Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-03-25
CHEAPER BICYCLES
What is Expected When the Japan
csc Wheels Arrive.
EFFECT ON TIE AMERICAN MARKET
The Land of the Mikado as a Man.
ufacturing Rival.
SKILL OF THE WORKMEN

SKILL OF TIE WORKMEN
Will Japan be able to make bicycles and
sell them in this country for $25 apiece?
THIS is the question which is exciting
considerable comment among people inter-
ested in bicycles. 1t is answered negatively
and with most pronounced emphasis by the
bicycle manufacturers in America, who
claim 1t to be impossible for even the cheap
Japanese labor to turn out high-grade
wheels for anything like this price. On the
other hand, the question has excited a
| reasonable doubt in the minds of many peo-
pie who are familiar with the condition of
affairs brought about by the inroads Japan
csc manufacturers arc making into Amer
lean markets.
So serio US has become this competition of
cheap Japanese labor, combined with the
skill of Japanese craftsmen, to manufac-
tCIers and merchants on the Pacific coast
that Congress has been asked to come to
the protection of American goods and put
high tariff on the Japanese product SO
as to equalize the difference in the labor
cost. In the house a few days ago Mr..
NeWiands OF Nevada presented a resolu-
ton of the chamber Of commerce of San
Francisco, calling the attention of the coun-
try and of Congress to the invasion of man
ufactured products from oriental countries
particularly Japan.
I'm reference to the bicycle" said Mr.
Newlands, ut is stated by the newspapers
| to be one of the products of that country
which is now being sold in San Francisco;
and II the newspapers are to be credited
the bicycle Is manufactured in Japan for
Sl2 in silver. 1t is sold in San Francisco
| for $12 in gold. The seller takes that ST.
| in gold, turns it into $24 in silver, pays the
| DrOdncfi0n ma
| freight and duty and has a profit of 81 or
s. upon each bicycle. There is the same
| competition with reference to mattel hes,
| lamps, hats. brushes, rugs and other
| products.
| A Threatened Invasion.
THAT coast now finds itself threatened
with a new form of oriental invasion, not
the invasion of the laborer from China or
! Japan, but an invasion of the products of
| the cheap labor of the latter country. Re-
| Gently an American firm of high standing
| in Japan has established agency in San
! Francisco and is engaged in selling all the
! various products of Japanese manufacture.
| There is scarcely anything that is manu-
| featured in America that is not included
| in the catalogue of Japanese products,
| watches, bicycles, rugs, carpets, cotton,
| woolen and silk goods, and almost every
| other form Of product. They have been
| put upon the market al such low prices as
| to absolutely defy competition from the
| production of American manufacturers"
| Japanese manufacturer who is now in
| this country selecting models to take back
| TO Japan for his men to work upon, and
| who visited the bicycle show in New York,
was interviewed upon this subject, fol-
| lows:
Il have only to send the best bicycle
| find in this show to Japan in order to be
| sure that / shall get something equally
| good turned out there within six months.
1t will take our workmen longer to make a
| bicycle than 1t does yours, but We pay
| skilled metal workers an average of thirty
| cents a day we can afford to be little
slower. Some of your manufacturers have
| told me that they had sold goods and ma
| chimes to Japan, but that after one or two
| orders had been filled no more came. The
| reason is that the Japanese are making
| these things themselves. AS yet there is no
| treaty between the United States and
| Japan under which your patents are pro-
| tected, so that We have no royalties to pay
| inventors. At every one of your Industrial
( exhibitions you will find japanese visitors,
| who, like myself are on the lookout for
| the newest and best of everything. 1 have
! picked out four bicycles from this show
| which will go to Japan by the next steamer
| from San Francisco Our bicycles will be
| one year behind yours in STYLE but they
Will cost half the price and be just as good.
Why They Are Able to Initiate.
you have probably heard that we Jap
anese are wonderful at initiating anything
| we see. The explanation is simple enough
! Every child, boy or girl, in the Japanese
| schools-and education is far more COM
| pulsory with us than with you-learns to
| draw accurately and to estimate the shape
| and relation of things he sees. Our sys-
! tenn Of writing, done with a brush, and in
| which every stroke must have a certain
| value Of it's own, helps this eye-training.
| A written page, or even a line, with us Is
| a sort of picture, good writers ranking as
| artists. and the child is taught to copy
| such work with an accuracy Of which you
have no conception"
| a member of the House who returned not
| long ago from a visit to Japan said to-
| day:
| Il have no doubt that the japanese will
soon begin to invade the American mar
| ket in earnest with their bicycles. The
wheels I saw in Japan were not the latest
| modsls and probably We're not highly
| finish ed as the American wheels, as the
Japanese manufacturers have not yet sup
| piled themselves with the machinery to
| bring the work up to perfection, but the
bicycles were every way as durable and
satisfactory as the American products The
| Japanese have started out to make every
| thing that we make and they are in earn
| est about it. The cheapness of the la
| Dor, combined with the skill and adapt
ability of the workmen, well as their
| interchangeable industry,will make them very
| formidable rivals to the American manu-
facturerS.'
| A recent issue of a San Francisco news
paper stated that a manufacturer of Japan
had established an agency in San Francis
| co for the sale of Japanese manufactured
goods for the purpose of underselling
American products. Similar agencies are
| being established east and west now by
| representatives of Japanese houses. The
agency is selling the best parlor matches
| in tin-lined boxes, delivered to the mer-
chant, freight and duty paid, at 30 cents
a gross. He also sells doors, sashes, blinds
| and all articles of wooden ware, cooper
! age stock, etc, of japanese manufacture,
| at from so to 80 per cent less than they
| can be manufactured for in this country
| with all freight and duty paid by Japa-
| nese importers. Also clocks, watches,
| boots, shoes, clothing hats, gloves, fancy
| goods and notions similar terms.
Their agents are buying cotton mill ma
chirery and shipping to Japan, and will
| take our cotton from here to Japan and
send it back manufactured cheaper than
| can be manufactured in this country. They
| also take cargoes of Pacific coast lumber,
manufacture the same in Japan into
wooden ware and return it here nlanufac-
| tured at 50 per cent less than our manu-
facturers' wholesale prices.
'lEMBERs IN TOWN.
| ALLEN, w. ", Neb. 1870 VI oro r, w