The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-08-21
Competition the Life of Trade.

There are a great many business men in Sau
francisco, and, we are sorry to say, too many
newspaper men who do not properly appreciate
the duties and responsibilities of the positions
they occupy. They boast occasionally of the
great natural and other advantages of our State,
harbor and city, but continually exhibit a lack OF
that confidence and energy that men who control
such splendid destlnies should possess. On every
occasion they manifest n desire to keep things as
they are, to ward off competition, keep out any
who might prove to be rivals in the trades they
now manage, and continue to do business on the
small, quiet, unenterprising and risk-nothing plan
thst has hitherto too largely prevailed. Such
newspaper men have echoed the sentiments of
their patrons when they said " we have too many
poor men and laborers here already, and the only
beneficial immigration to be encouraged is that of
men OF capital who will bring their money here
and enable us to sell out what we have sought to
monopoiize, at n profit, or establish manufactures
and afford employment to our own already sur
plus hboring population" Narrcw-minded and
selfish Trades Union movements they have ALWAYS
applauded, and frequently publish notices of
strikes and labor price lists calculated to keen
other mechanics and laborers away, even when
these were running the infant manufactures
established among us. They are terribly afraid
of competition with coolie laborers, who appear
to be devoid OF ambition and only anxious to be
allowed to fill subordinate and poorly paid posi-
tions, leaving all the superior and better remu-
neratcd ones to the educated white race.
The building of the Pacific Railroad, the oper-
ations of the Labor Exchange with its long lists
of wants but half supplied, might be thought to
have answered all their arguments and demolished
all their positions, until the civilized world was
astonished at hearing their spokesman applauded
when he asserted in a public speech that 1t would
have been better that the Pacific Railroad had re-
manned unbuilt, if only the Cinnamon had never
come here.
In business houses we find men with similar
ideas, wasting their time in idling around their
stores during the dull season, instead of stirring
about to create new business fields, and inveigh-
ing against the " Chicago drummers,'' who are
overrunning Utah, Nevada, and California, offer
ing superior inducements to their customers and
soliciting orders, and hesitating whether to receive
them cordially aud literally as friends, or snub
and repel them as rivals, spies and enemies. The
soliciting of orders and extension of business by
drummers is recognized as legitimate and useful
in every portion of the commercial world. 1t is
encouraged and availed of everywhere. 1t is the
life of trade. Our merchants, manufacturers and
traders will have to meet it whether they like it
or not. 1t is desirable that it should be SO. If
our present race of business men cannot stand
competition and welcome and meet 1T boldly,
frankly and generously, they will have to retire
and make room for those who can. We should
be glad to see their places supplied, if necessary,
by others who will be more enterprising, liberal
and energetic. We should welcome those who
know how, and have the nerve to force trade
hither in dull times and create it where none now
exists. If those we have cannot expand our COM
merce and manufactures and develop our resources
rapidly enough, and bring additional population
hitber fast enough TO insure general prosperity,
those who can, whether they come from Chicago
or elsew here, are entitled to crowd them out of
the places they fill unworthily, and for ourselves
we welcome all such heartily and expect to obtain
our full share of benefit from whatever new
schemes of general advantage and profit they can
devise and put into operation Golden Era