Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1910 — WORLD’S COMMERCIAL CENTER. [ARTICLE]

WORLD’S COMMERCIAL CENTER.

City ot London Soul of Empire with $400,000,000 Population. But the city of London which lies in the heart of Greater London, has a living population of but 35,000 by night, although 300,000 people do business there by day, while all of the currents of British life pass through its portals. Here is the soul of the empire, with its population of 400,000,000, and its area of 11,400,000 square miles, or more than one-fifth of the population and area of the globe, says Frederic C. Howe, in Scribner’s. Here, too, is the heart of the trade, commerce and financial trans, actions of the world. From this little spot ‘the nation ot shopkeepers” sends forth its administrators iand its soldiers, its men-of-war and its merchant marine to every nook and cranny of the globe, at the command of Lombard, Gracechurch, Threadneedle and Fenchurch Streets and Bartholomew Lane. It was at the behest of the city that Clive and Warren Hastings subjugated India, that the opium trade was imposed on China, that Gordon went to his death in Khartoum, and the flower of England went to South Africa.

Out from this pulmonary center the commercial life of Christendom radiates. London is the counter of the world. And the old city corporation, with its banks, its brokers, its offices and machinery for exchanging the products of India with Africa, and of China with America, is the clearing house of us all. England is the only great nation which opens its doors to the trade of the world, unhampered and unrestrained by taxes, imposts or octoroi. White, black, yellow and red. the followers of Christ, of Bqddha, of Mohammed and Confucius, all send their wares, in consequence, to the ports which Invite them. For trade hates barriers. It will go around the world to avoid » tariff war. And because of this fact Great Britain is the counter across which the wealth of the world Is exchanged. Here the products of every clime are freely* swapped. A good many people who believe they are indignantly protesting against sin are really gossiping. . Money that a man burns seldom helps to enlighten the world.