The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1905-04-05

figures, recently given out by the
department of Commerce, and reprint
ed in the Cotton Manufacturer Of
Charlotte, N. c.:
The total exports of cotton goods
for the whole world last year was $50
million dollars; of this the United
States only sent abroad s22, 500, 900.
In other words, last year we made
Is per cent. of the raw cotton, but
only sold the world per cent. of the
goods it consumed.
But my friends, that is not all; we
actually imported shout $50, 900, 600
worth of cotton goods last year, nearly
twice what we exported
Just think of tive exported last
year 400 million dollars worth of
cotton. England took her share and
after clothing her own people sent
abroad for sale about 66 million dol
lars; Germany 80 million; France,
Switzerland and other countries nearly
200 million more. These people
bought their cotton here, freignted it
ac -oss the ocean and then sent $780,
O0C. 600 of it back here and sold it
where the cotton was grown, at a
profit, after paying freight and tariff
charges. The ability of these foreign
nations to control the cotton trade Of
the world is due largely to the unceas-
ing efforts of their respective govern
ments in developing an export trade.
TRANSPORTATION MONOPOLY.
These countries control the ocean
TRANSFORMATION of the world, and there
is no factor in commerce so potent as
the control of transportation. YOU
can let the railroads discriminate ever
so little in favor of Florence or Co.
lumbia and they can dry your town
up. Your magnificent stores would
close and grass grow in your beauti-
full streets.
g Last year only three per cent. of
or products went abroad in American
ships. We paid tribute to these
foreign steamship lines of 800 million
dollars. Every dollar of this was car
ried abroad and distributed there.
and no industry contributed as much
as the producers of raw cotton. You
paid more of that tribute than any
other class in the United States.
About one-half of all the agricultu-
raj exports went from the South and
this was chiefly cotton. Sixty per
cent of the vessels as shown by the
reports of the Treasury Department
that came into South Atlantic and
Gulf ports entered in ballast, while
only six per cent that entered the
North Atlantic ports came in ballast.
Thas simply means that the vessels
coming into Southern ports must
charge enough one way to pay the ex-
penses of the voyage. That additional
freight came out of the man who pro-
duced that cotton. If you want to
know what monopoly of transporta-
tion can do to hold markets either for
or against a country, look at the
South American trade, a country
right at our very doors. That trade is
controlled by England and Germany.
The American merchant flag by the
foreign system of subsidies or subven-
tions has been driven from the high
seas. A ship loads in South America
with goods for Mobile or Charleston.
She comes there and unloads. One
of our mills consi.ns goods to we Will
say to Rio de Janeiro. The ship in
stead of going there sails direct for
Europe and then back to Rio, crossing
the ocean twice, completing the cir
cult of triangle. and thus holding at
disadvantage the American exporter.
I can find numerous instances in our
consular reports where the American
goods were taken of and European
goods substituted so as to keep the
South American trade Under the I'M
preston that the only place to buy
cotton goods is in Europe.
The construction Of the IstbUlan
canal is going to remedy this to some
extens.
THE ISTHMIAN CANAL.
When God fashioned this coun-
try, he run its great rivers and noun
tain ranges north and south and
placed its natural gateways on the
South Atlantic and Gulf coast. When
man took hand in the development
of the continent, he attempted to
change this and the greatest monopoly
on earth is our trans-continental rail
road system. 1t has for years been
forcing freight east and west. The
products from our mills going to Chi
ma, instead of going the nearest route
to deep water, travel up the continent
nearly thousand miles to one of these
trans continental lines asd then across
the continent 5000 more before they
reach a ship. You may be sure that
the man who grew that cotton pays
his share of the added freight.
This powerful monopoly has always
defeated every project looking to the
building up of a merchant marine
chat would develop South Atlantic
and Gulf ports, just as it postponed
for third of century the construc-
tion of an Isthmian canal. [ do not
believe that Congress has ever passed
any measure of as great sindustrial
importance to the south as the canal
bill and I do not believe that could
have been passed had it not been for
the Spanish war. -
When that great war ship, the
Oregon, went ploughing down the
coast on her ten thousand mile voyage
around the cape, it demonstrated to
the whole country the absolute neces-
sity of the canal as war measure,
and this will be worth to the south 20