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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (June 28, 1903)
34 THE SUNDAY 0EEG0NIA1ST, PORTLAND. JUNE 28, 1903 ' - HOW AME-RieAMS eOULt) eAPTU-R A BIG TR7VDE IN RUSSIA r. r AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS NEEDED MANY CITIES WAITING FOR THE TROLLEY J KlflSiM THESE COTTOV SKIRTS WERE OROW.V IX TURKISTAX. A CHANCE FOR THE AMERICAN" SHOE. 1 : r T. PETERSBURG. June S.-(Speclal reports, which in time would be very val- I j ' ' ' ' correspondence.) There are big liable." I mgtMmMSSMSm'. '. , "-sJr f. - "J-. JSitmftBB I i OCR COTTOX IS BADLY PACKED. ' t . ,.,.....1.r. ..J l . DRUMMERS MUST FIRST LEARN TO SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF THE MERCHANTS rTri'WTapwTJ"!''-!' I . mi m. ..I.,,, , i. - -u 1 f:Y' -iL V it. fc. THET WAST OUR PLOWS. iT. PETERSBURG. June S. (Special correspondence.) There are big chances in Russia for the younsr American who will take his foot In his hand and come over here and study the language and people. This market is be yond conception enormous. It is just at its beginning and it needs Simon pure Americans to handle American products. Every man who has tried the work in the right way has succeeded, and I know a number who have established good businesses. I traveled from St. Petersburg to Mos cow the other day. with a New Yorker who was sent to Russia to sell American goods. He failed at the start, not know ing the language, but he now ppeaks the Russian like a native ands doing well. He was stationed in Moscow and tried to learn Russian, but he found too many English and Germans there, with whom he could talk. He then asked his em ployers for a few months' vacation, and went to a town far back in the interior and took board with the parson. There was not an Englishman nor an Ameri can within hundreds of miles, and he had to speak Russian. He had Russian readers and a Russian grammar, he paid the priest a trifle for teaching him, and as the priest's family was well educated he had plenty of practice in good conver sation. At the end of a few months he had acquired a speaking knowledge of the language sufficient for him to carry on his business. He then went bick to Moscow and continued his studies, until now he can speak, read and write the Russian. He has married a Russian wife and his family conversation is Russian. He has been here five years, and expects to stay. Educated American Drummers. The name of this man is Robert Good child. His business is selling American machinery, steam pumps, saw -and plan-lng-mills and other things of that na ture. He tells me the opportunities for the American drummers who will learn the foreign languages are unlimited, and this Is especially so as to the Russian. The field is open to men with capital and without. Those who understand the language and have no money can easily Interest capital from home, and they can fight for the trade as the Germans are doing. The latter people have their drum mers everywhere. Their great business firms send clerks here to learn the lan guage and open houses. They have branches, in Moscow, In Southern Russia and in Siberia, and send their clerks out on long contracts, keeping them in the country until they are able to do the work. I asked Mr. Goodchlld whether the Rus sian language is hard to learn- He re plied: "It is not easy, but any smart young American can acquire enough of It to do business with. The only way to learn it is to speak with every one you meet, and if you can get into a place where you can't speak anything else you will soon acquire it. German is almost as im portant as the Russian. There are 13,000 Germans in Moscow alone, and they are to be found in every town of any size throughout the empire.'.' Rusnlan Merchants. The conversation here .turned to the Russian as a customer. 'Mr. Goodchlld said: "The Russian Is a good man with whom to deL Ho knows what he wants and he Is ready to pay a big price for it. He Is suspicious, however, and will not buy without seeing the goods or samples of them. He has little use for pictures and catalogues, and as a rule he wants his goods at tho time he buys them. If he can t get thorn at once he will often take poorer stuff rather than wait. He Is accustomed to doing business on credit. He wants from nine to 12 months or longer, but he don't object to a high rate of Interest on the deferred payments. He often pays 50 to CO per cent profit, and I have some classes of goods on which I make SO per cent, although the new tariff rates will cut this considerably." Credits In Russia. "How about credits? Will the Russians pay their bills?" "Yes, they will pay," was the