1224





The Record and Guide.





December 6. 1884





The  World  of Business.

Thurber on South American Trade.

To the Commission on South American trade: It was ray intention to
appear before you whila the Commission was sitting io New York, but
a press of engagements prevented,  and I now  desi-e to briefly submit
eome opinions founded upon  tbe experience of my flrm in endeavoring
to   build   up   a   trade   with   Soutb   American countries.    The primary
requisite ia speedy and frequent steam communication.    Steanaship lines
develop business and buiid up their respecti ^ e termini just aa trunk lines
of railroad do, and our experience in trying to build up a trade with
Soutb America, which has now extended over a period of several yeara,
has convinced us that this is the starting point.    Our position as com¬
petitors of England and other countries having frequent steam commu¬
nication is perhaps well illustrated by an incident which occurred in our
home trade.    Two retail grocers,   customers of ours, doing business at
New  Brighton,  Staten Island, had been competitois for tbe trade of an
out-lying suburb, the people of which had   been  in the habit of visiting
New Brighton and buying at one store or the other as they found prices
and  goods   to   suit   tbem.   aod   the   trade   was   about   equally divided
between   tbem,     1  sold   both   of   these   men  their goods.     One began
to   increase   his   orders,    while   tbe    other    one    diminished    hia.     I
knew  nothing of the  cause until   the  latter   one   said   to   me   that
he had got to buy a hor-s-- and wagon and engoge  a driver to solicit
orders and deliver goods through thia suburb, as his opponent bad been
doing it some time and was getting the trade away from bim, and ha had
to do the same thing or stop trying to do  that  business.    Now the mer¬
chants of the United States are precisely in the same posiiion as regards
those of England and other countries which have established steam lines,
and this brings us to the consideration of bow can these steam lines be
obtained.     I answer,  in the same manner that our cumpetitora have
obtained them, by giving them a liberal compensation  for mail   service
until a sufficient trade is developed to suitain them, wben this compensa¬
tion or subsidy,   if you choose  to so call it,   can  be withdrawn.    The
abuses connected with attempts  heretofore made to suhsiiiize steamship
lines and railroad companies have created a popular prejudice against
the word "subsidy," but it iaonly another form of " protection to American
industries," and all lhe political economists, even themost ardent advocates
of free trade, I'ke John Sttart Mill, admit it is necessary to protect infant
industries until thoy are sufficiently established to   "run alone."   The
anti-suljsidy cry, if carried to a logical eouelusion, would stop the mails
on every route in this country where the postage was not sufficient to pay
the expense of carrying them.    Steam and electricity have greatly abbre¬
viated time and space, and commerce bas outrun not only State boun¬
daries but national boundaries.    At any rate, practical business common
sense tells us that in order to get our share of the trade we have got to
ofl'er eciual facilities with our competitors, and the flrst requisite as above
stated is that of frequent steam communication.    Monthly lines will not
do now-a-days: we must have semi-monthly or weekl? lines.    A monthly
steamship line is as far behind the times now-a-days as a weekly paper U.
Both are good things in their way. but do not come often enough for the
times in which we live.    We must not expect that the husine.fs developed
by these I'nes will pay during the first year or two.    The first problem is
to   get   the   bxisiness   coming   our   way,   and    then    it   will    gradu¬
ally    prove    remunerative.      There    ate    many   indirect   advantages
connected   with   tbe   development   of   a   commercial   marine    which
are    not   at   flrst   apparent.        There    are,    of    course,    other    and
minor   requisites   in   establishing    trade   with   South    America,    like
the  giving of  credit, the estsblishment of  branch  houses or agencies,
studying the wants of lhe various markets, and catering to them, knowl¬
edge of languages, Sec, all of which will come naturally if  we establish
and sustain aitquate means of communication.   First give us this, then
hold   a   grand   exhibition   or   series   of  exhibitions under  government
auspices at the principal American port where these steam lines terminate,
invite every nation or government on thia continent to participate so that
the people of each of these countries may become familiar  with  tbe pro¬
duction of the other, and  the  merchants of each would  soon become
acquainted with those of the other, and trade would develop in a surpris¬
ing ratio.    All of which is respectfully submitted by yours, very truly
(Signedl        F. B. TouRBSR, of Thurber. Wbyland & Co., New York.

A National Trail.

