COLONIAL SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD 25 



countries commercially adjacent to the port of Manila is more 

 than 800 millions of people, and their annual imports more than 

 $1,200,000,000. Of this vast sum a large proportion is composed 

 of articles and classes of articles produced or manufactured in 

 the United States, especially cotton and cotton goods, manufact- 

 ures of iron and steel, machinery, mineral oils, provisions, bread- 

 stuff's, and other articles of this class for which our people are 

 seeking a market. Up to this time imports into those countries 

 from the United States formed less than 6 per cent of the total 

 importations, despite the fact that the articles desired by the 

 people are largely of the class which our own people desire to 

 sell. With a Nicaraguan canal through which the manufact- 

 urers and producers of the United States could ship their pro- 

 ducts by water without breaking bulk from the door of the farm 

 or factory to a distributing center at Manila, which lies as near 

 to many of the great commercial centers of these countries as 

 Habana does to the city of New York, there seems no good 

 reason why the people of the United States desiring to extend 

 their commerce should not obtain a much larger share of the 

 business of that great consuming territory thus accessible from 

 that point than they now have. 



Regarding the third point, as to our present expenditure for 

 the class of articles which may be produced in those islands : 

 the importation of articles of this class into the United States, 

 including sugar, coffee, tobacco, hemp, tropical fruits, etc., has 

 averaged during the past few years nearly or quite 250 million 

 dollars annually, and if this sum, now sent each year to foreign 

 countries, can be expended among people having closer relations 

 with the United States, and among whom citizens of the United 

 States will be represented, either in person or by the capital which 

 they will furnish for business enterprises, the result will be ad- 

 vantageous to the business interests of the country and her 

 people. 



If the United States should by the proposed new relationship 

 with these islands open them as a market to our producers and 

 make them a doorway to a much larger market, and at the same 

 time enable us to expend among our own people the large sum 

 which we have been accustomed to send toother countries and 

 to other peoples, the suggestion seems at least worthy of serious 

 consideration. 



