Commerce with Central and South America and with the Orient, showing the need of reciprocity, direct lines of transportation and the Nicaragua canal : speech -- before the Home Market Club -- Boston, November 21, 1895.

iSK COMMERCE WITH CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA AND WITH THE ORIENT, SHOWING THE NEED OF RECIPROCITY, DIRECT LINES OF TRANSPORTATION ANp THE NICARAGUA CANAL. SPEECH OE Hon. WARNER MILLER OF NEW YORK, BEFORE THE HOME MARKET CLUB, IN MUSIC HALL, BOSTON, NOVEMBER 21, 1895. BOSTON, 1S9G: Published by the Home Market Club. SPEECH OF THE HON. WARNER MILLER. Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Home Market Club — Allow me to congratulate you on an improvement in the market for home products over the past two years ; on an increased out- put of all our leading industries ; on the re-employment of large numbers of laborers, at wages nearly or quite up to the standard of 1892 ; on the increased demand and advanced prices of our principal agricultural products, cotton and wheat ; and, more especially, on the return of confidence in every department of business, which is the necessary forerunner of the return of the era of prosperity, which was so suddenly checked by the elec- tions of 1892. With a Republican House of Representatives in power, a Re- publican majority assured in the Senate, and the certainty of the election of a Republican President next year, we may unhesita- tingly prepare for a greater activity in our manufacturing busi- ness and for an increased development of all our natural resources such as mining and agriculture, which of necessity give profita- ble employment to all lines of transportation now existing and necessitate the building of others ; we may confidently look for- ward to a period of prosperity the equal of which we have never known, and but few have dreamed to be possible. [Ap- plause.] The value of our agriculture and manufactures exceeds that of any other nation by many million dollars annually. We are able, not only to supply all the necessities of our own people, but in many lines of production we can and do produce a large surplus, which can only find a profitable market beyond the limits of our shores. We are compelled to seek a foreign mar- ket for our surplus cotton, wheat and meat products. In the manufacture of many grades of cottons, of iron and steel, ma- chinery, railroad supplies, agricultural implements, and many other kinds of goods, we can now compete successfully with the 3 o In s o <5- older nations. We must, therefore, look abroad for an outlet for our present surplus and for the increase which will come with returning prosperity. Europe requires a large amount of our raw cotton, cereals and meat, but wants little, if any, of our manufactures. Great Brit- ain, France and Germany, though unable to feed their own peo- ple, are termed the workshops of the world, and their wares find use by every nation of the globe, whether civilized or barba- rous. Today they are engaged in a fierce contest for the posses- sion of the continent of Africa, and the islands of the sea ; not that they may extend the blessings of civilization to the people they subdue, but that they may hold the monopoly of their trade and supply them with the products of their manufacture. The wars they make on these barbarous nations are not prompted by the desire for conquest and military glory, but for the profit of trade. The people of the United States have stood uninterested spec- tators of this hot scramble of European nations to possess themselves of the uncivilized portions of the globe. We have heretofore devoted our energies to the development of the natu- ral resources of our own domains, with so much success that the accumulation of wealth and the power of producing beyond our wants compel us to seek closer relations with the outside world. We need not covet the possessions of Europe in Africa or else- where, for we have lying at our doors to the South, and to the Orient in the Pacific, a market which will take all we have to give it, if by wise statesmanship we cultivate such relations with these, our neighbors, as will give us their friendship and take and hold their trade. [Applause.] Mexico, the West Indies, Central and South America have a population of nearly 70,000,000, and a trade of over $1,000,- 000,000. Nature has made possible the most profitable trade between North and South America. The raw products of the two hemispheres are dissimilar, North America producing mate- rials belonging to the temperate zone, while Mexico, Central and South America and the West Indies produce everything found in the tropics. Exchange between such countries is a necessity for both. Manufactures thrive only in the northern latitudes; nature seems to have set the limits on the development of the great industries and confined them to the. temperate zone. We require of our Southern neighbors all their raw products, such as sugar, coffee, hides, hemp, dye woods, mahogany, etc. They zn o 0 1 o 4 need many of our food products and all our manufactures. Why should we not control this vast trade, both to their and our profit? [Applause. We have not controlled it in the past because we have not made it possible to carry on direct trade with those countries. Much of our trade with them has gone through English vessels, leaving a large share of the profit with them. Trade