We have national banks and a great many other national institutions,
some within the constitution and some without it; and agreat many other
national projects have been proposed, but never until the cattlemen met
at St. Louis last week had there been a deniand for a National Trail.
The cattlemen in convention assembled unanimously demand the opening
cf a safe and cheap route from the extensive breeding grounds of tbe
South to the extensive maturing grounda of the great Northwest, and tbey
express the belief that tbis can only be accomplished by the establishment
of " a national stock trail over which stock can be driven." They aak
Congress to op en .establish ond maintain such a trail, " beginning at some
point on Red River and extending thence in a north or northwest
direction to the north line of the United States." There was a good deal
of discussion over the route of the propoaed trail. One delegate wished
the convention to ask Congress to appropriate and set apart a belt six
miles wide, beginning at the initial monument on Red River, in Texas,
running thence north upon tbe lOuth meridian line to the northeast corner
of Texas; thence west by north to the northwest corner of Kansas; thence
north along the 103d meridian line to the northern boundary of the United
States—to be used as a national highway and cattle trail for the beneflt
of all citizens of these Uoited States. Ali the plans substantially favor
aclose conformity to the lOOth meridian, and all think the trail should be
SIX mi'es wide. Were it not for the unusual width asked for one might
think from reading the accounts that the delegates were discussing a local
proposition, instead of a highway over the heart of the continent. The
intention is, however, to connect Texas with the fattening pastures of
Montana and the adjacent territories, by means of a wide trail tbat
will admit of the slow movement of cattle in order that tbey may
becorae acclimated as they proceed. The cattlemen claim that the
question addresses itself not only to tbe producing portion of the com¬
munity, but also to consumers in ev&ry part of the Union. Cheap and
healthy meats is the great object in view; and it ia claimed that a
great trail, with perhaps occasional quarantine stations, will do more
to keep down the Texas fever than all otber remedial measures thjit
can be devised. The trail does not run towards Georgia- but still
we have a general interest in the subject, and we .trust that Congress
will not pigeon-hole the memorial of the cattlemen without first giving
It a careful consideration.—A«an(a Constitution.

The Sonth as a Field for Investment.

There is no better fleld for investment now than the South. In every
Bouthernbtate there is great need of money to begin new enterprises ur
to carry on those already established. Farmers want money business
men want money, and those who are preparing to open up mines
or to^ start manufactories want money. They are willing to pav a
good interest for it, and they can afford to pay it. It is a mistake to sup¬
pose that they cannot furnish good security. Tue South is rich io
resources. Her lands produce abundantly, ber forests are valuable now
and are becotnmg more valuable every year, and her mines of iron and
coal are equal to any in the world. It needs only a glance at the assess¬
ment rolls of the different Southern States to convince any oue that the





South is making rapid strides toward wealth. In 1879 the assessed value
of property iu Virgioin, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida,
Alabama, Mississippi, Lnui^iana, Kentuckv, Tennessee and Arkansas waa
$-i,184,Ouf,tiO0, The assessed value tbis year waa J3,8i.'i,(itiO,0OI), an increase
in five years of SS41,()UO,iiOD. This increase is not attributable to inflated
values, but to accumulated wealth. Propei ty is not assessed higher now,
in proportion to its value, thau it was in 1879. As States have grown
richer the rate of taxation has decreased. In this and some other of the
Southern States the State rate of taxation is remarkably low. It is only
within tbe last three or four years that tbe growth of the South in wealth
has attracted tho atteutinn of the capitalists of tbe North to any great
extent, and even now, outside of a small circle, tbe advantages the South
offers to investors are not known. Iu any of the States named above
money readily commands from 8 to ID per cent., with excellent security.
Tbe great majority of Northern people who have money to loan are not
realizing more than 4 per cent, for it. They would glaaly send their
money South if they could be convinced that it could be safely invested.
To satisfy themselves on tbis point they have only to investigate for them¬
selves. The monev of the North made the Western State; what they are.
In 1878 the insurance companies of Connecticut alone bad t5O,O00,OCiO
invested in the West. Almost all of this money ■was placed on farms and
secured by first mortgages. What waa done for the West by the capitalist
and moneyed instituti'US of Conuec'icut, Massachusetts and other North¬
ern States can now be done for tbe South. The security in the South is
just as good as it ever was in the West, and Southern lands are capable of
being made just as prnStable. During the coming winter the Northern
people will get a better idea of the South ond her resources than they ever
had before. At the New Orleans Exposition they will see evidences of
wealth that will surprise them. Their keen business sense will see oppor¬
tunities for investing their money in tbe South that, it is hoped, they will
not be slow to take advantage of. The election of Mr. Cleveland marks a
new era in the material progress of the South. The Southern people now
feel that the last barrier to themost perfect harmony of sentiment and
feeling between the North and South has been removed, and they will
work to promote the prosperity of the Bouth more hopefully and energet¬
ically. It will be surprising if within a year Northern capital is not seek¬
ing investment io tl:e South in great abundance.—Savannah News,

American Shipping.

