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. “My working life, therefore, has to date spanned a little more than three-score and a half years. Within my recollection the first Atlantic cable was laid; the telephone was introduced; wireless has been developed; improve- ments in the use of steam have been very great; the pro- peller has been perfected and has superseded the paddle steamer. “These are great changes. But young men now living will survive others on a vaster scale, involving the com- mercial and industrial development of countries where the surface as yet has been little more than scratched. “From 1858, when I secured a job in a Canadian lum- ber camp at ten dollars a month, until 1888, I was con- tinuously engaged in the lumber business in various parts of Canada and Michigan. By the late ‘eighties good, large timber was getting scarce in Michigan and the profits were diminishing every year, So I moved to California. In 1893 I started a mill in Mendocino county, on the Pacific slopes of California, and ran it for six years. During this time I found it very difficult to get vessels to carry our lumber. I started investing. in vessel property and contracted to get several vessels built, employing them in our own service in the coastwise trade. . “It was not until 1901 that I made my first venture in the China trade. “I began by buying a 6500-ton steamer. At that time the lumber was being carried to Japan and China in slow sailing vessels; my ship on her first voyage carried a cargo at rates much lower than the sailing vessels were getting, therefore we lost money. In fact we soon found that if we intended to stay in the business we would have to furnish our own cargo. Consequently I bought other sawmills and thereby provided our ship with a full cargo westward. I also found that if we were to main- tain the line we would have to have an organization at both ends so in July, 1902, Mrs. Dollar and I sailed for our first trip to the Orient. “We visited both Japan and China. I carefully looked over the field, and opened a small office in Shanghai. That was starting on a very small scale. But that is my ideal, born of experience; start on a small scale and work up from a sure foundation. In Japan, this preliminary trip, I noticed the quality of the oak timber I saw, and bought six railway ties and took them to San Francisco. This was the first oak taken from Japan to the United States. “We tried out these pieces of oak by making them into furniture, which proved highly satisfactory. We then made large contracts for oak ties for the Southern Pacific. Later we developed a trade for oak for the manufacture of furniture. This started the furnishing of cargoes for the eastward trip of our steamers. “J discovered that a ship sent to the Orient became a drummer for trade, not only for the goods that she carried there but for a cargo for the return trip. Now in all of our foreign offices when a ship is unloaded and hasn’t a full cargo for the return voyage our representa- tive cables us the tonnage needed and what can be bought at that port. Say our representative can buy hemp in Manila at a certain price. We at the home office know the price hemp will bring in the United States. If it can be sold here at an advantage great enough to give us a profit, possibily only enough for reasonable freight rates, we consider it good business to buy and so complete the cargo, for the most expensive freight is wind and air. “The growth of our business is but a part of the gen- eral advancement of the Pacific coast. Eighty years ago the western coast of the United States was a wilderness, with only a scattered population of a few white men; less than 50 years ago the first steamship crossed the Pacific ocean from America to China. Tonnage has increased by leaps and bounds and I believe that within a few years the tonnage of the Pacific will exceed that of the Atlantic. “Through Pacific shipping new products have been brought into commerce. Not long ago soya beans were never taken out of China and sesamum seed was not even known; now China’s combined exports of these prod- ucts run into millions of tons and dollars each year. “J arrived in China at the time of the revolution which turned the country into a republic. Trade was at a stand- still so I sent a ship to Manila. It was at once loaded with copra and mahogany. Immediately an absolutely new American trade was established. Before I returned to the United States I sent another ship for a cargo and it was loaded. Since then my ships have made regular trips and returned with full loadings. “But incidents and figures do not convey the full picture of the commercial possibilities. Leaving all the rest of China out of the picture, let me just suggest briefly the wonderful richness and resources of a por- tion of the country; the land bordering the Yangtse river and its tributaries, running through the rich heart of China. “Roughly a seventh of the human race dwells there. Like the Nile, the Yangtse is a great silt-bearing stream which overflows yearly and furnishes the lands with rich growing soil. One sails up the river for 1600 miles, through cities containing millions of ‘population. “T do not hesitate to say that I firmly believe the Yangtse river valley will yet be the greatest steel pro- ducing country in the world. “It is of national significance, vital to the shipping in- dustry and the mercantile marine of America, how we view this great, nearly virgin field of commerce—whether our merchants and manufacturers and farmers regard foreign trade seriously, not merely hopping in and hop- ping out when the mood strikes them or when the going becomes tough; and whether the question of a merchant marine, a fleet of cargo vessels flying the American flag, is to be treated constructively or destructively by those who have in their power the making or breaking of it. “Foreign trade is not a subject narrowly confined to one group of interested individuals. The people who are concerned are many. If carried on properly, foreign trade is only an exchange of commodities. It is necessary to buy in each country as much or nearly as much as is sold there. It is very nice to have the balance in our favor, and the European war made us the biggest creditor in the world; but that is not altogether profitable. “Just to give you an idea of how the Chinese look at that—we sometimes think they do not know much over there!—I was trying at one time to put through a deal with the Chinese government by buying iron ore and pig iron from them. We came to a deadlock, and, as they desired to send me off in good humor, they gave me a banquet. They said they were sorry that they could not meet my terms, but, as I could not come up on my terms we would have to agree to disagree. As a parting shot I said: ““Remember one thing, gentlemen, up to the present time I have done many millions of dollars of business in China, and I have yet to take the first dollar of your money away from you or the country. I have even bought more than I have sold to you.’ “We were just ready to go into the banquet room, when they said: ‘Sit down a minute,’ and they began 46 MARINE REVIEW—October, 1927