The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-06
A SERIOUS SITUATION.

| The address made by Major Charles e.
Pearce before the Chamber of Commerce
| last Tuesday states one of the most serious
problems that concern the prosperity OF
| this country. AS large st. Louis manu-
facturer of jute fabrics he felt a pressure
that threatened to crush his business, and
in order to inform himself apd seek for a
better place in which to pursue his bust
| ness he visited India and Japan, and has
now formed the decision to remove his
| immense plant to Japan.
He announces that we can hardly men,
ton product but that it can be imported
from Japan and sold below the prices
which we can afford. The two reasons for
this are that in that country wages are
| extremely low, and that our present free
trade tariff affords altogether inadequate
| protection of American industries. He de-
| clares that by reason of England's free
trade policy the jute manufacturers OF
Dundee and the cotton manufacturers of
Manchester are unable to compete with the
products of India, where labor is only 6
| cents day. He remarked incidentally
| that the closing of the Indian minis to the
| free coinage of silver has given the East
| Indian manufacturer an additional advan-
tage by affecting the relative values of
| Indian coins. Thus he makes it clear that
the manufacturers of both England and
America are forced to move their
| machinery to India and Japan and there
pursue their industries in order to save
the money which they have invested.
Undoubtedly Japan is our most danger
Gus rival, and it is but natural that China
should follow in her footsteps to control
with India the manufacturing of the world.
The dense population of these three coun-
tries makes the struggle for existence ex-
ceedingly keen and the rate of wages
correspondingly low. Under the hard
necessities which there prevail the science
of economical living is carried to length
which even the poorest peasants of Europe
cannot comprehend. AS enforced frugality
and the necessity for constant application
are the surest enemies of shiftlessness and
dissipation, the labor of the Orient is as
steady, methodical and reliable as ma
chine. Although in point of development
the Orientals are not admitted by the
white races to be their equals in intellect
ual alertness and physical vigor, and
although unremitting application to labor
and the absence of abundant nourishing
food make drain upon the vital forces,
Major Pearce declares that the efficiency
of Oriental skilled labor falls only Is per
cent below that of white labor, while its
wages are 80 per cent less.
The whole situation is disheartening. 1t
is absurd to say that we must come to &C
cept condition in which we shall appear
as the producers and the Orient as the
manufacturers. This cannot be defended
even on the spreading belief that the law
of specialization is universal-that if the
Orient can manufacture more cheaply
than we, we have monopoly of produc-
ton from unlimited resources, and that
there is no violation of economic principles
in making one group of nations producers
and another manufacturers. 1t would be
better for the United States to close all its
ports and erect wall around it as high as
the heavens than surrender its individual
ity and place itself at the mercy of de-
grading competition.
Ii ever there was an eloquent plea for
the maintenance of our National integrity
it lies in this ruin or migration that our
manufacturers have to contemplate The
transference of our factories to the Orient
would be confession of governmental in
capacity that no civilized country can be
SO shameless as to make. The Federal ac-
acknowledgement of our right to exclude ORR
entail labor with which it would degrade
civilized men to compete would find even
higher and broader application in pol
icy which would make home manufacture
ing possible by the imposition of a pro-
tective tariff.