The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-12-17

other manufactured goods for which the
United States Is pre-eminent. but no one
who has seen the adaptability of the
soil can doubt that when once his con-
servative crust is broken through he will
readily avail himself Of the necessaries
and luxuries of Western civilization as
they are offered to him. Even at the pres
ent time certain classes of machinery for
motive power electrical supplies and hy-
draulic machinery will find a market, in
creasing as foreign influences and enter
prises extend. But the American ship
per will find his market extensive and
ready made for cheap cotton and wooden
fabrics. dyed and printed. cheap grades
of leather, iron bars, rods and tubing,
iron and steel tools and the simpler i'm
plements and simpler supplies calculated
to meet the wants OF a primitive people.
This Is the immediate aspect of the Chi
nese market, and the American shipper
will find keen competitors, French, Eng
lish, German and Belgian, in the field
before him-competitors who have made
a special study Of the market and it's
needs, and who have cut prices until
most Chinese orders are taken by for
eign manufacturers, not for the profit
there is in them, but merely as stop-gaps
to keep their mills running; and here is
where the improved methods, modern
machinery and economic production Of
American manufacturers will find the
greatest opportunity.
This is especially true in the cotton
trade; and, unless the American manu-
facturer is prepared to enter the market
able to make cheaper prices, as he un-
doubtedly can, than his foreign COM
petitors, the open door, will provo Of
little benefit to him
In the past the American manufactures
has relied solely on the superiority of
his goods. He has put more pounds Of
Gotten into every piece of cotton fabric
than any OF his competitors, but he has
failed to sell his goods because he has Of
fered something the market would not
take. The South American market was
practically closed to us for years, for
this very reason, and the native African
market is a closed door to US because of
the failure of the American manufacturer
to cater to its requirements. Instead of
making his goods to suit the market, he
has endeavored to make the market suit
his goods.
If Chinaman wants an indigo blue
and white handkerchief, printed with fig
ures of impossible dragons on cotton
cloth of barely sufficient substance to
hold together, and loaded with ''hller''
until it crackles, it is no use offering
him nice, clean, substantial, soft article
printed in chaste designs and aesthetic
colors. He doesn't want it. and he will
not buy it. To intelligently supply the
immediate requirements Of such markets
the practical experience of the merchants
and shippers in the needs Of the market
is absolutely requisite. They require to
have intelligent agents on the ground who
understand the people and the country,
and they require to adapt their manu-
featured articles to the wants of the
people. An intelligent home or European
market appreciates a novelty and knows
a good thing when it is offered, but for
eign markets like the Chinese is at pres-
ent view innovations with suspicion and
djsfavor and this attitude Of the market
will not be overcome at once. The trans
portation companies through their resi-
dent agents in China could be of much
service to American manufacturers by
forwarding them samples of articles In
common use and demand In fact 1t would
be practicable in many instances for the
transportation companies and the manu-
facturers' associations to work together,
and by establishing joint agencies to
minimize the initial expense of "explor-
ing foreign markets with mutual bene-
1T and satisfaction.