304 The National Geographic Magazine 



ing succeeded beyond its greatest expec- 

 tations, now turns its attention to the 

 next great problem, that of finding in 

 other countries a market for the ever- 

 increasing surplus which that energ}' 

 is producing at home. 



In addition, however, to these pro- 

 ducts of our fields, and mines, and for- 

 ests, and factories, there are certain 

 articles required for use in manufactur- 

 ing and for food and drink which we 

 do not and probably cannot produce 

 at home. The raw silk, and fibers, arid 

 rubber, and cabinet woods, and chem- 

 icals, and dyestuffs for use in manufact- 

 uring ; the tea, and coffee, and cocoa, 

 and sugar, and rice, and tropical fruits 

 and spices required as food and drink, 

 must be supplied in part or in whole from 

 abroad, and they form and must con- 

 tinue to form an ever-increasing part of 

 our imports. We bring every day in 

 the year a million dollars' worth of these 

 tropical and subtropical products from 

 other countries. We want to pay for 

 these necessities of daily life — necessi- 

 ties which we cannot produce at home — 

 with the products of our farms and 

 mines and forests and factories, and 

 also find a market for the hundred mil- 

 lions of dollars' worth of our surplus 

 that still remains after" paying for all 

 these necessary imports. 



It is because of these conditions, in- 

 creasing in intensity as our surplus 

 grows and our demand for tropical 

 goods in exchange also grows, that we 

 are looking abroad with increased in- 

 terest and anxiety every day, that our 

 manufacturers and merchants are build- 

 ing and buying ocean fleets, that our 

 capitalists are extending their cable lines 

 to distant countries and islands, that 

 our producers are demanding an isth- 

 mian canal, and that our people are 

 commanding the ownership by the 

 United States of tropical gardens which 

 may in time supply many of the articles 

 which we now buy in foreign countries 

 and open new markets for our own pro- 



ductions. And it is to the Pacific that 

 we naturally look for this growth of 

 our commerce. Europe is, of course, 

 the natural market in which to sell our 

 foodstuffs and the materials used in 

 manufacturing, and we are also making 

 good headway there with certain classes 

 of our manufactures ; but it is from the 

 countries bordering upon the Pacific 

 that we draw a large share of our trop- 

 ical and subtropical imports, and among 

 their enormous population — one-half the 

 population of the world — we should find 

 a large market for our surplus bread- 

 stuffs and meats and manufactures. 



But the exchange, under present con- 

 ditions, is not easy. Our great produc- 

 ing and consuming centers still lie in 

 the eastern half of the continent, and 

 while we have a magnificent system of 

 railroads connecting them with the Pa- 

 cific coast, the relative cost of transpor- 

 tation by rail is so much greater than 

 that by water that we cannot expect to 

 successf ully compete in the struggle for 

 this Pacific commerce until direct water 

 transportation is supplied between the 

 initial points of production and consump- 

 tion. Recent estimates of the cost of 

 transporting freights on the Great Lakes 

 compared with that on the railwa3's of 

 the country showed that the average 

 rate per ton per mile was just one-tenth 

 as much on the Lakes as on the rail- 

 roads. While this is doubtless an ex- 

 treme case, owing to the fact that the 

 Lake freights were chiefly grain, iron 

 ore, and coal, and the average distance 

 between points of shipment and dis- 

 charge greater than that of the average 

 rail shipments, there can be no doubt 

 that the cost of water transportation is 

 much less than that by rail, even under 

 the most favorable conditions for the 

 latter A single ocean vessel of modern 

 capacity will carry as much as 400 rail- 

 way cars, or 20 trains of 20 cars each ; 

 and as a consequence the county which 

 can send its products by water, from the 

 door of the factory to the door of the 



