Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-24
GREAT MILLS OF THE ORIENT.
Wharton Barker Tells of Chinese and
Japanese Industries.

From the Philadelphia lines
Wharton Barker, prominent in Philadel-
rhia mercantile life, who has been identhed
with several movements for the develop
ment of the resources of the interior Oh
China, has recently returned from another
trip to the celestial empire and Japan.
1T was great sight" he said, Ito witness
the immense cotton mills Of Osak, city or
400, 600 inhabitants, near Kobe, the seat of
the cotton manufacturing industry of Japan,
as well as the wooden mills, spindles and
looms, running day and night, to supply not
only the wants of Japan, but of Europe and
other countries as well. Their chief product
at present consists of a kind of cotton fabric
which Is used by us in rough shirtings and
dresses for women. They expect not only
to increase their export to Europe, but also
to America, and the manufacturers, foreign
and domestic are elated over the prospects
of great profits. which they fully hope to
realize within the next few years.
They also manufacture a speciality of
rugs, after the order of those manufactured
in this city, which they originally took for
pattern Surgical instruments are being
made there at about one-tenth of the cost
Of similar instruments In Europe They
have arrived at such degree of perfection
in the manufacture of these that it Is i'm
possible to distinguish the Japanese product
from the European.
AS an illustration OIL tnelT low SIanQaTu
of wages, first-cass farm laborer receives
but 81 per month, which keeps him in way
satisfactory to himself, although in abject
filth. With this ridiculous sum he even
clothes himself decently. Very few people
are to be seen in rags, and these only among
a class such as the opium fiend, who is ut
terly worthless and very much hike our
American drunkard.
THE filth of all their cities, Pekin espe-
cially, outside of the range of foreign in
fuence, is frightful to behold Yet with all
this filth it is easy to find beautiful and cost
ly fabrics and surroundings such as one
would expect to see in the homes of the rich.
One passes frequently from a street foul
with refuse into a residence of immaculate
cleanliness.
"China, as well as Japan Is awakening to
the position her cheap labor, her productive
soil, her mineral wealth, give her. And the
Chinese have also erected number of cot
ton mills for the purpose of supplying their
own people with the cotton clothes which
heretofore were brought from America and
Europe. They are contemplating the cree
ton of wooden mills. in which to manufact-
ure carpets and rugs for American and Eu-
ropean markets They now know that about
80 per cent of the carpet woods used in
those countries are obtained from China,
and they expect soon to ship that wool man
ufactured into carpets instead of the raw
n aterial. They must, though, in the begin
Ming have superintendent familiar with
such machinery as is used in America and
Europe. They will have great difficulty in
finding men whom they are willing to trust,
as they are of an exceedingly suspicious
nature.
1.-THE government Of China is, of course,
very weak. But whether the present dynas-
ty continues, or whether some Chinese revo-
luton succeeds in changing the personnel
of the government, or whether the Euro
pean powers agree upon a partition of
China, industriafly and commercially China
will remain one great, compact mass. The
European and American parts of the world
must accept the conditions that exist and
protect themselves from Asiatic competition
or sink in time, and not a long time at that,
to the Asiatic level. In my judgment, the