The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-05-15
MONGOLIAN SUPREMACY,
A GREAT DANGER.

We had an article in the REPREsEN-
TATIvE not long since, in reference to
the treaty between Japan and China,
whereby it was provided that foreign
ers can introduce machinery Of all
kinds into China, build mills, etc. We
took the ground that the six-cents- a.
day labor of China, supplemented by
steam and electricity, would produce
manufactures at prices that would
close half the mills and factories of
Europe and America, and cast the
working classes down into inconceiv-
able wretchedness. A friend, at Orc
Blanco, Arizona, sends us the follow
ing clipping, from the London Times
of February 1895, which shows that
similar ideas are beginning to dawn
even in the minds of the people of
England. Our friend writes as fol-
lows:
FRIEND DONNELLY:-I see in THE
REPRESENTATIVE for April "a, an
article relative to a death Blow to
Civilization, "-referring to the pos
sible outcome of the Chinese and
japanese treaty. While not entirely
agreeing with it's argument or conclu
sions, enclose the following from the
last Consular Report" which has a
bearing on the actual situation.
Yours truly, G. w. KEAPTON.
The Times article is as follows:
The statements made before the Royal
Colonial Institute last week by Mr.. White
head, and supported in a weighty speech
by Mr.. Leonard Courtney, do not form
aist Of the exehange banfer and fre
the national view of the English Statesman
they. tell the same tale of the decay of
sion of British manufactures by the ris-
ing steam industries of India and Japan.
It is rather, cold comfort (and the. posi-
ISOLATION could be oftereO to be assured
by Mr.. Courtney that the world at large
and a We was Were to 9af n
supplying the wants Of nations to those
who had in rivalry, with us, we must &C
That was the conclusion to which Mr.
Whitehead's facts and figures pointed.
and which Mr.. Courtney's rigid honesty
is conclusion which bears, not upon one
or another department. Of industry, but
ing, or can profltably be, produced by the
new steam-using nations of the East.
Nor is it one that depends on single
some of the speakers, who dwelt almost
exclusively on the currency aspects and on
the supposed bimetalic remedy. But
dency to pass lightly over the economic
causes which underlie the situation. indie
psndently Of questions of currency and tar
IFS, Great Britain is now beginning to feel
the rivalry of the new amusing coun-
tries of Asia for substantially the same
Belgium and other European competitors
in the middle of the century. India and
Japan are reconstructng their industrial
hast f-fo I,
cooperation of labor and capital on a great
scale. The same mechanical force and the
same industrial methods which gave Brit
ish manufactures the monopoly of the
by Asiatic producers, destroying that mon
most important factor, but the treatment
of the question assumes an air of unreality
when it is put forward as the sole or even
as the fundamental cause:
1t seems probable that India can manu-
own coal and her cheap labor at lower
cost than England can manufacture i'm
ported cotton of the same staple, subject
to the demands of trade unions and the
contingencies if strikes. 1t is certain that
the profits of the British producers of the
higher qualities Of cotton goods have also
aggravated by currency difficulties, but not
entirely caused by them.
Mr.. Whitehead gives a clear and not in
opportune warning that the case of Man
chester does not stand alone among the in
dustries of Great Britain. In some respects,
Lancashire has Jared better than other
centers of British production in the COM
petition with the new am-manufactrues
of the East. Turning to the jute manu-
facture." writes Mr.. Whitehead, I'VE find
that about thirty years ago nearly the
whole of it centered in Dundee whereas
now, about one-third is conducted on the
banks of the Hugh, near Calcutta. The
removal of this trade from our shores has
been most detrimental to British interests"
Trimming has attained large proper
lions in the Straits, the production having
recently increased about Is per cent per
annum." 1.-THE tin mines in Cornwall and
Australia will have to submit to this COM
petition at whatever disadvantage to them
selves If we turn to any other industry,
the Asiatic races are enjoying a similar
advantage over their western competitors
In the case of coal of which Japan has a
very large supply, we. find that several
large steamship companies have contracted
for hundreds OF thousands of tons of jap
anese coal to be delivered in Singapore at
a price, allowing for 20 per cent inferiority