Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-06-19
OUR TRADE WITH CHINA.


not be laid to humanitarian reasons
It must be commercial. The only way
for America to do is to extend her
commerce with the Orient. A few
weeks ago I crossed the ocean with
the Chinese minister at Washington.
] asked him for the reason of their
long existence without change.
He replied, veneration for long es-
tablished customs. Officers in China
have to pass the highest civil service
examinations. Men go year after year
until seventy years old. China is an
educated nation. The interior of China
is agricultural, many districts entirely
so, raising grain and fruit the same as
here. Some of the farmers houses
are better than in Minnesota. Among
the seacoast it is densely populated,
many living in boats and getting their
living from the sea. Those coming to
this country are of the lower classes,
but not without education.
"Shan we say that with the bre aking
up of China she will be absorbed by
other nations? Not at all. China ac
cording to the Chinese minister, can
absorb all of the Tartar races. We
must not feel that the Chinese are
like other semi civilized races. They
have schools and churches and the
Chinese merchant worships his credit
Our country is well situated to devel
op that trade. China and Japan have
a population of 450, 200, 900. Should we
give them one bushe1 of whe at per
capita per annum it would take about
all the wheat raised in the United
States. Should we give them -four to
make one ounce OF bread per day to
feed the inhabitants along the coast it
would take all our surplus. There is
no danger of overdoing it, as they can
absorb all we can send. They are not
SO poor as we are inclined to consider
them. They are industrious, but spend
freely. They do not acquire money
the same as in this country. AS their
means increases their wants incr ease.
The interior commerce of China can
not be of benefit to the coast
for the next hundred years. There is
no other outlet for our commerce ex-
cept the Orient. At the commence
ment of the civil war we had about
thirty millions of people. There is
rate of increase of about 211a per cent.
per annum. We must do something to
take care of the increasing population.
We cannot have in this country a
peasant class. We could not conceive
what this country could do with such
a class. Let us put ourselves to work
to develop our commerce with this
nation. We can only do this through
the national government. Go back
through the congressional records for
thirty years and you will find nothing
has been done to extend our CONNER
cial relations with these eastern coun-
tries are in the habit of considering the
world ours, but it is not SO large COM
mercially as formerly. We have come
to compete with other nations and we
are at a disadvantage. Our people
must pay the penalty. In this case we
can dominate the trade with the
Orient if the people will rise to their
opportunity. Only three or four years
ago was our cotton sent there. We
could send more but have no ships. |
There is commerce that will consume |
all we can sell and nearly all we can |
raise. Give US 10000, 900 more of peo-
pie and how shall we employ them? !
The question is most serious but not |
difficult if the government will appro-
pirate small amount to devote to |
no market equal to China and Japan.
China will not be opened up before
we'll into the next century. We cannot
find room to send one-tenth of our
flour China would take. The last TWEEN
ty years of my life have been devoted
to opening up new wheat fields. How
shall we sell the product of new Gull
tivation? I hope everyone will i'm
press the men who represent US in the
to take care of the in
creasing needs of the population. Ten
million as subsidy would be but drop
to our billion dollar congress. Think
wheat could be fifteen or twenty cents
by trade with the Orient. We must
have a base to carry on trade and
propose to use our islands in the Pa
cific. I can name many an appropria-
ion which would be better used if put
to developing this trade"