Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-09-20
at1isesllaueous &eading.
COTTON TRADE WITH CHINA.

COTTON TRADE WITH CHINA.
There Is Another Side to Senator Morgan's
Enthusiastic Picture.
Springfield Republican.
Senator Morgan, of Alabama, is
talking in the south of the great i'm
portance to that section of holding
the Philippines as basis for trade in
China and the Orient generally. Chi,
ma is referred to as an. inexhaustable
market for cotton goods; but what
that has to do with the Philippine
question we are unable to determine.
For the treasury bureau of statistics,
by way of illustration, has just called
attention to the amazing growth OF
our export trade to Africa, off whose
shores we hold no islands as "basis"
for such trade, and within which We
hold no colonies-proving conclusively
that islands form in themselves no
"basis" for continental trade and that
the latter is governed by other factors
than the flag and political sovereignty.
Supposing, however, that American
possessions ia the Philippines will
operate in unknown ways to bring the
United States into the Chinese market,
it might be well for the south to con.
slider whether the makers of cotton
mill machinery will not profit more
than the makers of cotton goods. For
the great feature of the present in.
dustrial awakening of the Orient Is
the establishment there of manufacture.
ing with domestic labor rather than
increased dependence upon the manu-.
factured commodities Of the western
nations.
There is an article in the September
Forum on cotton spinning at Shang-
hal, which is closely to this point. 1t
indicates that the drift of western cap.
ital is not TO building mills in the
South United States or in the North
United States or in Great Britain, to
supply cotton good 10 China, 80 much
as it is to building mills in China to
supply that particular demand. There
are now five large cotton mills al
Shanghai, all more or less under for.
eign supervision. The most active and
best managed one of the lot is said to
be the Soy Che mill which cost $780,
900, ard is as finely equipped as any
mill of the kind in the world. The
description proceeds:
The Soy Che runs two shifts, night
and day, 224 hours in all, and employs
2 200 Chinese-men, women and chill
dren. The day shift consists of car.
ders, 295; spinners, 495; engine room,
65; and waste pickers, 100. The
wages are paid by-weekly, and range
from to II cents day, according to
ability. Most of these workers are
rude, country people, who were
brought into the mill some two years
ago, without manual training and
without any knowledge as to what
would be required of them. 1t speaks
we'll for them, however, that the pro-
ductive capacity of this mill has in
creased 25 per cent. in one year. The
gain has been due mainly to the fact,
that the more intelligent operatives
have changed from day to piece work.
The pickers are mostly women, who
are paid by the pound, and earn about
five cents day.
The Chinese will work from II to IA
hours day, and children are hired
out at as early an age as the employer
will take them. There are no laws
concerning hours of labor or Sunday
observance, or the employment of chill.
dren, and the supply of this S to II
cents. labor is described as practically
inexhaustible.
This does not hold out to the south
ern cotton mills such vast possibilities
of profit as Senator Morgan is pictur-
ling. If the lower wage rate of the
south tends to draw cotton manufac.
turing capital from the north, so, it
would seem, must the far lower wage
rate in China tend to draw the indus
try away from the south to the Orient,
so far as the Oriental market, at least,
is concerned. And side by side with
the growing manufacturing industry
in China, the cultivation of cotton
there also seems to be extending.
The amount of this production can not
be estimated, The Forum writer points
out, but "that it is very great is clear
from the fact that, in addition to that
sold to the foreign mills at Shanghai,
Japan takes from So, 900, 900 10 $5,0O0,-
900 worth annually; and the con-
sumption of all the Chinese and Japa'
nese mills combined is considerable
when compared with the quantity con-
sumed, on the domestic looms, in the
millions of homes in inland China"
Chinese labor is of course inefficient,
in these industries to which it has had
no training, as compared with Ameri-
can or English labor, and as it grows in
efficiency its wages will rise. But it
is inevitable that in the supply of the
Chinese market with cotton goods,
capital. there invested in mills will
have great advantage over capital
invested anywhere else in the world.
We are not to account this indus
trial awakening of China as some
thing to be artiicially discouraged or
as misfortune to the world. But it
may fairly be asked whether it is the
part of wisdom to load ourselves up
with the costs of large armies Of con-
quest and colonial occupation in order
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