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National Geographic : 1902 Aug
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 105 millions in the calendar year 1891 to 162 millions in 1901, an increase of over 50 per cent, while the total imports of the country were increasing but io per cent. Our exports to Asia and Oceania increased from 40 millions in 1891 to I15 millions in 1901, an increase of 180 per cent, while the total exports were increasing but 50 per cent. This brings us to a consideration of the Pacific and its commercial condi tions today and its possibilities when we shall obtain access to it through an Isthmian canal, which we may reason ably expect we are soon to have. Be fore entering upon a detailed discussion of this, however, it is proper that we should realize the enormous extent of this great body of water-its length and breadth and its comparison in area with that ocean with which we are much more familiar, the Atlantic. The superficial area of this great ocean is 60 million square miles, or 20 times that of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, and it covers more than one-fourth of the entire surface of the earth. Its enor mous size will be better realized when we remember that the distance across it at its widest point, where our vessels cross it in the journey to the Orient, is four times as great as that across the Atlantic from New York to Liverpool, and seven times as great as across the Atlantic at its narrowest point, from Pernambuco, Brazil, to Freetown, Af rica. The contrast between the great circular Pacific, which vessels must oc cupy weeks in crossing, and the long, narrow Atlantic, which we are accus tomed to ferry as a holiday pastime, can be better realized when they are studied side by side without reference to the great bodies of land adjacent. The At lantic meanders like a river between Eu rope and America, spanned by a dozen cable lines and innumerable steamship routes; the Pacific stretches half-way round the globe, with a few island way stations, where the sailing lines con- verge, in order that the vessels on this long route may take advantage of them as ports of call for repairs, for coal, for water, and for communication with man kind. These things are not altogether en couraging to the utilization of the Pa cific as a highway for commerce, or an exchange of commodities with nations on the other side of its waters. In fact, they appear rather discouraging in some of their aspects, and there are persons who doubt the feasibility of conducting commerce at such long range when the markets of Europe and South America are so much nearer, while others even doubt the advisability of expending a couple of hundred millions in the con struction of a canal to give us access to its waters. But there is another side of the pic ture, and one which we must carefully consider: First. The countries on the other side of this great ocean produce the articles which we must buy abroad articles absolutely required by our peo ple, and which we cannot, or at least do not, produce at home. Second. These same countries are buying a hundred million dollars' worth of merchandiseevery month of every year, and most of it is the class of goods which we want to sell. Third. The United States has greater and better facilities for utilizing this great ocean as a highway of commerce than any other nation has or ever can have. This last statement may seem a some what startling one, but I shall show you that it is justified, and that condi tions provided by nature, and which cannot cease to exist as long as the earth revolves, give to our country exceptional facilities for commerce with the coun tries fronting upon or contiguous to the Pacific Ocean. These three great propositions which I have just named I now propose to take up in the order in which they are men tioned. The countries bordering upon the 306
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