The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1896-11-28
THE ORIENTAL WAR.
It's Re suits May Prove a Men ace
to American Trade.
So Says Sir Edwin Arnold, Good
Autho-ity-Japan May Make In
roads Upon English and Ameri-
can Industries.

Japan has prophc3 in England who
can scarcely contain himself for joy
er ov Ecr victory; who predicts vast
things for her, and who is happy at her
prospect despite the fact that 4 part of
his prediction is that through her gain
England viii lose heavily and the
United States will he severely stricken
Yet, says the New York Advertiser, he
is an Elglish:nan born, all has been
il:liThtcd By the queen; an EnglishmaI.
of cver-bub5iirg patriotism. Yet he
loves America, took an American wife.
and is loved aaI respected by Ameri-
cans. He is Sir Edwin Arnold, cclc-
bra+ed as the author of ''The Light of
Asia" and many other wonderful books,
and, lately, by his-shall we call it
Japomania?-Si EIvip Arnold, who
is no less 4 politician than 4 poet.
knows moro about the Japan China war
than any other EaGiishruan. Here is
part Of what he said:
Japan is one OF ray most cnthusias-
tic loves. l have been there twi ,e 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 down SO that Japan was
open. Nov Japan has broken it down
SO that CAina-greatest conquest of
them au-is open.
Il do not mean by that that China
will now or, perhaps, ever enter into
the column of progressive nations.
japan will not GO far enough in her
victory to uproot the present Chinese
govcrnrcnt-a 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
10 deal. She realizes that they have
been infected with {. virus of stupidity
and barbaric conservatism from which
1t is scarcely reasonable to hope to ever
free them. Confuciua 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
.njects a subtle poison into the worm
she selects for her falnily's food, which
paralyzcs it, and without killing it
makes it like dead thing. Confucius
was China's iguna bird. He introduced
into her veins poison which has made
her coraatose for many, many centuries.
1t is, in one sense, dead thing which
Japan has conquered, aad it is doubtful
if it will ever come to normal life. But
it is valuable corpse.
But Japan will be from now on the
great civilizing, 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
siblc into the interier, which has been
absolutely stationary for centuries.
The day when lucifcr matches and mills
and railroads and other results of civil
ization can be shut out of one of the
richest and broadcast countric S in the
world ended with the decisive battle of
the ,Iapan-China war.
"The victory of Japan over China
nay well make certain English and
American industries tremble for their
future. 1t means that from now on
cheap >labor-labor which is incredibly
cheap to us-will be thrown into COM
petitionswith 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 arc in danger then the manu-
facturcrs arc in greater danger, The
capacity of the Japanese and the Chi
acse 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 q
day, against from a dollar and a half
upwards in America and four shillings
upward in England, it is not hard to
sec there is reason in what say. / be-
lievc THAT japan will ere long play very
hot with Manchester, our great Eng
.ish cotton manufacturing center, and
there arc 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 numcrs
ous list of other industries in which
cheap labor must be the chief element
such as ratchmaking-she will rule
Do wI,.-.