reply; "but they are slow. This country Is in its business babyhood. It has no com mercial machinery like other countries. There are no commercial agencfes. such as Dun's and Bradstreet's, and the only way for a stranger to learn a merchant's standing is to employ a lawyer, who charges well for the sen-ice. Tho Ger mans have a system of their own by which they know tho standing of the most of the trade. They have their agents in tho principal towns, and. these agents subdivide the territory surround ing them and keep reports of the financial standing of all business men In them. There are head agencies in Beriin who know tho business rating of firms all over Russia. The Americans should or ganise an association for the same pur pose. They should have their own private reports, which In time would be very val uable." "How about catalogues V "Any of the Consuls will tell you that there Is no use in sending catalogues In English nor In Russian, nor in any other way than that provided by the laws of Russia. All catalogues have to pass the censorship, and It is best to first ask per mission to circulate them and pay the revenue stamps, amounting to about 4 cents, required for such a request. A great- many catalogues are- sent which never get through the mail, and others are thrown into the waste basket be cause the people cannot understand them. Some of our manufacturing firms, such as those sending agricultural machinery, graphophones and sewing machines, un derstand such matters and print their ad vertisements accordingly." Money In Bricks and "Water. "What have you been selling, Mr. Goodchlld?" I asked. "All kinds of machinery." 'was the re ply; "and I could sell a great deal more if the American exporters would keep things In stock here. There is an opening here for pumps and windmills and also for sawmills and planing machinery. This is one of the great forest regions of the world and by far the greatest in Eu rope. We need all kinds of wood-working machines and all kinds of building im plements. Take Moscow. It Is growing so that about a thousand million bricks will be needed next year, and brlck maklng machinery is In demand. I had a chanco to sell such machines, but the American makers would not send them on approval nor piy the duty. As It is bricks are made here as in Egypt in the days of the Pharaphs. They are made by hand and are very costly." Consul Smith, of Moscow, tells me that American shoe factories could be estab lished here and do an enormous business. In connection with them should be boot making machines, for the boot business would exceed the shoe business about a thousand to one. Only tho better class of Russians wear shoes. The peasants wear boots Winter and Summer, the officials and soldiers have boots, and even th women have boots of felt or leather. Among the most common shoes worn by the poor are straw slippers, costing but a few cents a pair. Woolen cloth or felt takes the place of stockings, the feet and legs being wrapped and rewrapped as. though In bandage, the cloth held on with strings. Boots are sold everywhere at very low prices. Russian leather is famous, and the factories will have plenty of raw ma terial. Everything is now made by hand, and there is no style about the shape of the boot. The lasts look as though they had been chopped out without regard to comfort, and the approved fashionable boot is of such soft leather that it will wrinkle at the instep. At present there are practically no American shoes sold Jn Russia. I am told tnat there are plen ty of skilled shoemakers, and that good workmen could be gotten at low wages. American Cotton for the Slavs. We are already shipping a large amount of raw cotton to this country, but Asia is competing with us. Cotton fields have been opened in Russian Turkestan. The, seed originally came from the United States, and at present the most of the seed sown is the American upland, which yields from 220 to 270 pounds of fiber to the i acre. Some is grown from native seeds, but this yields only about half as much. The native cotton fields are growing. In 1SS2, .shortly after the business was started, the amount grown from American seed was only about 2S.00O pounds. This was in Central Asia. In that same district there is now grown almost 300,000,000 pounds, or enough to supply about half of the needs of the empire. There are now about a million acres of cotton fields in Russian Turkestan, and extensive cotton regions on the other side of the Caucasus Mountains. The government Is encour aging the industry. It has put a duty on foreign cotton of about 6 cents a pound, but it refunds this duty If the cotton Is re-exported In a manufacturing