The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-02-07
SHAW WOULD SPLIT UNION
Secretary Wants Free Trade Tor
Certain Districts
0 OFFSET HIGH PRICED LABOR
GREAT MARKET WOULD BE
OPENED UP IN sURoPE By
THIS UNIQUE SCHEME.

WASHINGTON, D. c. Feb. =
Secretary Shaw would split the
Union. This does not mean that he
is a secessionist, or that he contem-
plates a renewal of conditions that pre-
cipitated the civil war, but he has
Just advanced an idea that has caused
Washington authorities to sit up and
take notice.
The head of the treasury would
seggregate certain portions of the At
lantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts into
which raw materials from abroad
would be admitted free, including coal
and other fuel to be used in the pro-
cesses of manufacture. He would cut
these sections off absolutely from the
operation of the United States tariff
laws, making them essentially manu-
featuring districts and not permitting
the erection of any residences or BUSH
ness houses other than establishments
devoted to manufactures. In this way
the secretary believes that he would
create veritable foreign market for
American labor
Mr.. Shaw has turned the scheme over
dwelt at length upon it this week in
an address before the New Hampshire
Board Of Trade at Concord At the
present time there are bonded factories
in WI q
are made from imported materials on
which no duty is paid, the materials be-
ing held in bond until they are ship
ped out Of the country as finished
goods. Mr.. Shaw's scheme is merely
to extend this policy b ybOnding we'll
defined sections of land, and permit
ting factories established upon this
land to turn out by wholesale manu-
features worked up from material
brought from abroad.
American commerce. because of the
conditions under which it labors, al
ways has experienced difficulty in
entering foreign markets.
Highest Paid Labor.
The principal handicaps of the Amer
lean manufacturer are the enhanced
cost of raw materials in this country
and the fact that American labor is
the highest paid in the world. Des-
pte these two advantages, American
manufacturers built up an export
trade of $719,000,0 900 in 1906, an amount
which totaled Al per cent of the total
exports. This was accomplished in
the face of the fiercest competition,
through the process of consolidation
American business men, realizing that
individual effort could secure for them
no share of this rich foreign trade, or
eign market.
This was the beginning of the cor
poration, and in the present struggle
for the trade supremacy, of the world,
the corporation has come to stay The
United States, laboring under the han
dicap of high prices for both raw ma
terials and labor. cannot hope to COM
pete with foreign rivals unless it eX-
tends and celebrates this system of
concentration of effort and combina-
ton of interests. This fact is thor
oughly appreciated here, where a broad
view of business conditions is obtain
able, but the existence of this truth
is not seen clearly by the individual
states.
This fact is worrying the national
government not little, for state Iegis-
latures now are busy enacting laws
that are certain to hamper the efforts
of the administration to control and
direct the big corporations. 1t is real
lied that federal control will be difficult
in the face of a conflicting and I'M
satisfactory tumble of state legisla-
ton.