The Democratic party haa bad a great deal to say for years past about
the weakness of our navy and the decline of our merchant shipping. It
has also echoed a good deal of the talk which a class of our political econ¬
omists who aspire to be considered very English have indulged iu against
subsidies. As a matter of fact, our navy, compared with itself, is much
stronger in every way than when the Democratic party went out of power,
though relating to navies of foreign powera it has lost rank. For various
reasons our merchant marine has decreased in the last quarter of a cen¬
tury. The Democratic party is committed to stretigthening the navy,
though that is not a traditional Democratic policy, and to building up our
mercbant marine, though that is as little so. So far as we can judge, the
means they propose to pursue for tbese ends are simply to allow foreign
nations tosell us their old sbipa and put an end altogether to American
ship building. Tbe idea of encouraging American ship-building and tbe
i creaseil ownership of sea-going vessels by Americans in the way that
foreign nations encourage ship-building among thena selves and the increase
of their merchant marine is apparently not thought of. As unpopular a
word as " subsidy " has been among them, it is by subsidies that others do
what we want to do. France bas for a number of years granted liberal
sudsidies to French ship-builders and French ship-owners, and the foreign
dispatches show that England does not hal; in the policy by which she haa
extended ber trade to ali quartera of the earth. We ought to have an ad.-
vantage in the Pacific trade, nut our vessels cannot contend with the sub¬
sidized lines of England. Those dispatches state tbat England bas man¬
aged tu subsidize two mail routes to New Zealand, alternating weekly
between an all sea route from Loodon and one bysea to New York, thence
overland to San Francisco, and thence by steamer to New Zealand. Brit¬
ish doctrinaires encourage ours to denounce subsidies, but British states¬
men quietly go ahead and grant them wherever they can secure a new
line of steamers and new trade by doing so.—St. Louis Corrvmercial,

Over-production or Vuder-cousumptiou.

There are those who assert that over-production is an imposaibility;
there may be under-con sumption, but to say that an excess of good things
in this world exists is a self-evident absurdity. Perhaps this is abtractly
true, and it all heads were well sheltered, all bodies well clothed, all
mouths well fllled. all feet well shod and all physical and mental wants rea¬
sonably gratifisQ there would he no excess, but just enough and no more;
the markets would be healthy and steady, prices reasonable all around
acd thegeneral condition of human affairs satisfactory. Nevertheless, it
caimot be denied that in the present inharmonious and ill-adjusted arrange¬
ment of human relations, we do have what is practically over-production
—congested markets, redundant supplies of all the staple commodities of
commerce, an excess of agencies of commerce, sluggish trade, pricea belovF
the coa6 of production, low wages, very small protics when there are any
profits at all, and lifeleseness in all fields of enterprise and all departments
of industry. There seems to be an excess of everything, and, what is puz¬
zling, the excesses meet in the strangest contradictions. One might sup¬
pose that with an excess of farm products in the West and an excess of
manufactures in the East, the railroads would have more than they could do.
But there is an excess of railroada too, the crops do not move actively to the
East nor the manufactures to the West—and the roads are not tasked
to over two thirds their capacity. Even from the ocean we hear the same
complaint, there are too many ships, and hundreds and even thousands of
steamers and sailing vessels are lying idle in the great ports oftbe world for
want of cargoes, and the ship-yards ou the Clyde are dull and lifeless.
Too much is the universal malady—too much grain, too much^woollen
and cotton goods, too much sugar, too much coal, too much iron, too
much lumber, too many boots and shoes, too much machinery, too many
railroads, boals aud ships, and, as a distressing result of all this excess,
too much idle labor in the great industrial districts, not only of tbis
country but of Europe. This condition of excess has prevailed for more
than a year, and although a sudden revival of trade may cause ib to
vanish and times grow better, tbere are causes at work whicU must bring
about a repeated recurrence of it in the future ; for human ingenuity ia
incessantly engaged in devising new forces and new methods of produc¬
tion whereby ono man can raise two bushels of grain where he now raises
one, and make two yards of cloth where be now makea one. With tbis
capacity to produce constantly increased, there would appear to be but
ons way out of the difflculty—increased t onsumption. In the midst of
all the abundance, there are millions of human beings in the ■world who
have not unough to eat and wear—who are suffering from want of shelter,
food and clothing. If the existing surpluses were distributed to theae
they would be consumed, and the glut would disappear—and the great
.pp-blem of the day, therefore, is to increase tbe capacity of the needy
millions on tha earth to buy what they require, and thus make a demand
for the necessaries, cimforts and luxuries which are now produced in
excessive amounts.—S(. Louis Republican.

The War against Middlemen.

In this age of fioc'alistic ideas i; is wel! to watch the drift of the move¬
ment against middlemen iu tho different countries. In France ttie move¬
ment is in the direction of paternal control by the government; in Eng¬
land and Wales it takes the shape uf insurance against sickness, loss of
employment and death.   In the United States trades unionisoi is in a