state. The merchants are also encouraging cotton-planting. Some of the prominent firms of Moscow sent the seed to Asiatic Russia. They established machinery there and taught the people how to use it. and agreed to buy the cropa and the product. Our cotton not only has to compete with Asiatic, but also with the Egyptian cot ton. We ship a lot via the Baltic to St. Petersburg, Riga and Rival. It is very poorly packed, and In some of that which I have seen the bales were almost burst ing. In the meantime the Russian cotton manufacturers are steadily increasing. They have more than doubled In the last ten years, and Russia expects to make a bid for the cotton trade of boh Europe and Asia. There is considerable excitement Just now about the Russian possession of Man churia. The Czar hds said that the ports there will be open to all, but there Is no doubt he expects to capture the trade all the same. Indeed. If Russia adopts the same methods as to other parts of Asia that she Is now using in Persia, she will drive all other countries out of the mar ket. She has now the monopoly of the cotton business of Persia, and she has gotten It by giving a bounty to her man ufacturers. On every pound of Russian GECTRGE AIDE'S FABLE IN SLANG OF THE BUSINESS PARTNER WHO HANDLED THE MORE IMPORTANT DETAILS ONCE there were two Nerve Special ists who had gone out into the Clover Belt to separate the Jays from their Bank Accounts. When they arrived in the High and Unknown they found that the gladsome Rube had been reading the Papers and their Scheme flattened out So they were trying to get back to New York. In any part of the U. S. A., when a Pneumatic Enterprise blows up and leaves a Napoleon of Finance hanging on to the ragged Edge of the Jumplng-Off Place, his one Desire in Life is to make a Swift Touch for enough to carry him to Jersey City. Ho figures that he can swim the rest of the Wajv The two polite grafters were very ken to get back to the throbbing Metropolis, where so much is happening that one may go Broke without exciting Comment, and where the Carnation in the Button-Hole is often doing a Double Turn with the expired Meal Ticket But when they did the Committee on Ways and Means they found that they were sitting on the Hard-Pan, with no Assets except some Laundry ready to be sent out and" several Letters wishing them all kinds of Luck. In every Business Combination of two or more there is one Human Fox who is hnown on the Outside as the Brains of the Concern. He ribs up the Schemes and then allows Mr. Patsy Bolivar to climb over the Transom and take all the Chances. If the Deal explodes he Is sitting out side of the Danger Zone, fanning himself and explaining that his Partner did not follow Directions. Any one who has attended a Physical Culture Soiree may have noticed that the Artist who gets the Decision, after being walloped into a Pulp, never collects the Purse. The 'Coin Is passed over to a pale Gentleman of thoughtful Mein who is known as tho Manager. Ho attends to the Intellectual Part of the Game and holds out about 75 per cent of the Gross If a Manager is very Successful and owns a Spark Wagon carrying five Peo ple he becomes known as a promoter. If he can induce a large Bunch of Good Things to go out and connect with the Wherewithal and then bring most of It up and hand it to him where he is sitting on the Front Porch, drinking his Rickey, then he is known as a Great Financier. The BunSo Team stranded out In the Prairie Wilderness "had a Manager, who had sufficient Gall to be a promoter and who hoped to be a Great Financier some day. In case the Public forgot to lock up at Night. The other half of the Outfit was the Customary Mark. He went out and dug up and then whacked with the Brains of tho Concern. He was afraid to cut loose, for the Manager often told him: "Any time that you lose me, you stop eating." "And what would you do if you lost me?" asked the Mark, who was -weary of splitting the Receipts. "I can always find one," replied the astute Manager. "They are born at the rate of one a Minute, and they never get next until It is too late. Do not desert me In this Crisis. If you stick, I think I may be able to find some Work for you to do." It befell that the Village in which they were shell-roaded had advertised a Bal loon Ascension for Independence Day. The Natives rejoiced in the Fact that the Colonies had thrown off the Toke of Brit ish Tyranny and Oppression, and in order to give evidence of their belated Joy they were going to watch the man go up in the Balloon. When the Natal Day of our glorious Liberty dawned on the Yap Settlement and the Local Population began to coagu late along Main Street, it