FOREIGN MARKETS 139 



the trade-routes of several of the great staples of Oriental trade, 

 namely, petroleum, cotton, and cereals for Oriental consumption, 

 and silks and tea for Occidental consumption. For all high-class 

 goods, where the saving in time is essential, the Siberian route will 

 be attractive. Neither the Panama Canal nor the combination of 

 well-equipped steam and rail lines across the Pacific and the United 

 States and Canada, can outrival the Siberian route, save in so far 

 as American Oriental trade is affected. So far as American cotton 

 and cereal interests are concerned, they can be protected, even in 

 Manchuria, barring extreme political interference, by the steam- 

 ship lines now in operation across the Pacific and so rapidly 

 expanding their capacity. The great disadvantage under which 

 the United States labors in competing for a general trade in the 

 Orient arises from the fact that our manufactures are for the most 

 part located on the Atlantic Coast. This disadvantage will be in 

 some measure overcome by the opening of the Panama Canal. 

 Meanwhile the service of steamships of ever-greater capacity in 

 connection with the transcontinental railways bears witness to the 

 ever-growing importance of that trade. 



SECTION 3 

 The Expansion of Steam-carrying Trade on the Pacific 



The sailing-vessel retained an important place on the Pacific long 

 after it had disappeared from any but secondary trade on the Atlan- 

 tic. The long distances to be traversed, the scarcity of coaling- 

 ports, together with the steadiness of the demand for and the slow- 

 sale character of the more important goods transported on the 

 Pacific, gave the sailing-ship an advantage. But during the past 

 ten years I have watched from the windows of my study, which 

 overlooks the bay and harbor of San Francisco, the progress of a 

 mighty but peaceful revolution, a revolution typical of the whole 

 Pacific trade. Ten years ago, for every ton that entered or left the 

 harbor of San Francisco by steam, nearly two came and went under 

 sail. In 1898 the steam tonnage exceeded that of sail for the first 

 time, and now the conditions of ten years ago are exactly reversed, 

 and more than twice as much goes under steam as under sail, while 

 the total is over fifty per cent greater than in 1898. The hull of 

 many a fine ship lies rotting on the mud flats and in out-of-the-way 

 estuaries around the Bay of San Francisco, pointing the fate of 

 others still afloat. The grain, coal, and lumber trade alone now 

 offer a field for sailing-vessels, and this is fast narrowing, and will be 

 greatly curtailed when the Panama Canal is opened. These condi- 

 tions are a fair sample of those which prevail all over the Pacific, 

 and yet the growth of the steamship traffic is but beginning. 



