TH

CHAPTER XI

THE LOGIC OF TRADE

HE majority of our press and people have been so ready to fight at the drop of the hat in behalf of our "Sister Republics" that it becomes pertinent to ask whether it is worth while to antagonize needlessly those great civilized powers with whom we have such satisfactory trade relations, for the sake of the pure love and affection which it is supposed we ought to have for those countries to the south of us. In discussing this matter, little regard need be given to the ethical theories or absurd vagaries of men who are chiefly occupied in holding conferences, Pan-American conventions, or dreaming of a Pan-American commercial union. A fact is worth forty theories. If South America could be civilized by junketing trips or holding love feasts, if our commerce could be extended there by pretty speeches, then a practical man might be induced to listen with some patience to the raillery against England and Germany, and the laudation of Latin America. But the statistics of commerce do not point that way. Leaving sentimentality aside, let us examine the figures as to our foreign commerce.

I. BALANCE OF TRADE AGAINST THE UNITED STATES

The first fact of importance, and it is worth considering, is that the United States has bought over one thousand million dollars of products from Spanish-American countries more than we have sold to them in the past ten years. This enormous balance of trade against us is not being decreased in any appreciable degree. Eighty or one hundred millions of dollars of American gold goes into Spanish America every year to remain there. But that is not all. The United States, in order to encourage this trade, subsidizes, if not directly then indirectly by paying large bonuses for carrying the mails, all the steamship lines flying the American flag running to South American ports. This subsidy amounts to two thousand dollars a trip to certain steamers. Not alone have we paid Venezuela fifty millions of dollars in gold more than we have received from her in the past ten years, but we also virtually subsidize the ships which enable that country to carry on this profitable business with us. Nor is this all. There have

been hundreds of millions of dollars of American money invested in these countries which has been absolutely lost, frequently destroyed by the revolutionists, or, because of repeated government interference rendered valueless.

The commerce of the United States with South American countries for the years 1901-1902 and 1902-1903 is as follows, as given by the United States government:

Total South America . . $119,785,756 $38,043,617 $107,428,323 | 841,137,872

From this it will be seen that there is a stream of American gold yearly going into South America to stay there. Our trade with the other Spanish-American countries for these two years was as follows:

The statistics for the fiscal year 1903–1904 are as follows:

Our trade with the other Spanish-American countries for the year

1903-1904 was as follows:

The net result of our trade with the Spanish-American countries, then, is a continual loss of gold, a purchasing from them of nearly twice as much goods as we sell to them, besides the absolute loss of vast sums invested there. The total balance of trade against us in 1901-1902 was $93,378,084; in 1902-1903 it was $109,899,511; in 1903-1904 it was $104,663,872. It would seem as though these people might be willing to take our gold to this extent and in this manner, even if there were no such beneficent institution as the Bureau of American Republics, or Pan-American conferences, and therefore that all this love and affection which we have been injecting into commercial relations is superfluous.

In comparison with these figures, some study may profitably be given to the extent of our trade with those countries with which it is

supposed we ought to be in continually strained relations because of our "Sister Republics.

Our trade with Germany for the years 1902 and 1903 was as follows:

From these figures it appears that we sold to Germany in the year 1903 nearly four times as much as we did to the whole continent of South America, nor have we lost any money in Germany by collateral investments.

Our trade with the United Kingdom seems even more startling, and in comparison with it our business with South America seems contemptible:

From this it appears that we sold in the year 1903 ten times as much goods to the United Kingdom as we did to the whole continent of South America, and while we lost sixty-six millions of gold to the latter, we gained three hundred and thirty-four millions from the former.

Nor is this all. Our trade with the colonies of England is no less satisfactory. Our commerce with British North America for the two years was as follows:

From this it will be seen that we sell to British North America three times as much as we do to the whole continent of South America, and that our trade with them leaves us eighty millions of gold to the good.

Nor is this all. Our trade with British Australia shows a balance on the right side, we having sold them, in 1903, $32,749,395 worth of goods, and bought from them products to the value of $6,968,183, leaving a balance in our favor of $25,781,212. Even in British Africa the same story is told. We sold to them in 1903 goods to the amount of $33,844,395, and purchased from them in return only $971,908 of products, showing that we got $32,872,487 more gold from them than we gave them.

It will be seen, then, that our commerce with Germany and England and her colonies for the year 1903 showed a balance to our credit of the enormous sum of $537,090,369, while our net results in dealing with Spanish America was $109,000,000 against us.

Notwithstanding these undisputed facts powerful American newspapers and distinguished men seem ever ready to antagonize these great and friendly powers, and parade the Monroe Doctrine with senseless and useless impertinence.

II. WHAT WOULD BE THE EFFECT IF ENGLAND OWNED

SOUTH AMERICA?

To a plain man it would appear that England is blazing the way for civilization; that it is chiefly she who is subduing and overcoming barbarism in the world and using the powerful weapon of good government in working out the salvation of mankind. And after she has made it possible, with her ships and guns, for a white man to live in the far-off corners of the earth, we come along and reap the benefits of her enterprise by selling our goods for gold. This is all right—it is business; but an American who has any sense of decency will be very polite in speaking of England and her relations to Latin America.

I do not advocate England taking possession of Latin-American countries, I advocate doing it ourselves; but it may unhesitatingly be affirmed that it would be better for the United States, from every view-point, that England should have Central America and the whole continent of South America than that they should remain in their present condition. And this I would assert for Germany also.]

What would be the probable effect on our commerce with these countries if England had them? To answer this question seriously, one should study carefully the facts as regards our commerce, not only with England's other colonies, but particularly with that great colony to the north of us, Canada, and ascertain what advantages, if any, England herself possesses over us in dealing with them. For