The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-08

because of It's power to intiict penalties for
disobedience. The Chinese mentality Is
utterly devoid of all conception of all Ma
tional glory or National honor. National
authority to him is coercion; something
to be feared not loved, and it is a maxim
of the sentiments that fear without love
uniformly degenerates into hatred.
But the most important factor entering
into the consideration of the question of
Japanese competition with American in
dustry relates to the basic fact that ma
tions become consumers of the articles
they produce. The attempt on the part of
Japan to produce from raw material
the manufactured forms demanded by
the civilized conditions of America
and Western Europe may plant the
seeds of an expanding civilization.
When the people of any nation are famil-
iariZed by their own manufacturers with
the wants of other people, process of pro-
ducing a.similarity of want at once sets up.
The awakening civilization of Japan and
the adoption by that country of the modes
of thought and life of European and
American civilization are far more likely
to create want for the manufactures
demanded by our own civilization
than to supply it. The declaration
that the habits of the japanese
people are so simple as to make the cost of
living low is a revelation of the new order
of their non-productiyeness AS soon as
they become manufacturers of the articles
demanded by the people of America and
England they will become consumers OF
these articles. The very first effect of the
changed condition to flow from such
manufacture will be to expand their own
wants and to add greater complexlty to
their civilization. Let it not be forgotten
that the wants of man come into being by
the opportunity for their qualification.
Japan to-day is just emerging from a
condition of arrested civilization. The
spirit of modern progress is moving upon
the surface of that Dead Sea of human life.
Contact with Western powers found the
people of Japan STEPPED in poverty to their
lips; not the poverty of deprivation, be-
cause where no deprivation is felt there is
no poverty. The poverty OF Japan is the
poverty of contentment arising out of the
utmost simplicity of want. Mans efforts
the correlative of this is that his wants
increase as his efforts to supply them may
exceed that supply.
To apply these principles: When Japan
becomes Weather than she now is, the
possession OF that wealth will confer at
once greater compeXity of want. With
the enlargement of her capacity to pro-
duce, there is to be an attendant desire TO
consume. The AWAKENING of 100000
of people to civilized want means the
creation of new market for American
and European industry. 1t means the
creation of similarity of want, and this
comes into beng when the Western
Nations are better prepared to supply
Japan by reason of the maturity of their
civilization, the productive capacity of
their machinery and the greater CONNER
cial skill of their people.
There is no instance in all history where
commercial intimacy between superior
and an inferior race of men has resulted in
the wants of the superior race being sup
piled by the inferior. Superiority has
never succumbed to inferiority on any
field.
Nor is it to be assumed that simply be-
cause the rate of wages in one country is
cheaper tnan that in another that the coun-
try possessing the cheapest labor Will do
all the manufacturing for the world. We
have treaties of comfy and amity with
Austria, and yet the daily reward for the
labor OF the skilled and unskilled In Aus
tria is less than in any other country in
the civilized world. Austria has not
offered successful competition to our in
dustries. We have relations of amity and
comfy with Italy, and yet the average rate
of wages in Italy, skilled and I'M
skilled, is not to exceed 20 per cent
of that paid in the United States. For
more than 100 years commercial intimacy
between the cheap labor countries of Eu-
rope and the Unieed States has subsisted,
and yet America has arisen from nation
of 100000 of people at the time she
achieved her independence TO a nation of
20 600, 900 of people. In this she has eX-
hibited a capacity for self care, and an abil-
ity to meet successfully the competition
offered by civilized or semi-civiliZed ma
tons on every field. The inherent attri-
butes of the race which in past history
l. IL, ho hoc cuff
decadence.
In the light of these considerations we
have nothing to fear by the extension of
our commercial relations with all the peo-
pies OF the earth. The superiority of our
civilization is not an accident, nor IS its
preservation dependent upon isolation.
What we are Is the result OF an evolution
airy force, what we have accomplished is
referable to inherent power. The only
superiority which is real is that which sur
wives conflict. If conflict with the semi
civilized people of Japan is to extinguish
our civilization, that result can follow only
If in their inherent character the people OF
Japan are fttest to survive.
When, therefore, an American states
man .candidly declares that he believes
the Japanese able to disastrously affect
the markets of the world, he is forgetting
that the superiority of the race to which
he belongs-the Nation of which he, is an
hcnored citizeD-owes its greatness to at
tributes of superiority which are racial and
not accidental.
Long periods of time are required to pro-
duce any marked changes in the industries
or character of races or nations. The rela-
tive position of America and Japan in the
scale of human progress one hundred years
from now will be about what it is to-day.
Civilizations are the external manifesto
tons of the individual character of
the people into which they are seq
regated. Civilized manifestations pro-
coed from the minds and conceptions of
men. There are no instances in history
where races have suddenly broken away
from the history and traditions to which
they are attached, and suddenly mani
tested radical changes of civilized condi-
tions. Japan will be no exception to this
conservative force. She has produced a
superficial appearance of progress in adopt
ing our modes of life or the habits
and manners of our civilization but
her real transformation must come
through gradual process, requiring many
generations to place her upon our level of
commercial and industrial capacity. In
the meantime the law of progress relating
to US will not have been suspended. We
are centuries in advance of her in the
science of government, in the arts of man
ufacture and in commercial skill. While
she is crossing that wide interval of GEN.
turies lpt ne hone that m erica will have