638 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



interests there and in shaping our international policies is a question 

 which only the future can answer. In a memorial from the cotton 

 manufacturers of the South addressed to the Secretary of State in 

 November last, commending the 'open-door' policy in China, the 

 statement is made that a large part of the production of the cotton 

 drills and sheetings manufactured in Southern mills is exported to 

 North China, and that "the prohibition or interference in China 

 by any European government would tend to seriously injure, not only 

 the cotton-manufacturing industries, but other important products 

 of the United States which are being shipped to China. For the pro- 

 tection and perpetuity of these commercial relations," it is added, "we 

 earnestly pray that the Administration will take such action as may be 

 proper under existing conditions. It is not only the manufacturers of 

 cotton goods that would be seriously affected, but the Southern planter 

 and cotton grower, who finds a ready cash sale for his products at 

 his very door; and also the thousands of employees and laboring 

 classes who are engaged in the cotton mills and depend on the success 

 of these manufacturing industries for a livelihood." 



The developments of the past two years in consequence of our ac- 

 quisition of the Hawaiian and Philippine islands have brought another 

 factor into prominence in our commercial development, which may 

 be potential of unlooked-for results. The Pacific slope is rapidly 

 being converted from a mere outpost of trade into a great hive of 

 commerce.* Not only San Francisco, but Port Townsend, Seattle, Ta- 

 coma and Portland, are becoming entrepots of Oriental and South 

 Pacific commerce, and San Diego seems likely to be an important 

 factor in the development of trade with the west coast of Latin 

 America. 



The growth of sea-borne commerce at these points means much 

 for the great extent of country tributary to them and promises to 

 work marked changes in the industrial condition of the vast region 

 west of the Rocky Mountains. In a similar way, our southern group 

 of States may find a sweeping readjustment of their economic relation 

 to the rest of the Union in the fact that Cuba and Porto Rico now offer 

 them easy and convenient stepping stones to Latin American trade. 



Even in the now familiar conditions affecting the Atlantic sea- 

 board, which, as we have seen, have recently produced a great in- 

 crease in our export trade, a new element appears in the statement 

 of our consul in Sierra Leone, Mr. Williams, that, in a few years, West 

 Africa will offer a market for our goods 'only second in importance 



* Exports from ports on the Pacific coast (excluding Alaska) which amounted 

 to some $36,800,000 in the fiscal year 1895, rose to $75,300,000 in 1898, and, 

 though the total fell to $57,600,000 in 1899, it rose again to $71,600,000 in 1900 

 (years ended June 30). 



