The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-03-24


~ cent in the last ten years.
The largest part of that in
crease has come within the last three
years. The movement thus inaugu-
rated can, with care and wise direc-
ton. be multiplied ten fold. China
wants our wheat and flour; she wants
our cotton goods; she wants our pil;
she wants our fabrics Of iron and STEEL
she wants our rails and locomotives
and equipment for the thousands of
miles of railroads she will construct
within the coming period. The south
ern states have a special interest in
the acquisition of this market. 1t Of
fers the most important outlet for their
growing cotton industries. In nine
months of last year China imported
from the United States 1S2,S75.00O yards
of plain, American cotton goods
against 112,4S0,O0O yards for the same
period of 1893. The imports from Eng
land for the same time showed an ac-
tual decline. In 1898 the cotton i'm
ports into China from the United
States were 81 per cent of those from
England. In 1899 they were 81 per
cent. At that rate Of increase how
long. If we rightly use our opportuni-
ty, will 1t take the United States to
become foremost in the Chinese mar
ket? The possibilities of that market
are incalculable. In 1856 Japan pur-
chased foreign goods to the value of
only $32.000.000. Last year she pur-
chased goods to the value Of $214.0o0.-
900. What boundlcss fields lie before
us in China and all the Orient, If we
are not so weak and blind as to throw
them away!
The open door in China. is the open
sesame Of this vast possible trade. and
the American accomplishment of the
open door with the consent and pledge
Of all the great nations, and without
the necessity of entering into any ter
ritorial division. is tho greatest of all
recent achievements OF diplomacy. 1t
secures for the United States a COM
mercial opportunity which is immeas-
ureabIe. 1t provides one of the great
outlets which our industrial supremacy
require. And that achievement is the
great and magnificent fruit of our
triumph at Manila and our possession
of the Philippines. 1t comes because
we have established our footing in the
Orient because we nave planted our
selves for a thousand miles along the
front Of China, and because we have
taken a new position as world power.
Such a demand on our part two years
ago would have hocn impOtent and
fruitless. Three years ago England
proposed the policy of the open door
In China and failed, and was compelled
in projection of her interests to de-
clare that she would join in the scheme
of division and claim her sphere of in
hucncc. But when the United States
unfurled her flag In the Philippines.
and made the world rcsound with the
echoes OF her swift success and her
brilliant triumphs on the sea, and then
put forward the same demand of an
open door, it met with a prompt and
full acceptance. Nay, more. it is not
too much to say that our possession of
the Philippines has stayed the threat
encd ACKNOWLEDGMENT of China. and
has. perhaps, altogether averted that
danger
But, whether China Is to be divided
and parccled among the struggling and
competing nations. or whether she is
to remain intact with the possibilities
Of a great development the guarantee
of the open door. which has been given
to us. secures our lights and our inter-
ests in the coming time. No fancy can
overestimate the value of that achieve
mcnt in its relations to our future
commercial advancement. The poten-
cy of that commercial opportunity is
worth immcasureably more than all
the cost of the Spanish war and all
the cost of the subsequent conflict in
,hc Philippines. Charles Emory smith
al st. Louis.