The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-22
The Real Question.


Schurman, is not the Philip
pines. but China. And that is
the part of the eastern problem which
the administration is neglecting
While bending all efforts to the subju-
cation of a people fighting for liberty
running up big treasury deficit in
war of criminal aggression, increasing
the burden of taxation upon produc-
ton, capital and labor. Americas vital
interest in the far east is sidetracked
China is an old, established empire.
densely populated and possessing re-
sources which are exceeded in value by
those of the United States only. That
the possibilities for the investment of
capital and the extension of trade are
almost unlimited is the testimony of
nearly every man who has investigated
the matter Here is a population Of
hundreds of millions, in many ways
the most industrious on the face of the
earth and more than ready, when Civ
en- the opportunity, of making use of
the goods the west can furnish
That market belongs to the United
States by the only equitable right, that
of the superiority of goods. There is
hardly an open market on the face of
the earth in which American wares
have not won in the sharp race of in
dustrial competition. What they can
do in Africa, in Europe, in India and
South America they can do equally as
wen in China if our. rights to compete
are defended as they should be. Amer
lean shoes and woolens have been sold
in England, the tinware of Connecticut
finds a ready market in Germany, our
watches are driving the Swiss jewelers.
out of business. American machinery
has found a worldwide demand and
New England cottons are in so great
favor in China that English, japanese
and Indian manufacturers forge the
trademark. All that the United States
demands is fair field and no favor.
What has been done in the rest of the
world can be done in China.
The Importance Of the Chinese mar
ket for American goods is so obvious
that it hardly needs demonstration. If
the productive machinery of the Unit
ed States We're kept for four or five
months at its full capacity the product
would not only supply the entire do
nestle demand but would leave a sur
plus more than sufficient to meet the
requirements of our present foreign
trade. 1t is the practical application of
what in economics is termed the law of
increasing returns. Under such con-
dition the opening of foreign markets
is a paramount necessity if the nation
would avoid a cause of the recurrence
of waves of commercial depression and
hard times. China is the one large I'M
exploited market in the world and it
is our logical meat.
But military empire and commercial
expansion are two different things. The
possession of the Philippines will
cut little ice in the trade conquest of
China. After it has been entirely
pacified the whole archipelago will
not be of any more value in the COM
mercial campaign against Chinese
markets than one coaling station and
trade depot as Manila would have
been, and one station would have an
swered every purpose.
If the administration had used the
energy it has expanded, in the at
tempt to establish colonial empire of
naked savages, upon the legitimate ef-
fort of maintaining the policy Of the
open door in China, as it had the
chance, it would have resulted in more
permanent good to this country than