The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-09-29

eminent. ana subject the fortunes Of
Of employees and tens, Of millions Of
customers to the caprice Of the self
of atts an then the history
compared with those charged anywhere
else In the world, and the history of rate
DOWN to the
I 5@ Mileage Tariff. 80 A M
+, The government cannot discriminate
between ports or places. 1t must deal
with an absolutely equal and Impartial
Obliged sooner or later. to obtain a.
strict distance tariff; that is, the charge
for CARRYING commodities would have to
in the haul: The low charge for the
long, haul would disappear. and freight
y W9aa t pay would %l make fa M9w
but YOU here in Minnesota. in the cen
ter of the continent, distant from 1900
m &hd dro b a t tire
described and have it's circumference
sweep al %ag, the c9asts Of the Atlantic
You would be the most heavily tar
iffed people in the world. When men
ask for your support or demand your
praise on any such grounds. as these, it
will be well for YOU to bring them to
the challenge of the facts and of COM
Then as to the markets in which you
buy, How are you situated there, and
what advantage do you owe TO those
who, have settled your conditions? It
| would seem evident to most people that
! a system which permits the same arti-
Gle that you must have for your house
or farm to be carried aeroad
| sold in distant markets at price any
where from to 50 per cent less: than
in your interest. It is because Sc of that hat
known amount Of unearned profit on a
dollars which is the estimated volume
Of our domestic trade; that is, the buy
ing and selling that goes on among our
order that it may not be changed by
the fraction of q hair that the treas
uay def fen az ro 1%s and promises now to
quire the imposition Of other taxes. such
as you have never heretofore consented
to pay save in time of war and as a
Is this to your satisfaction, and is this
the form of service that will call forth
your gratitude and receive your continu-
Panama Canal
Mr. Hill took up the subject of the
Panama Canal treating it at consider
able length, He argued that it could
and cited the opinion Of an expert. Mr.
Harold Boice of the treasury depart
ment, who had written an elaborate ar
n1ent was fortified by statistics showing
nov s Sma an amount Of our products
ing that If We could secure one-half the
imports of Asia: the traffic in one year
would pay "a! the cost ao Of the canal and
| pected the canal would be made, but it
would not bring market results
Scarcity of Lands ana Irrigation.
He next considered the growing scar
fects in our land laws which allowed
| spectators and great combinations to
secure millions of acres to the exclusion
of farmers. He highly commended tie
national irrigation movement, saying the
work now under way would redeem
sixty million acres. and he had no doubt
! IN the end many times that amount
Markets.
The final question of all was securing
! markets for our products. He said:
| Our exports of commodities the product
,f,,; agrcult tyre for the year 1904 were
cent Of all our exports. Our exports Of
manufactured articles were valued at
$l5: as, 921. or 1852 per cent of the whole.
! Moreover. the tendency is for the former
to increase while the latter decreases. In
the commercial war upon. us which has
| already heard the firing of the first gun.
| 1T is the manufactured article that will be
banned by the severcst prohibition But
vantage win fall. Our statesmen assum-
, cd that We alone could use Il protective
tariff to advantage, overlooking the very
one tariff with another. The rest of the
world has been wonderfully patient It
mas taken no notice until we began to be
| competitor in manufactured commodities,
for we are not yet but as possible one
linen linen IT t took counsel and the new German
we shall find all Europe commercially
banded against us. What are we going
to do about it? Where arc we going to
ket for the immense product of our Soil
that will continue to be our main resource
! and dependence
| reach of us in Asia to require our entire
annual wheat crop if each person con-
sumo sumed only the trifling, amount of two
trade and prepared for it. We have helped
20 buiid 1t up, and put millions of money
into the a greatest steamships that ever
| sa!ied the seas to serve it. We did these
| things in order that we might be able to
! make a rate under which this Oriental
de,could.five For these people cannot
pay high. transportation charges; they
! Will buy in some other market; and you
cannot send wheat from. the interior of
the united states across half the CONT
/ ocean If you have big or even IL reason-
able mileage charge.
! WeH we nave met with obstacles at
every step; not the obstacles that busy
men have right to expect and know how
to meet, such as the shrewdness of com
petitors OF. the difficulty of conqueffng
material things, but interference with
| plans and regulations and rules and or
ders that can serve no purpose except to
make impossible the maintenance Of this
| new market. These customers are out
| ragged by policy that insults their ma
,tional dignity and their personal self-re-
/ spect until they determine to buy no
These ChinC n If
ing with reasonable encoura cement arc
hampered and tied down by regulations
which make it as costly as possible to OPP
! essential parts of the whole affair, are
DESTROYED by laws that put us at the mer-
cy of every foreign tramp that floats the
, seas. And this, mind you, not in behalf
! Of any home interest that might suffer,
I for these ocean. rates do not concern the
| domestic producer more than they must
| be low enough to admit him to outside
/ markets, but only to the annoyance and
detriment and discourag cement of Ameri-
! can foreign trade in the great staples that
4 HHN1~ 20