Vol. XIII, No. 8 



WASHINGTON 



August, 1902 



/TtI 



Or 



THE 



ATIIONA1L 

 ©(SmAIPMIIC 

 IE 



/ttI 



O 



PROBLEMS OF THE PACIFIC -THE COM- 

 • MERCE OF THE GREAT OCEAN * 



By Hon. O. P. Austin, 

 Chief of Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department 



THE problem of the Pacific, from 

 the commercial standpoint, 

 seems at first sight a difficult 

 one. To transport commerce across a 

 great ocean which stretches literally half 

 way round the globe is no small under- 

 taking. And to do this in competition 

 with countries lying thousands of miles 

 nearer to that great and exacting mar- 

 ket of the Orient is a task which would 

 scarcely be undertaken by other than 

 American energy and by the descendants 

 of those older commercial nations — Eng- 

 land and Germany — whose ships now 

 penetrate every sea, and whose com- 

 mercial representatives are found in 

 every country. Even American energy 

 and commercial enterprise have looked 

 askance at this great task during the 

 years in which the problems of the home 

 market and home development were 

 under consideration. Railroads were 

 needed to develop the great interior of 

 our own country, and their construction 

 was followed by the development of the 

 farms and forests and mines of the great 



interior and the manufacture of the 

 natural products with which this great 

 country had been so lavishly endowed. 

 But these great undertakings have 

 been accomplished. The country has 

 been gridironed with railroads. Six 

 great transcontinental lines connect 

 ocean with ocean, and others connect the 

 Lakes with the Gulf, while their lateral 

 branches leave scarcely a materi al section 

 of the country without direct and cheap 

 transportation to the water's edge. The 

 producing areas thus opened, whether 

 agricultural, forest, or mining, have 

 poured out their treasures ; the ready 

 capitalist and the busy workman, aided 

 by the genius of the scientist and the 

 inventor, have turned these natural 

 products into form ready for consump- 

 tion. The great home market has been 

 supplied, and the producer, the manu- 

 facturer, and the capitalist are now seek- 

 ing new worlds to conquer. The bound- 

 less energy which constructed railroads, 

 developed farms, opened mines, invaded 

 forests, and constructed factories, hav- 



' An Address before the National Geographic Society, April 2, 1902. 



