation.
 "Gentlemen, in this last quotation the gravamen of this situation is clearly set out for with the closing of the great mar ket for cotton goods in China, destruc- l tive competition for control of the domes- 1 tic market is an inevitable sequence, pro- ducing trade paralyso not only in cot | ton goods but in raw cotton as we'll It has been said no relief could be had from | the federal government either in the making of new and satisfactory treaty, 1 CT in the modification of existing laws, or | in the more reasonable and sane execu- ton of the present statutes since only the south was interested as manufac- | turers of heavy cotton for export; this | Ia a very erroneous idea and l think an unwarranted assumption: 1t Is a mis- take in the first place to suppose all the cotton goods exported to China are made in the south a large proportion are made in the northern mills, and the owners of these mills are already actively engaged il. ameliorating conditions.
 "Even the mills making goods entire ly for domestic consumption will be no less interested in lending all possible as- sistance since these manufacturers well know if the oriental trade of the export mills is cut off there will immediately begin a fierce and destructive contest for possession for the home market, with the result that the new, large and well managed mills would eventually close the older and smaller and less well equipped mills as the cost of production in the latter could not compete with the lesser
 cost of the former Such conditions would
 strike heavily the cotton planter and demand for the staple being cut off would
 undoubtedly bring about low prices of raw cotton. Now, why has this boycott | come about? The observant reader of | the daily press will find the answer | over and over again of the accounts there given of the outrageous execution of our outrageous laws in dealing with the | Chinese of the exemi class who come | to our shores as well as to the interpre- | tation and execution of confusing laws dealing with the Chinese laborer. No | American advocates the lowering of the