The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1906-11-28
A STORY OF PROGRESS.
Secretary Shaw Makes Notable Address
At Trans. ns.Mississippi Congress.

Secretary Shaw Makes Notable Address
At ans.Mississippi Congress.
KANSAS CITY, Nov. 22.-Leslie Nj.
Shaw. secretary of the treasury, and
William j. Bryan secured the large
share OF attention here today among
the long list of speakers at the ses.
sions of the Trans-Mississippi Com
mercial congress.
Mr.. Bryan was asked to head com.
mittee Of members of congress to es-
cort Secretary Shaw to the platform,
and when these two distinguished pub
lie men led the way to the rostrum,
there was great applause. Secretary
Shaw, who spoke particularly for a
wider foreign market for American
goods, said in part:
1--WE now produce more agricultural
products than any country on the
map: our mines yield silver literally
by the trainload and gold by the car.
load; ships built in American yards
and of American material unload more
iron ore on the shores of q single
commonwealth than any other coun-
try produces; we cut from our forests
q hundred million feet OF lumber for
every day OF the calendar year; our
shops and factories turn out as much
in finished products IS those of Eng.
land, Of Germany and of France com.
bined, and we pay out in wages nearly
and perhaps quite as much as the
rest of the world. Our railway sys-
tenn is the largest, the most complete,
and our freight rates the cheapest:
our coast.wise trade the most exten.
sive, the most rapid, the most efficient,
and its rate the lowest of all the ma
tions under heaven. One.seventh of
the worlds intern ational trade orig.
mates with US, and one.tenth finds its
way to our ports for ultimate con.
sumption. While the people of eighty
nations sell intern ationally twelve
billion dollars worth of merchandise
per annum, the people of the United
States sell the one to the other more
than twice that much. We hold in
our vaults % per cent. of the worlds
supply OF gold, and have in actual
use more than one.fifth of the worlds
circulating medium.
''Our imports quite promptly re-.
spond to, and therefore quite occur
ately measure, our prosperity. When
our factories are in operation, when
labor is employed and farm produce
therefore high, when our people are
occupied, and therefore prosperous,
our imports increase. They now ex.
ceed in amount per capita any pre-
vious period in our history. We
therefore only have TO guard our
prosperity to make sure of our share
of the import trade of the world.
'This condition will not long con-
tinue. Our growing population will
consume a steadily increasing pro-
portion of food stuffs, while our fac
tories will steadily increase their de-
mand for our raw materials, and
therefrom steadily enlarging output
of finished manufactures will be pro-
duced. 1t requires no prophet to tell
US that we are soon to be confronted
with great surplus of manufactured
goods, for which no market now ex.
lists.
"Where shall these new markets be
found: The answer is easy. for there
are but few places possible. South
America and South Africa import
$3.50, 900, 900 per annum, to which the
United States contributes paltry II
per cent. Oriental countries import
a thousand millions, to which the
United States contributes only lO per.
cent.
"We buy of tropical and sub.tropi-
cal products sl,000,000 per day more
than we sell in tropical and sub.trop-
ical countries. We sell to Europe ST..
500, 900 q day more than we buy from
Europe. These facts afford q COM
plete answer to the claim that II we
will but import more Of what we now
purchase we will have no difficulty in
selling our surplus. however large it
may become.