With Countries South of Ours. Let us look for a moment at the magnitude of this trade, which lies at our doors awaiting our pleasure to take it. Mex- ico, our nearest neighbor, in 1893 imported products from the whole world to the amount of $30,000,000, of which we fur- nished $14,000,000, or 47 per cent; she exported products to the value of $79,000,000, of which the United States took $60- 000,000, or 76 per cent of her entire exports. The Central American States for the same year imported $21,000,000 of products, of which the United States furnished $5,125,000 or 25 per cent. These States exported, the same year, $30,000,000 of products, of which the United States took $9,769,000, or 33 per cent. All the South American States, during the same year, im- ported products to the amount of $400,000,000, of which the United States furnished only $33,000,000, or per cent. These States exported, the same year, products to the amount of $456,000,000, of which the United States took $100,000,000, or 22 per cent. Cuba exported products in the same year $87,000,000 in value, of which the United States took $78,000,000, or 90 per cent of her entire exports. It imported, during the same year, $55,000- 000 of products, of which the United States furnished $18,000- 000, or 33 per cent. During the past five years we have taken from Cuba $348,000,000 in products, and have sent her in re- turn only $87,000,000 worth. It would appear from these fig- ures that we are deeply interested in Cuba, and might be justi- fied in demanding, while we take from her nearly her entire product, that we should be permitted to furnish her the bulk of her importations. [Applause.] The Value and Need of Direct Lines of Transportation. It will be seen from these figures that our proportionate trade with Mexico is very large. It has rapidly increased in the past few years, owing chiefly to the construction of two railroads — the International and the Central — which lead directly into our 5 territory, and thereby give us the advantage of sending our prod- ucts directly into her markets. This is an illustration of the fact that there can be no profitable trade between different countries unless there is rapid and cheap intercommunication. [Applause.] Our failure to take and hold our fair share of the trade of Central and South America is largely due to the fact that we have no well-established steam- ship lines giving us rapid and regular communication with South American ports. In order that we may secure this trade it is necessary, first, that we develop our merchant marine and establish regular lines of steamers between ports of the United States and all the lead- ing ports of Central and South America. [Applause.] We do a very large business with Brazil, having taken from her in 1894 products to the value of $79,000,000. This was chiefly coffee, but we returned her of our products and manufac- tures only $14,000,000 worth. This business was carried al- most entirely in English bottoms. The English vessels engaged in this trade sail first from England, freighted with her manufac- tured products, to Brazil, bring back a cargo of coffee to New York, in return, and, taking American products from New York to Liverpool, making a triangular trip, which is so man- aged as to bring us the raw products of Brazil and enable Eng- land to furnish in exchange her manufactures. If the American manufacturer would reach the markets of Brazil today or go there in person, he must first take ship to Liverpool and from there to Rio Janeiro. There is no possi- bility of our securing any considerable portion of the trade of those countries except by the establishment of steamship lines which shall give us regular and rapid mail communication, and at the same time enable us to put our products into their markets through first hands, instead of through the English factor or commission merchant. This proposition is made so clear by the experience of all commercial nations that it needs no argument to compel its acceptance. [Applause.] The Establishment and Defeat of Reciprocity. The last Republican Administration developed and put into practice a series of reciprocity treaties with nearly all of the countries lying to the South of us. This policy recommended itself to substantially all of our people ; it was shown to be de- sirable that the raw products of those countries not coming into 6 competition with the raw products of our own country should be Admitted free of duty for the benefit of our own people, and that if this privilege were acccorded to our Southern neighbors it was claimed that they in return should receive from us many of our products, either free from duty or at duties lower than they were received at from other nations. The adoption of this policy was the wisest statesmanship, and was the result, un- doubtedly, of a careful study of the conditions and wants of our own people and of the people of Central and South America, and was one of the beneficent results of the late Pan-American Congress, held in Washington, which attracted so much atten- tion in this country, and did so much to bring us into closer and better relations with all the people of Central and South America. [Great applause.] The returns of the commerce under these reciprocity acts prove conclusively that they were a very great benefit to our people and led to a large increase in our exports