Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-01-02

Listen to message from the coun'
try, give new freedom to our rail-
roads and our dying merchant marine
so that they can aid our crusade for
foreign trade, and permit American
labor employers to combine abroad SO
as successfully to compete there
against foreign combinations pay
ing much lower wages" So
audible is this message in all parts of
our land that if there be legislators
who have not already heard at least
some of its wave sounds, then there
must be something wrong with their
political wireless telegraph apparatus,
or, to drop into archaic phrase, they
haven't got their ears to the ground
This message comes from an aroused
country which has recently become
aware of certain entanglements that
it wants removed, and if the sharp
ness of existing legislative wits are
not sharp enough to remove then'
others will be found to do it.
The country from which this mes
sage comes is no longer country
where the farmer sees 40 lui.iie'
than his boundary fence, or the oallh-
er his local customers, or the mer-
chant the home market alone. MOI
only are farmer, banker and merchaht
alike become students of foreign
trade, but advanced students-they
know both what they want ana also
the handicaps that hamper them, anu
they want those handicaps removed
And this message of theirs was learn
ed by the writer from nearly two nun
dred chambers of commerce all over
the country. It Is surprising no"
much there is for a man to learn Wheh
once he gets in touch with that mar
velous campaign for communicated
tering now so vigorously carried on
by the commercial bodies of our land.
My message to commercial assocla-
tons was of South America, the value
Of its friendship and of its trade OPP
oortunities, but the message they send
pack is of far wider import, deserving
he attention of us all and especially
IF those to whom we have delegated
he making of our laws and the con-
luct of our government. These cham
,ers of commerce have now gotten
ar beyond their old discussion OF the
iced for foreign markets as a held
or the expansion of our manufactur-
ng, or as balance to offset any tenn
,orary contraction in home markets.
70. they are away beyond that. me
tudy of the railroad rebate evil and
is correction led them to learn that
hose domestic rebates were but
rifles in comparison with the rebates
,iven foreigners by the foreign ship |
ing conference combine in ocean
reights, which annually transfer from
ur pockets to foreigners six hundred
million dollars for freight, insurance,
to-. not only bleeding us financially,
ut also leaving the foreigners with |
he possession of the ships, and with
heir factories protected against our
ompetition.
Nor have the leading men of the
arious communities who make up
hese chambers of commerce confined
heir study to American conditions,
ut have looked abroad and inquired
ito what other governments were do
1g to obtain more foreign trade for
heir nationals, and what did they
nd? They soon came to learn that
lany useful things done across the
-ater by governments for the govern
d, are here forbidden by our laws.
hief among those governmental aids
, enterprising exporters abroad is re-
uced railroad rates to the seaboard
iven for exports, and the encourage
lent for firms which are competitors
the home market to band together
IF foreign trade. Their competition
| home keeps down the home prices,
ut once across their national from
er they fight only foreigners and
ombine to do so. Now, with us a
wer preferential rate on railroads for
lport articles is forbidden by the in
,rstate commerce act and the rulings h
it's commission, while the Sherman !
It interferes with combinations for ;
reign trade. All the foregoing is
1own to the organized activity of [
lsiness men constituting these great I
organizations. They have i
)ne everything possible to help them I
lives. but now they realize that gov /
action is necessary to liber- ,
e our merchant marine from its /,
'esent trammels, to release the over t
gulated railroads from those regu- I
lions which prevent their assisting q
If exporters, and to free our produc- E
S to make such combinations in for !
en- fields as they like. Give us this t