The record-union., 1896-06-19
COME DOWN TO FACTS.


Our esteemed contemporary, the
Sunday News says that it hopes
those who maintain that we have moth
Ing to fear from Japanese competition
are right, but that people who have
visited Japan with the special purpose
of investigating the subject make very
esting to know who the people are who
have visited Japan for the special pur-
pose, etc., and whether their purpose
In visiting Japan was to find justifica-
tion for gloomy reports or whether it
was to really look into the subject and
report the facts
There is one instance where a very
strong advocate of extreme protection
finding a plausible argument in favor
Of his theory. Men always find what
they look for, but our contemporary
says: THE japanese have a model in
IN the United States, and astute ma
fives are using our machines" We do
not charge our contemporary with any
intentional misstatement. 1t has picked
invention ever patented in the United
States" from current newspaper con-
lecture. 1t would take 1000 mechanics
one hundred years to make model Of
avar1r ipua,a+io,, ax-n,- To+aufed i'm the
United States, and it would certainly
take a building as large as the Patent
Office in Washington to contain them.
There is no such building, no such col
lection and no such achievement as the
reproduction of every invention ever
PATENTED in the United States in Japan
People who make statements OF this
kind would be amazed to find how little
of truth there is in many or nearly all of
them. For illustration our contempo-
rary says: ''Astute natives are using
our machines" The English have es-
tablished some factories in Japan and
are using English machines. but our
contemporary would be puzzled to in
sanity to tell us just what machines
the aStute natives in Japan are using.
They use no machinery whatever in
agriculture. They use no machinery
whatever in raising or decorticating
fax. They do not use our saws, au-
gers, planes or axes. They do not use
one out of each 10000 of the inventions
that have been patented in the United
States.
Our contemporary continues: eff one
factory employs men to operate ma
chimes at twenty-five cents per day, it
Is surely able to undersell the factory
that pays So" That does not neces-
sarily follow. The New York Tribune
published a statement, claiming to be
Thoroughly verified, that, using the
same machines, eight hundred English
operatives produced as many yards of
the same time as $4,000 Japanese oper-
aftives. We do not vouch for the accu-
Tacy of this statement, but it has been
soberly made by the most respectable
authorities in the United States and
England, and is far better authenti-
Gated than the statement that they
have model of every invention ever
patented in the United States in To-
kio, or that factory opertives only got
klos or that factory operatives only get
authority for this statement which
may be deemed reliable Fifteen years
ago guides received twelve cents per
day. They receive fifteen cents per
hour now.
One thing may be depended upon.
TheaJapanese are not fools. Every man
will demand pay in proportion to the
money value Of his labor. When a jap
Rnese discovers that operatives pro-
ducing the same value as himself re-
ceive 50 per day in any country, he
will demand the 81. To deny this is to
deny TO the Japanese all commercial
and industrial instinct and the absence
of brains and thought. If they are SO
low in the scale of intelligence that
they viii continue to operate machines
at twenty-five cents per day when their
labor is just as productive as the peo-
pie who in other countries receive 81
per day, without demanding the 81
then America has much less to fear
from japanese intelligence, CONNER
cial instinct and productive capacity
than anybody has yet supposed.