The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1895-07-25
THAT ORIENTAL WAR
lis Results May Proue a Menace
10 american Trade.
SO says SIR Edwin Arnold, "a Very
GOoG GAuthOrity-Japan 1s Ail<ely
tn Make TnrOnus Upon the
Industries of the United
states and England.

Japan has prophet in England who
can scarcely contain himself for JOY
er ov her victory; who predicts vast
things for her, and who is happy at her
prospect despite the fact that part of
his prediction is that through her gain
England will lose heavily and the
United States will be severely stricken.
Yet, says the New York Advertiser, he
is an Englishman born, and has been
llnighted by the queen; an Englishman
of everbubbling patriotism. Yet he
loves America, took an American wife,
and is loved and respected by Ameri-
cans. He is Sir Edwin Arnold. cele-
bratcd as the author Of "tThe Light of
Asia" and many other wonderful books,
and, lately, by his-shall we call it
Japomania?-S Edwin Arnold, w ho
is no less a politician than a poet
knows more about the Japan-China war
than any other Englishman. Here is
part of what he said: @....@~...
"Japan is one of my most cnthusias-
tic loves. | have been there twice and
both visits were long and pleasant. If
| live shall go again. Japan's victory
is the greatest progress that the world
has seen since the American colonies
won their independence. For un-
counted centuries an impossible
boundary existed between the west and
the east England broke it down SO
| that India was open; America, through
| Perry, broke it tdown SO that Japan was
open. Now Japan has broken it down
SO that China-greatest conquest of
them all-is open.
II do not mean by that that China
will now or, perhaps, ever enter into
the column of progressive nations.
Japan will not go lar enough in her
victory to uproot the present Chinese
governments government that has
been handed down with few changes
since before the time of Christ Japan
knows too much for that. She under
stands the people with whom she has
to deal. She realizes that they have
been infected with q virus of stupidity
and barbaric conservatism from which
it is scarcely reasonable to hope to ever
free them. Confucius was the man
who killed China. His philosophy of
fatalisn is the sleeping draught from
whose effects she may never wake
China is like the grub chosen by the
iguna bird for her young. This bird
injects a subtle poison into the worm
she selects for her familys food, which
paralyzes it, and without killing it
makes it like dead thing. Confucius
was China's iguna bird. He introduced
into her veins a poison which has made
her comatose for lnany, many centuries.
1t is, in one sense, a dead thing which
Japan has conquered, aad it is doubtful
it it will ever come to normal life. But
it is a valua BILE corpse
But Japan will be from now on the
great civlizing, regulating, dominating
power Of Asia. Without disrupting
China she will let the whole world
reap the result of her resources. She
will throw down the barriers which
have closed her vast possessions to
trade and commerce. She will intro
duce such modern methods as are pos
sible into the INTERIOR which has been
absolutely stationary for centuries.
The day when lucifer matches and mills
and railroads and other results of civil
| 1LdClOl 1cII NC ol1uU ouU III OlC VI UllC
richest and broadest countries in the
world ended with the decisive battle of
the JapanChina war.
''The victory Of Japan over China
may well make certain English and
American industries tremble for their
future. 1t means that from now on
cheap labor-labor which is incredibly
| oh 4/, ,,c-yu;11 ha i,,4o
petition with high-priced labor. Tariff
duties will not protect us or you. No
nation could protect itself by tariff
against the attack which Japan can
and will make in the near future, any
more than it could protect itself by
guns and forts against an invasion of
the influenza epidemic.
''Let your cotton growers look to
their positions. Even England's Indian
cotton will be hard pressed, and if the
growers are in danger then the manu-
facturers are in greater danger. The
capacity of the Japanese and the Chi
nese for incredible detail in their work
makes for them the most perfect work
men in the world, as they are the most
rapid And when one realizes that this
ability and capacity can be obtained
there for an average of eight cents a
day, against from dollar and half
upwards in America and four shillings
upward in England, it is not hard to
see there is reason in what say. I be-
lieve that Japan will ere long play very
hot with Manchester, our great Eng
lish cotton manufacturing center, and
there are American cities which, while
they may not feel the evil effects of
this modern progression quickly, will
not feel them less seriously in the end.
"And cotton is only one Of the indus
trial branches of which Japan is des-
tined to become the queen. In silk
growing and silk making and the labor
and resources Of China which she will
develop she will be supreme, and in an
infinitely varied and infinitely numer.
Gus list of other industries in which
cheap labor must be the chief element
| such as matchmalSing-she will r,1le