Middletown transcript., 1898-09-03

including OF course F0kluS, Will ~ 10
Russia; France will get southern China;
England and Germany must satisfy
their claims in the central region, with
all the powers using their influence to
increase the German and diminish the
English share, and with the territory
will 90 the trade. There will be no
open door in China after that, except in
such portion as Great Britain succeeds
in securing. There are other means be-
sides tariffs with which to shut out
competing trade, and Russia and France
and Germany all know how to use them
effectively.
What will become of American in
terests in Asia? The question almost
answers itself The United States will
not receive scrap of Chinese territory
in case the old world powers decide to
divide up Asia as prize. America in
that event may think herself fortunate
if she is allowed the Philippines, which
she already possesses, but the essential
point is this: The United States will
lose the most valuable markets in the
world, markets which will enrich the
countries that secure them.
The Question therefore narroWs down
to this, What are the markets of Asia
worth to the American people? It ought
not to be necessary to argue this point
in any detail. 1t is only very recently,
to be sure, that the possibilities of for
eign trade have come to be realized in
the United States. The deceptive facts
that Great Britain almost monopoliZed
the foreign markets, except for raw
materials, and that British labor receiv-
ed wages much lower than American
mechanics could live upon were too
long accepted as insuperable obstacles
to successful American competition.
American manufacturers have learned
by sudden revelation, as it seems, that
they can undersell all competitors in
almost all lines of goods in every open
market in the world The export and
import returns for the past year furnish
a preliminary indication Of the immense
prizes within the grasp of commercial
and industrial America. The question
to be decided is whether the greatest
prize of all shall be relinquished when
il is almost within grasp.
Granted, then, that American industry
and enterprise will demand the right to
compete with other nations, and we are
instantly confronted by the latest max
i'm of international intercourse-name-
ly, no nation may engage in the trade
of the world without engaging in the
politics of the world It is now COM
monplace Of diplomacy to say that the
wars of the future are to be tariff and
trade wars. Politics in the international
sense have become trade and trade pol
itics. Isolation in politics means here
after isolation in trade also. It is not
surprising perhaps that some Americans
should fail to appreciate what isolation
in trade means, because America is the
only civilized country in the world that
can live and prosper upon her internal
resources alone. But he would be
poor American who would argue that
because his country is thus blessed it
should forego all the rewards Of indus
try and enterprise available among the
hundreds Of millions in other lands who
are consumers more than producers.
England now controls the Asiatio
markets. Her trade there is immense.
Two dangers threaten her supremacy in
that field. The first is the political ma
neuvering which may soon cut off her
access to all parts of China save such
territory as she succeeds in keeping
within her own "sphere Of influence"
The second is American competition.
The first peril is imminent and we'll
nigh overwhelming. The second is pro-
spective and is scarcely recognized even
by those whose interests are directly in
volved. To avert the first evil England
is content to ignore or even to encourage
the second. American manufacturers do
not need to be told how advantageous
to the United States is the English po-
sition.
It may be well to recall to the mind
of the general reader the chief revela-
tion which the great engineering strike
in England made last winter for the
benefit Of the competitors of this coun-
try. Trades unionism has dealt death
blow to the foreign trade Of Great Brit
ain. British control of foreign markets
has been diminishing for several years,
but it was not until last winter that
American and German manufacturers
discovered the golden opportunities
which British inertia and labor union
dictation had placed at their command.
1t had long been notorious fact that |
the British mechanic received O wage |
amounting to only so or so per cent of |
the pay Of the American skilled work
man in the same line Of employment. |
It seemed hopeless, therefore, for the
American manufacturer to compete sue
cessfully in the general market with
British goods in the production Of which |
labor was the chief item of expense.
But it was revealed last winter during
the strike agitation that British manu-
facturers had been the slaves Of their |
employees, or rather of the trades |
unions. Workmen were permitted by |
their unions to render only very linn
tied service in return for their limited
wages. This limitation was SO severe
that the proportion of work done TO
wages paid was very much smaller than
in American workshops. In other words,
it was the fact in many cases that the |
actual product Of one American me-
chanic was equal to that Of four or five |
of his English brethren. The cost of |
production figured by results was there |
fore much greater in England than in |
the United States.
American manufacturers have not |
been slow to take advantage of these |
disclosures. The invasion of markets
heretofore almost exclusively British |
has begun, with results already appar-
ent. In few years, but for the intro
duction Of the political factor, revo-
luton would have been wrought in the
trade Of the world. The American work
man and the American manufacturer
would have profited in common by that |
revolution.
On No% A II