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Show GERMAN OCEAN COMMERCE. In the Review of Reviews for March is a finely fine-ly written and beautifully illustrated article from the pen and pencil of Winthrop L. Marvin, on the growth and present condition of the North German Ger-man Merchant Marine. It has advanced from almost al-most nothing to its present place as a passenger carrier. He gives the praist first to a few sterling men who founded the two great German lines fue Hamburg and the North German Lloyd; next to Bismarck, who insisted upon subsidizing German Ger-man steamers and founding ship yards with full modern equipments, then to the course of the government gov-ernment in sending the highest officials to encourage encour-age the designers, builders and navigators of German ships until a national enthusiasm has become be-come awakened to see Germany the first among maritime states. Herman Henrich Meier founded the North German Lloyd Steamship company In 1857, and when he died, aged ninety, In 1898, almost al-most imperial honors were bestowed upon his obsequies. Then Germany has long supported schools to train her seamen which insures fine service and, more, her labor account for running ships is just half what the owners of United States ships pay. But strangely enough, this writer does not state what has been a mighty factor in building up her shipping trade. To make the sailing of ships profitable there must be a market for the cargoes; where there is none, the effort of shrewd nations is to create one. For years Germany has been training some of her most gjfted young men ana women in textile schools, schools of design and in schools where the design is to reduce science to practical affairs. The result Is magnificent mag-nificent goods, and for the foreign trade her goods are put up in the most thorough and attractive form. Then there are inspectors everywhere and the goods have to be exactly what they are repressed repre-ssed to be. Finally, with German patience, young men have been started in business in for eign countries, especially in Mexico, Central and South America, with the understanding that they " might have to work at a loss for several years. V But in the meantime they were to master the ' language of any country they were sent to, learn the business habits, likes and dislikes of the people peo-ple and how to deal with tuem. This has been a German practice since before California was acquired by the United States. So when, after the Franco-Prussian war, the new era of ship Diiilding and ship navigation was Inaugurated by Germany, her ship-masters found the foremost merchants all around this continent from Texas to California, Germans ready to receive their wares and to advise what further should be sent. This was really the very greatest cause for the unpalalleled advance Germany has made. And this she is liable to retain, for imagine the impossibility impos-sibility of an American sitting down, doing busi- ( ness at a loss in a strange land and still waiting I for the good times to come in the dim by and I by. We do not think this advantage will ever be fl lost to Germany until Americans push railroads all over Spanish America. Americans are now holding their own in Mexico because the railroads rail-roads keep them always connected with their base; they are never, in that country, more tha-a three or four days' travel from great American cities and are always in instant touch through the telegraph. Twenty years from now we expect ex-pect they will in the same way be skirting the Andes and when they fail to sell goods for money, they will trade them for rubber or sugar, or rare woods or wool, or some other products of those countries. Another advantage which Germany has is that she has caught the art from the French of making rare articles out of most cheap raw material. In this way when she sells an article for a dollar quite eighty cents of the amount goes to German jj brains and only twenty cents for the material purchased. pur-chased. But it is good to see the swift and mighty strides that country is making toward a commanding place on the sea. We hope it will , kindle in this country a determination to emulate if not to outdo our German cousins. |