The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-10-17
Opportunities Await Americans
In the FlOWery Kingdom.
ENORMOUS PROFITS
Made on American Manufacture
ed Goods In Orient.
Business Firms Chiefly Repre-
sented by Foreigners There.

now IN business at Hong Kong CnlustS
arrived here yesterday for a few weeks
visit to his family. MT. Meyers has
spent the last year and a half in the
Orient, where his active participation
in affairs has given him a most interest
ing experience and an exceptional
knowledge Of the present situation in
the FIOwery Kingdom.
Il put no faith in the reported death
Of the emperor" he said to a reporter.
From the action of the English in
sending their enormous Oriental squad
ron SO near to Pekin am satisfied that
they have reason to believe the emperor
is alive and are ready to give him pro-
lection. The accession Of the dOwager
empress to the throne would mean Rus
sian commercial supremacy beyond
doubt. Both she and her confidential
adviser, Li-Hung-Chang, are warm
friends Of Russia as against England.
The emperor has leaned the other way
through the influence of Prince Kung,
who died a few months ago. Kung was
at the bottom of the recent dickering
with Japan through Count Ito, but af-
ter his death the empress took steps
to force the enperOr's abdicatiOn, which
she had a right to do under the strange
laws of the country. The situation is at
present very critical, but I can not
bring myself to believe that the en-
perOr is really dead.
What is of particular interest to
Americans" continued Mr.. Meyers, is
the remarkable opening LQaL G81SlS dI
present for pushing our commerce into
China 1t is the greatest market in the
world. If our capitalists knew of the
opportunities for making money there
they would fall over each other to get
in first. There is a tremendous demand
in China for manufactured products OF
every variety, but up to date the trade
has been almost entirely in the hands
of the English and the Germans. Ri
diculOuS as it seems, a considerable per-
centage of the goods sold are American
make and have been shipped from this
country to Europe and from thence IN
to the Orient. Some idea of the profits
realized there may be obtained from
the fact that bicycles worth about $25
in the United States bring $3.50 in gold.
Bicycling is a great craze over there
and almost every rich Chinaman rides
a wheel Photographs that retail for
$22. so in New Orleans are eagerly snap
ped up in Pel1in for $125 each. The
price of pretty nearly everything else
is in the same proportion, and the rapid
ity with which fortunes are accumu-
lated there in trade is something
simply astounding.
s.This is the very time for Americans
to step in, because Russia is making a
tremendous effort to gobble up the com
merce of the nation by means or the
new Trans-siberian railroad which cuts
straight across to VladiVOStOck on the
eastern coast. The Chinese feel very
friendly toward this country and are
well DISPOSED to American industries IN
at once we will find an ample outlet
in the Orient for the OverprOducuon
about which there is so much COM
plant.
s'The American houses now repre-
scented in China are mostly in the hands
of English and German agents, Wnlch IS
a great mistake. To illustrate, an
agent may represent several hundreu
firms among them a. few American
houses Their catalogues are nleo
away, and when a customer desires TO
make a purchase, preference IS hatuLal-
" given to a house of the agents ma
tfOnaIitv That is the real reason why
so little business comes to this country.
The thing for our manufacturers 70 10
is to take their interests out OF In, tne
hands of foreigners and send out i've
hustling Americans as representatives.
Every substantial American con-
Germ that has made a really serious ell
fort to get Chinese trade has bulIt up
an enormous business in very snort
time. I could cite several instances
along this line. and the same field IS
omen to everybody else At present the
Chinese buyer knows little or nothing OF
our products and is ignorant OF now 70
obtain them. On the other hand, he IS
familiar with scores OF Eng1Sh anu GsI-
man firms, and naturally they get MS
business. The trade is there, and all
that is necessary to do is to go after IT,
To one who, like myself, has been on the
ground and studied the conditions at
first hand, it seems perfectly 1ncred1ble
that we should neglect such a golden
opportunity"
How about the Chinese methods of
doing business?" asked the reporter
Are they peculiar in any respect or
difficult for Americans to acquiref"
They are certainly peculiar said
Mr. Meyers, but in a certain sense they
are certinly very satisfactory. There
are no bad debts in Chinese business.
If a man sWindleS a creditor once he
might as we'll move out of the orient,
and this is so we'll understood that al
most all transactions are conducted on
honor, so to speak, and an obligation is
never defaulted. When a Chinaman
gives his word you may regard the af-
fair as definitely closed. In small bus
mess transactions there are invariably
monthly settlements and in large mat
tiers they are made quarterly or annu-
ally. All sums are computed in Next
can dollars and then recalculated in
gold. 1t is q nuisance, but one gets
used to it,
rs it possible for an American to ac-
quire the language?"
Yes. There is a great misappre-
hensiOn abroad on that score. The
picked up by any person of average in
telligence inside a year, mean well
enough for business and social purpOs-
es. The thing that puzzles a stranger
at first is the different meanings given
the same words by infection, but when
that is once grasped the rest is easy.
For instance, cat means cat in Eng
liSh, no matter how loud or how soft
five or six meanings according to ones
tone. OF course the commercial dia-
lect is only one OF many, and to ac-
quire them all would be a stupendous
task"
rs the Chinese government as cor
rupt as it is generally understood to
be?"
Fully. Chinese society in all its
phases is rotten to the core. Honesty
as we understand it-except in the full
dllment of PROMISES unknown and
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