COLONIAL EXPANSION AND FOREIGN TRADE. 71 



testably accessible to-day on an equal basis to all the world. The 

 key to it lies in the best terms, the best value. The trader and not 

 the admiral governs the field. Prince Heinrich will not succeed 

 better than Admiral von Diederichs in convincing China of the ad- 

 vantages Germany can offer if Mr. Carnegie's rails are cheaper than 

 Mr. Krupp's. A whole fleet of American battle ships will not con- 

 vince the Asiatics that our cotton goods are as desirable as the Eng- 

 lish so long as the latter make goods suitable to their markets, and 

 the Americans offer only products calculated to cover the home 

 demands. 



The golden rule is a more effective trade opener than the cannon's 

 mouth. Fair and square dealing among nations does not entail ex- 

 pense, but brings in good returns. Our national policy, however, 

 has been one studiously calculated to array the world against us. 

 Like every policy in behalf of a selfish interest, it injures the foreign 

 people against which it is directed far less than the nation which de- 

 vises it. 



The trade of Australasia, Argentina, and Uruguay, and the Cape 

 is based chiefly on wool and hides. The imports of these countries, 

 numbering but eleven million inhabitants, amount to $440,000,000, 

 equaling in amount the trade of China, Japan, Persia, and India, with 

 their seven hundred and fifty million inhabitants. Though but 1.2 

 per cent of the population of the world (outside of Europe and the 

 United States), their imports are 27.8 per cent of the totals of the 

 figures in the tables. In exports they do about $400,000,000, or 

 24.9 per cent of the total sum of exports here given. It would 

 be worth cultivating friendly relations with them. They are in- 

 habited by people of European stock, and come nearer to the stand- 

 ard of life of Americans than any of the other nations of the globe. 

 Our latest effort to draw them closer to us was the Dingley tariff, 

 with its duty of eleven cents a pound on greasy wool and of fifteen 

 per cent on raw hides. The action can not be construed as a very 

 friendly one. But neither is the effect as calculated by the wise heads 

 who insisted on the pro^dsions of the wool tariff, the woolen and 

 worsted manufacturers of the East, and the wool raisers of the West. 

 The wool and woolen trade of America has suffered many vicissitudes 

 during the thirty-five years of high tariffs. It has gone through 

 many periods of depression. But it is doubtful whether at any time 

 more disastrous conditions existed than have marked the twelve 

 months ending at this writing (March, 1899). 



The situation can be appreciated from the fact that wool, imported 

 prior to the passing of the Dingley tariff, is being reshipped to Eng- 

 land, where it is bringing better prices than can be obtained here 

 under the aegis of the protective duty of eleven cents a pound. Three 



