The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-08
Some Extravagant Generalities
That Have Been In.
dulged In.
OPINION OF WILLIAM Il. MILLS.
America Has Nothing to Fear in Trad.
ing With All the Nations OF
the Earth.

arise who tell us that our 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 injudicious
statements concerning the prospective
competition OF the initiative skill of Japan
with American manufactures. But the
alarm under this head is evidenced by the
fact that George c. Perkins, United States
Senator in Congress from California, has
furnished for publication over his own
signature panic-stricken article, in which
the Senator declares his belief that the
Japanese are able to disastrously affect
the markets of the world. The honor
able Senator apprehenslons are not
limi ted to the United States. He declares:
What England will do, we can only I'M
agine. Unless she alters her method she
will be brought to the feet OF Japan IN the
struggle for supremacy"
These extravagant generalities may be
accepted as the typical expressions OF
loose-thinking people. What we may eX-
pect at the hands of the people of Japan
is not to be anticipated by proph ecy. The
apprehension to which the honorable
Senator gives voice grows out CT the super
fetal consideration that there are countries
in the world where labor is cheaper than
in our own, owing to the inexpensive
habits of the people of those countries.
When the rate of wages in one country
is compared with the rate obtalnable in
another, the fact that disparity exists
when taken by itself is the occasion OF
much speculation on the part OF those but
imperfectly familiar with the science of
totr Of n frih 11-
ton. 1t is common defect of the under
standing, from which none OF US are free,
to mistake what we perceive to be true for
all there is of the truth. Applying this 10
the subject matter under cOnSld Grafton,
those vino are now predicting untold
calamities to the industries of America by
reason OF a greater intimacy OF commercial
relations with Japan are predicating their
conclusions and lndulging their apprehen-
sions by giving too much weight to the
single fact of the disparity of the cost of
living TO the individual 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 the
pleasing paStime of reasoning from exist
ing 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 mat
tiers.
In all history the nations most advanced
in the arts of civilization have courted
commercial relations WIG those which
have made less progress in civilized adj
vancement. To declare that higher civ
ilization has anything to fear from COM
merclal contact with nations on a lower
plane of civilized efficiency is to impeach
civilization itself. The advanced nations
have sought to extend commercial SUI
premacy over seml-civlllZed races OF men,
chiefly because of the superiority of a high
over low state of civilized existence. It's
for this reason that all the great nations
of the world have courted commercial in
timacy with India. 1t is in consideration
of this reason that the dominant nation or
nations of any particular age have found
their greatest incentive to conquest. The
Roman empire placed the semi-barbaric
nations OF the then known world under
tribute, not only in the sense of a forced
contribution to the public exchequer, but
chiefly because of the commercial and in
dustrial advantage which invariably
Injured to the superior civilization.
When the honorable Senator from Cali
fornia expresses his apprehension as to
what England will do, and predicts that
unless she radically alters her methods
she will be brought to the feet of Japan in
the struggle for supremacy, he is invoking
no doubt familiar, to very little purpose.
England has grown great by the policy
of establishing closer intimacy with semi
civilized and barbaric peoples. England
enjoyed priority of manufacturing skill,
especially in textile fabrics and the manu-
featured forms Of iron, while the two con-
tinents of North and South America were
being developed. Fifty millions of people
in South America and 80000,0 coo of people
in North America have paid tribute in all
the pathway OF their progress to the looms
and FORCES of England.
1t will allay our apprehensions of the
competition which Japan is TO offer the in
dustrles of America and England when we
remember that no Nation has ever
achieved a high degree of success in the
manufacture of articles not of domestic
consumption. Artisan skill in its indi-
vidual aspect develops along the line of
personal necessity, and National ind ustry
on lines of domestic consumption.
The chief articles of export as the result
of industry among the Monaghan races
are tea and silk; but these articles are of
universal consumption at home. The
Chinese ard japanese nave industry, and
possess in high degree an initiative me-
'chanical faculty. But they are deficient
in the invention and application of labor
aiding machinery, and in consequence are
large exporters of raw materials. In fact,
nations on their plane OF development are
uniformly 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 it's manufactured form
the products of the silkworm, including
cocoons, eggs raw and reeled from
cocoons, aggregated SIC, 234, 1872. Thus silk
in its raw form when it reached the
United States, as compared with its manu-
featured form, attained a volume of
twenty-six times the latter.
England possesses in its machinery the
productive capacity of 10000, 900 of men,
When Beaconsfeldy in the settlement of
the Eastern question" accomplished
more by diplomacy than had ever been
accomplished by war he was supported by
the vast productive capacity of the nation
he represented. The negotiations were
conducted along the lines of the relative
ability of the nations parties TO the nego-
tiation TO sustain themselves in war
Beaconsfeld spoke in the name of the pro-
ductive capacity of 400, 600 900 of men rep
resented by the abor-aiding machinery of
Great Britain.
The United States has approximately
the same impersonal productive capacity
The Isles OF Great Britain have about As
100000 of people. The United States has
70 MOO 600 peopIe The two Nations to-