was discovered that'the daring Aeronaut had been taken with Cold Feet and refused to go up. The Committee was In despair. Now comes the Part showing tho Value of a Manager. The Brains of the Concern went to the Committee and agreed to send his Partner up In the Balloon In consid eration of 100 Plunks to him in the Hantf paid. Then ho sought out the Patsy end of the Sketch and broke the Good News to him. "We get 100 Samoleons." he explained. "Where do you come In?" asked tho Mark. "If I give the whole Show and take all the Chances, why not the Long End for me?" "You forget that It was my Master Mind that evolved the whole Plan," said the Manager. "I have promised to send you up. Therefore my Reputation as a Manager Is at Stake. I think I am en titled to at least 23 per cent on account of the Strain on my Reputation. If you should let go of the Trapeze and splatter yourself all over the Landscape, think of the Injury that would be done to my Pro fessional Standing! In addition to think ing out all the details of this Undertak ing, I conducted the Business Negotiations with that Skill and Sagacity which are usually lacking in the Common Skate known as the Producer. In other Words, I made them hand over the Currency. In Fact, I figure that I have done prac tically everything connected with this Job except the one minor detail of going up in the Bajloon. You have been relieved of all Worries and Responsibilities. I have smoothed out the Preliminaries and now all you have to do is to make the Ascension." "I can See that I am lucky to get Half," THE ASTUTE BCSRHSSS JLVNAGER A YD HIS WILLING SLAVE. said the Mark. "Slip me the Fifty .and I will take a Chance. I need the Mon ey." "I shall hold the Money until you come back," said the Manager. "I should pre fer not to give It to you now. If any thing happens, it will not be of any Use to you. and might fall into the Hands of Irresponsible Strangers. It is the duty of every good Manager to protect the Fi nancial Interests of those associated with him." "But when I am up there, dodging Clouds, how am I going to keep Tab on you down here?" asked the Mark. "Don't worry," was the "Reply. "If you como out alive today, rm going to "end you up again. In fact, I think I shall keep sending you up until some thing happens." As long as you are good for the Coin. Til never quit you." Moral: Never doubt a Business Man. LEGEND OF CRATER LAKE Indians Believed It Wzs Habited by the DeviJ, Who Lured Men to Destruction. JLAMATH FALLS, Or., June 21.-As 1 near as can be learned from the In-, dians. the following is the legend which inspired the old tribes to regard Crater Lake with horror, and always steer clear of It: Long ago. bands of Indians fre quented the lake, stopping there on their hunting trips. They plied canoes on the placid waters and shot deer and moun tain sheep that happened to be browsing on the rugged cliff. Finally such pleas-, ures were suddenly stopped. On one occasion of the visit of a large number of Indians, some of whom were In their canoes and others scattered along the wall of the lake, there appeared on the slope of Wizard Island a white faced woman of exceeding beauty. Her long, golden hair waved In the mild zephyrs, and her gown was of spotless widte. and she smiled bewitchlngly as ff tended her hands and beckoned the redskins-to come to her. Those In the canoes made haste to reach" the island. As they hurried up the incline, she re treated into the crater, summoning them to follow which they did. Indians on the rim of the lake anxiously watched this strange proceeding. A few moments lat er, they saw a whirling cloud rise from the crater, and they who went into It never reappeared. It was supposed that the devil had es tablished earthly headquarters In the crater of the Island, and that the woman officiated as his outside solicitor; that the boss was stationed at the entrance to Tartarus, and when he effected an opening for the admission of the new victims, a cloud of hot. sulphurous smoke escaped. This dire experience ter rorized the spectators on the wall, and they and their companions on the reser vation, believing the lake had become the abiding place o evil spirits, kept at a safe distance from it ever afterwards. E. W. HUSE. cotton goods sent to Persia the Moscow exporter gets an allowance of 3 cents from the government. One cent covers the freight, and he has 2 cents a pound profit, besides the usual profit on the goods. The English or German manufac turer has to pay full freight with no. re bate and he cannot compete. This same system will be applied to China, and the result will be that the Chinese Empire will be annexed to Moscow. After the trade