The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-06-25
Professor Sylvester Waterhouse Discusses
Trade With the Orient From
Practical Standpoint
Discusses
A Valuable Paper Presented to the Transmits
sissippi Congress at the April
Meeting 1899. g.

their roads. The president of the Great
Northern Railroad company recently
spoke of the Orient as follows:
1T is an immense market for the
United States. The increased eonsump-
ton of our wheat and cotton In China
and Japan Is already SO large that 1t
has reached point where the volume OF
business is only limited by the transpor-
tatton facilities to the Orient. These
countries are also large buyers of our
silver, with every prospect that the de-
mand will increase. The Great Northern
is now building two steamers, which will
probably surpass any steamers in the
world as regards tonnage capacity. Each
of these steamers has a little less tom
mage capacity than that of two Lucanias
combined. This great tonnage will enable
the steamers to carry large cargoes at
cheap rates, and the cheaper we can
ship our products to Asia the sooner will
we extend our markets.
Besides these vessels three other enor-
nous steamships are now building for
service between our Pacific coast and
the Orient. The Philippine islands will
also participate in the benefits of this
expanding commerce. Official intima-
tons have been given that the steamers
of all the different Eastern lines will
soon make Manila port of call.
The railroads. too, will be important
factors in opening Oriental lands to
Western commerce. The Trans-Siberian
railway will exert a powerful influence
upon the mercantile development of
China. The industries Yostered by exist
ing lines of railroad will create larger
products for shipment and wider de-
mand for the facilities Of railway trans
portation. Railroads will produce the
same commercial effects in Japan, China
and the Philippines which they have
caused in India. Transporting commodi-
ties from the interior to the sea coast
they will furnish the freights for ex-
portation; increasing the number and
familiariZing the appearance of foreign
travellers they will tend to dispel the
prejudice which Asfatic races entertain
towards men of Caucasian birth; and CO.
operating with industrial factors in the
development of natural resources, they
will help create wealth that will enable
the people of the Orient to buy the mer-
chandise of Western nations This laTg-
er contact with more progressive peoples
and the powerful economic forces which
are now at work, can hardly fail to open
Oriental ports to Western enterprise.
The acquisition of greater riches and
familiarity with higher standards Of CIV
ilization will cause larger individual
wants. The use of imported foods, fab
RIGS and inventions will develop more ex-
pensiVe habits of living and cultivate
tastes which only Western commerce can
crafty. Japan is a striking example of
the larger needs which an advancing
civilization creates. In less than half
century the foreign trade of Japan has
increased from nothing to $270, 100000
year. China, with an area greater than
that Of the United States, and with
population eight times as large as that
of Japan, has foreign commerce of only
$3.50 1000, 000 If the traffic of China were
proportionately as large as that OF Japan
the foreign trade of the Celestial empire
would nearly equal the commerce of the
United States. The opposition of the en-
press of China to reforms will prove in
effectuaI. No monarch is so strong as
successfully to Withstand the forces of
modern progress. The gates Of the Flow
cry Kingdom will ultimately be opened
to the commerce of other nations, and its
people will, with every step of advance,
more largely enjoy the comforts and con-
VenienceS of Western civilization.
At present the trade of the United
| States with the Orient is small. In 1899
the total amount of our commerce with
Japan, China, Hong Kong and the Phil
ippines was $87, 00e000. The government
reports show that, the chief commodities
| in our exports to these markets are cot
| ton fiber and fabrics, kerosene oil, wheat
! and flour and wares of iron and steel. OF
| these products the United States can
| furnish almost ilIimitable quantities. No
| foreign competition can jeopardlZe the SUI
| premacy of our Southern states in the
! production and manufacture Of cotton.
| More progressive rivals are wrestling from
England its pre-eminence in the manu-
| facture of cotton goods. Official Stats
IN 1S25 he mills nj Eng
| land made Sc per cent of the cotton fab
| RIGS of Europe. In 1899, only 40 per cent
| of European cottons was woven in Eng
| lish looms. Since 1854 British factories
| have increased their productive capacity
! by the addition of half million spindles.
| But during the same period more than
| nine, times as many spindles have been
added to the equipment of continental
mills. In 1899 the factories of continental
! Europe consumed about 100000 bales of
more of cotton than the mills of England
did. These facts seem to prove the rela-
tive decadence of Great Britain in cot
! ton manufactures. But the manufacture
of cotton goods in our Southern states
has already developed into vast indus
! try. Within the last five years the mills
of the South have enlarged their textile
capacity by two and a half million spin
| dies, and the profits of manufacture are
encouraging the erection of many new
factories. The fertile soil, which pro-
duces an abundance of the best fiber;
| genial climate, which greatly reduces the
! heavy expense of heating that mills in
colder climates incur; the cheap labor,
which is sufficiently skillful for the man.
ufacture of the coarse and possibly of
| the finer grades of cotton cloths, and
! the nearness of factory to field, which
! saves the cost of distant transporta-
/ ton, are combination of advantages
and facilities that must ultimately give
the South a control of the cotton MARI
features of the world. If we can man
age to secure only a proportionate share
Of the trade with China it's patronage will
absorb immense quantities of our textile
products. Even now, when our Asiatic
exports of cottons are quite insignificant,
| in comparison with what we may rea-