The record-union., 1895-12-09
JAPANESE COMPETITION.
Comments Upon Some Extravagant
GeneraIities.
America Has Nothing to Fear in Trad
ing With All the Nations of
the Earth.
(From the San Francisco call)

SN~-
commercial and Industrial interests are
threatened with destruction by reason
of the competition of countries Where
labor is notably cheaper than in our
own
Recently much apprehension has
been engendered by unwise and lnJu-
dieious statements concerning the pros
peotive competition of the initiative
skill of Japan with American manu-
features. But the alarm under TINS
head is evidenced by the fact that
George c. Perkins, United States Sena-
tor in Congress from California, mas
furnished for publication over his own
signature panic=stricken article, IN
which the Senator declares his belief
that the japanese are able to dlsas-
trously affect the markets of the world.
The honorable Senator's apprehenslons
are not limited to the United States
He declares: What England will DO,
we can only imagine. Unless she alters
her method she will be brought to the
feet of Japan in the struggle for su-
premacy."
These extravagant generalities may
be accepted as the typical expressions
of thinking people. What we
may expect at the hands Of the people
Of Japan is not to be anticipated by
prophecy. The apprehension to which
the honorable Senator gives voice
grows out of the superficial considera-
ton that there are countries in the
world where labor is cheaper than in
CUR own, owing to the inexpensive hab-
its OF the people of those countries
When the rate of wages in one coun-
try is compared with the rate obtain
able in another, the fact that a dis
tal
occasion of much speculation on the
part of those but imperfectly familiar
with the science of political economy or
the law of distribution. 1t is a common
defect of the understanding, from
which none of us are free, to mistake
what we perceive to be true for all there
is of the truth. Applying this to the
subject matter under consideration,
those who are now predicting untold
calamitieS to the industries of America
by reason of greater intimacy of COM
mercial relations with Japan are pre-
dieting their conclusions and indulging
their apprehensionS by giving too much
weight to the single fact Of the dis
parity of the cost Of living to the indi-
vidual citizen of the two countries, and
to the resultant disparity in the rate of
wages.
We all live upon the brink of the I'M
known, and, while we may indulge in
existing causes to future effects, the
only thing which may be depended
upon to happen is the unexpected. The
past is the safest guide to our judgment
in all of these matters.
In all history the nations most adj
vanced in the arts of civilization have
courted commercial relations with
those which have made less progress in
civilized advancement. To declare that
higher civilization has anything to
fear from commercial contact with ma
tions on a lower plane of civilized eff
f1ciency is to impeach civilization itself
The advanced nations have sought to
extend commercial supremacy over
semi-civiliZed races of men, chiefly be-
cause Of the superiority of high over
low state of civilized existence. 1t is
for this reason that all the great ma
tions OF the world have courted COM
mercial intimacy with India. 1t is in
consideration of this reason that the
dominant nation or nations of any par
ticular age have found their greatest
incentive to conquest. The Roman en-
pire placed the semi-barbaric nations
of the then known world under tribute,
not only in the sense of a forced con-
tribution to the public exchequer. but
chiefly because of the commercial and
Industrial advantage which invariably
Injured to the superior civilization.
When the honorable Senator from
California expresses his apprehension
as to what England will do, and pre-
diets that unless she radically alters her
methods she will be brought to the feet
of Japan in the struggle for supremacy,
he is invoking the testimony of history,
with which he is no doubt familiar, to
very little purpose.
England has grown great by the pol
icy of establishing closer intimacy with
semi-civilized and barbaric peoples.
England enjoyed priority Of manu-
featuring skill, especially in textile fab
RIGS, and the manufactured forms of
iron, while the two continents of North
and South America were being deyel-
oped Fifty millions of people in South
America and S0,000000 Of people in
North America have paid tribute in all
the pathway of their progress to the
looms and FORCES of England
It will allay our apprehensions of the
competition which Japan is to offer the
industries of America and England
when we remember that no nation has
ever achieved high degree of success
in the manufacture of articles not of
domestic consumption. Artisan skill in
its individual aspect develops along
the line of personal necessity, and ma
tional industry on lines of domestic
consumption.
The chief articles of export as the re-
suit of industry among the Monaghan
Gaces are tea ana silk; but these arti-
cIes are OF universal consumption al
Nome. The Chinese and japanese have
industry, and possesses in high degree
an initiative mechanical faculty. But
they are deficient in the invention and
modification of labor aiding machinery
and In consequence are large exporters
of raw materials. In fact, nations on
their plane of development are uni
Eorrnly exporters of raw material. This
statement is justified by the statistics
of the importation of silk into the
united States.
In its manufactured form the value
of the silk importations into America
in 1894 was $755, 404. In its unmanu-
featured form the products of the silk
worm, including cocoons. eggs raw ano
reeled from cocoons. aggregated Sl6,-
oR4 lS2 Thus silk in It's raw form
when II reached the United States, as
r.ompared with its manufactured form
rt4ained a volume of twenty-six times
the latter.
England possesses in its machinery
the productive capacity OF 40OOOO,OOt
men. When Beaconsfield, in the settle
rrent of the Eastern question" &C
conplished more by diplomacy thar
rad ever. been accomplished by war III
was supported by the vast productive
ranacfty of the nation he represented
THE negotiations were conducted along
the lines of the relative ability OF the
nations parties to the negotiations Il
sustain themselves in war. Beacons
field spoke in the name of the pro
ductfve capacity of 4e0,O00.0OO of mel
,.enrasented by the labor-aiding ma.
chinery of Great Britain.
The United State has approximately
che same impersonal productive ca
nacity. The isles of Breat Britain have
about 45. 600 900 of people. The Unitet
states has 100000 people. The tw'
.aatiors toaether possess perhaps in tn