to those coun- tries. I will not take up your time to go into the details of this matter; doubtless they are familiar to you, and all the leading producers of this country. Unfortunately, the change in administration in 1892 not only stopped the negotiation of further reciprocity treaties, but brought about the abrogation of all those which had been negotiated by the previous administration. There seemed to be but one de- sire in the State Department of the new administration, and that was to overturn and destroy everything that its predecessor had undertaken and accomplished. The nations with which we had negotiated those treaties of reciprocity were treated with scant courtesy and in many cases even with discourtesy. The party that abrogated them acted in a most summary and undiplomatic manner, and our trade relations and diplomatic relations with all those countries, instead of being improved, were greatly injured, so much so that it is dobutful whether new treaties of reciprocity can ever be successfully negotiated again. Certainly, all those countries would be justified in refusing to undertake such nego- tiations, on the ground that we did not regard our treaties when once established. All the efforts of the Republicans to establish lines of steam- ships to the principal ports of South America, through the in- strumentality of proper compensation for carrying the mails, have failed year after year by the most persistent opposition of the Democratic party and the present Democratic Administra- i tion. The Democratic party, holding as it does that we should seek free trade, and particularly export trade for our agricultural products, whenever in power or control, has done everything possible to prevent our securing this foreign trade and thus making a market for the products of agriculture and manufac- tures, and devoted their entire energies to one end, and that is to cripple our industries by destroying our protective tariff system. Possibilities of Trade With the Orient. In addition to this great trade, which lies ready to come to us, there is opening up a new and vast trade of the Orient in Japan and China. The pacific Ocean is doubtless to be the theatre of the greatest commercial development during the next century. The population of the nations which are situated on the Pacific Ocean is more than 500,000,000, the great bulk of which is just coming into trade relations with the outside world. The present foreign commerce of the chief of these nations, namely, China, Japan, Corea, Australia, Hawaii and the other islands, amounts to in round numbers $1 ,000,000,000. In the near future that wrill be more than doubled, and in 50 years, doubtless, it will be quadrupled. Let me call your attention to our trade with two of these principal nations, China and Japan. In 1S93 China imported products to the value of $21 1 ,000,000, of which we furnished only $7,000,000, or 3 1-3 per cent. China exported the same year $162,000,000 worth, of which the L^nited States took $15,- 000,000, or a little less than 10 per cent. As the result of the late Chinese and Japanese war, and the opening of a large num- ber of her ports, doubtless this trade will increase, and whether we shall get our proportion of it depends on the wisdom of our legislators and the sagacity of our manufacturers and merchants. In the same year Japan imported $98,000,000 worth, of which the United States furnished $6,000,000 or a little less than 6 per cent. The same year she exported products to the amount of $90,000,000, of which the United States took $28,- 000,000, or 31 per cent. Our relations with these two nations are of a most amicable character. Their people are desirous of a profitable trade with us. The difficulty in the way of a rapid growth of this trade is the fact that Europe, through the Suez Canal, has a much shorter and cheaper route with the ports of Japan and China than has the United States. To my mind there is but one possible way of securing to the United States its proper proportion of the vast trade of the Pa- cific, and that is by the construction of the Nicaragua Canal, a project which has so impressed itself on the people of the Uni- ted States that certainly a vast majority of our people today are in favor of its speedy construction. [Applause.] With this canal open, New York and all our Atlantic ports will be much nearer to the ports of Japan and to the ports on the west coast of China and of Australia and the islands of the sea than is Europe. New York, through the Nicaragua Canal, will be 2,000 miles nearer to Yokohama than Liverpool or any of the European ports. This difference in our favor will be suf- ficient to substantially control the trade of that great, growing Empire. [Applause.] I believe that the American people are fully determined to maintain a just and wise protective tariff system ; that they are also determined to do whatever shall be necessary for opening up to our people the markets of all the countries and islands ly- ing to the south, and that they are equally determined, either through Governmental action or through the voluntary action of our citizens, to construct the Nicaragua Canal at the earliest pos- sible moment, thereby giving to our people the opportunity to reach out beyond our borders and to take and firmly hold our fair share of the entire trade of the world. [Great and pro- longed applause.]