has been' captured the rebate may bo discontinued and the prices will rise. American Factories In Hum la. Such things will necessitate the estab lishment of American factories here. The tariff and the bounties will make It more profitable to work the trade on the ground and already a number of our companies have such establishments. The Westing houses have a big air brake works In St. Petersburg. It is run with American fore men and its supplies come from the United States. They have also electrical works In South Russia and are manufac turing electrical machinery here as they are doing In England. I am told the tobacco trust will extend its operations to this country and that the New York pneumatic tool company Is putting up a factory at Moscow. The Singer Sewing Machine' Company will have a million-dollar establishment in St. Petersburg and its goods are already sold all over Russia. - They Want Oar FIotts. Our big agricultural implement factories ought to establish branches at Moscow and in Southern Russia to Introduce their goods and save the duties. The Russians are the greatest farming nation of the globe. They have the largest undeveloped country and they are the most backward of the civilized people. They have about a hundred million farmers with one-sixth of the world to work and they are trying to do It with machinery such as was in use before America was discovered. The bulk of the land Is In small holdings and it is only on the large eetates that mod ern machinery is used. The average farmer has a plow made of wood with an iron shear bound on. Such plows as come from abroad aro usually German, the American article be ing too expensive. Some kinds of our ma chinery have been admitted free, but thl3 will not be so under the new tariff. Wo have the monopoly of harvesters, binders, mowers and reapers, for we make the best In the world, but the American plow, drill, cultivator and other such things are not known here. Within the past year or so a few threshing machines have come In. but at present the most of the agricultural machinery outside of reapers and mowers Is of German make. The Germans sell more than a hundred million dollara worth of such machinery every year, the English more than 565,000.000 worth, and we tag behind with a paltry $10,000,000 or more. There Is a good opening for all sorts of farm tools and farm wagons, and it Is wonderful that our people do not sea it. Stre'et Railroad Plums. Russia has more street railroad pluma than any other country on the Interna tional tree. As far as electricity Is con cerned tho empire is practically undevel oped, and the company that could get a monopoly of the concesions would maka bigger profits than the United States Steel Trust. The field, as far as city concessions ara concerned, is enormous, and as to lines connecting towns It Is beyond computa tion. The people here live in villages, towns and cities. There are no houses standing alone on the landscape and, con necting lines could go from village to village, tapping a vast population. In European Russia there are 105,000,000 peo ple. There is a village for every flva square miles, and In some parts of the country there Is a village for every square mile. There are many large cities, some of which I had not heard the names before I came to Russia. St. Petersburg is bigger than Philadelphia, and It has only horse cars. Moscow is more than twice the size of Boston. Warsaw is bigger than St. Louis, Odessa Is as large as Cleveland, and Riga and Kiev are each about the slzo of Kansas City. Have you ever heard of Lodz? It Is one of Russia's boom towns which has grown up in the past few years. It is a great manufacturing center and It has 315,000 Inhabitants. Let me give you a few towns which are new to the average reader: Kharkov, 174.S16; Vllna, 155.000; Yekaterlnoslav, 121.U00; Rostov-on-the-Don, 150.000: Astrakahn, 112,000; Tula, 111, 000; Kiehlnef. 103,000. and Saratov, 107.000. Russia in Europe has 13 cities of over 100.000 people, and 25 oetween that and 50,000. It has IIS towns which range be tween 30.000 and 50,00w each, 315 between 10.000 and 20,000 and a WO others which have a little less than 10,000. but which might support electrip railroads. The beat opportunities are in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and Americans are trying to get the concessions. The West inghouso CJompany after them, and among other applicants are men from Pittsburg, headed by Hurray A. Verner, of that city. Such concessions will be very valuable, and it Is not probable they will be granted without the Russians themselves have a good share of tha profits. FRANK G. CARPENTER. CopyrigM, 199g.) 1 4