Evening star., 1916-09-26

remove all ingenious constructions and
make 1t perfectly clear what the liber-
ties as well as the restraints of trade
are in this country.
Must Have Merchant Marine.
And then there must be cooperation,
not only between the government and
the business man. but between the
business men. Shippers must co-op-
crate, and they ought to be studying
right now how to cooperate There
countries who can show them how,
and they ought to look forward, par
ticularly to caring for this matter, that
they have vehicles in which to carry
j, selves Immediately and as rapidly as
possible to the recreation of great
American merchant marine. Our pres
ent situation is very like this: Sup
partment store did not have any de-
livery wagons, and depended upon his
competitors in the same market to
deliver his goods to his customers. You
deliver their own goods first, and they
would deliver yours only II yours were
to be delivered upon the routes fol-
lowed by their wagons. That is an
exact picture OF what is taking place
in our foreign trade at this minute.
Foreign vessels carry our goods where
they. the foreign vessels, happen to
be going, and they carry them only
they are carrying fer other people. You
cannot conduct trade that way. That
is conducting trade on sufferance. That
Is conducting trade on an IF you
please" That is conducting trade on
the basis of service, the point of view
of which is not your advantage. There
fore we cannot lose any time In getting
delivery wagons.
There has been a good deal of dis
cussion about this recently. and 1t has
been said: THE government must not
take any direct part in this. You must
let private capital do it, and the re-
ply was: All right; go ahead" "Oh,
Reip % W U.S. WV We noa SAID sae Very Weiss Mei them Snn
we will go ahead. but we will not need
your help, because we do not want to
compete where you are already doing
the carrying business, but where you
are not doing the carrying business.
and 1t has to be done for some time
at a loss. we will undertake to do. it
at loss until that route Is estab
lished. and we will give place to pri-
is ready to take the place. That sounds
like very reasonable proposition. We
will carry your goods one way when
we have to come back empty the other
way and lose money on the voyage, and
when there are cargoes both ways and
it is profitable to carry them we shall
not insist upon carrying them any
longer"
South America Trusts q. S.
And it is absolutely necessary now
to make good our new connections. Our
new connections are with the great and
rich republics to the south of us. For
the first time in my recollection they
are beginning to trust and believe in us
and want US. and one of my chief con-
Germs has been to see that nothing was
done that did not show friendship and
good faith on our part. You know that
ed to travel comfortably in your own
person from New York to a South
American port. you had to gy by way
of England. or else stow yourself away
in some uncomfortable fashion in a
ship that took almost as long to go
straight and within whose bowels you
got in such a temper before you got
there that you did not care whether
she got there or not. The great In
teresting geographical fact to me is
that by the opening of the Panama
canal there Is a straight line south
from New York through the canal to
the western coast of South America, |
which hitherto has been one of the
most remote coasts in the world so far
as We were concerned; and that the |
west coast Of South America Is now
nearer to US than the eastern coast Of
South America ever was to US. SO that |
we have the open Atlantic upon which |
to approach the east coast. |
Here is the loom all ready upon |
which to spread the threads which can !
be worked into a fabric of friendship |
and wealth such as we have never |
known before. The real wealth of for
eign relations. my fellow citizens. !
whether they be the relationship of !
trade or any other kind of intercourse, |
the real wealth of those relationships |
is the wealth of mutual confidence and |
understanding. If we do not under
stand them and they do not understand |
us we cannot trade with them, much |
less be their friends. and it is only by |
weaving these intimate threads of |
connection that we shall be able to |
establish that fundamental thing. that !
psychological spiritual nexus. which is,
after all, the real warp and woof of |
trade itself. We have got to have the |
we have got to have the CO.
operation, and then back of all that has
got to lie what America has in abund-