The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-04-18

by Arthur I. Street in AinsIee's for the
same month, the first upon 1.-THE American
Invasion of China and the other upon
1.-The Islands of the Pacific" Mr. Bar
clay is an engineer who was sent to China
by the Brice syndicate to scout certain
sections of the empire for an available
choice route for a railroad concession.
Mr.. Street is the Oriental editor of Aims
lees Magazine. and newspaper and mag
azine writer of some force and character
Both articles are meaty with facts that
are germane to the proposition that the
Western trade will be more profitable to
our manufacturers than the European.
Mr.. Barclay made his trip of J, 100 miles
into the interior of China under especially
favorable auspices, crossing provinces
that had never before been visited by a
white man, and to the people of which he
was a curiosity, a travelling circus. He
tells no fairy tales. but, like an engineer,
deals in hard facts and cold figures. In
some Of the interior towns he found paw
ed streets, houses Of masonry with dec
Grated tile roofs, arched bridges, and, in
one instance. electric lights. The man.
ner Of living Is not American in that
country, but he does not therefore
classify 1t as uncivilized. His analysts
Of the Chinese foreign trade is as COM
plete as the method of handling business
at Chinese ports would enable him to
make it. And he found that American
goods were making rapid Roadway in the
empire. In flour the American miller has
increased his shipments at the rate Of
100000 a year. In cotton goods we have
run UP a total amounting to 1884, $685. or
over one-third of our total exports Of
manufactured cottons to all the world.
Iron and steel goods have had their hand
the greatest of all is in cotton goods; an
exception that is the more notable for the
reason that our cotton goods have not Sc
cured a foothold to any considerable
amount in any other markets Of thu
world
There may be some hidden reason for
the failure Of our. cotton mill men to get
a foothold In the markets Of Latin
America commensurate to the seeming
opportunities, but the fact does exist
that after almost a hundred years of
guardianship over South and Central
America. and with raw cotton one of our
chief exports, until the Chinese trade
began to expand upon US the increase in
our expectations of cotton goods was
minor quantity. From 1868 to 1898 the in
crease was but from $4,S71, 054 to $17,O24,O92
in total cottons. But in 1899 the increase
brought the total UP to $4,000 OOO-$9, OOO,-
GOO of which went to China So that it Is
easy for the cotton manufacturer to I'M
derstand that he has a future in the great
empire of the East
An American invasion of this vast mar
ket must at the start contemplate what
the market is demanding or will be capa-
BILE of demanding with proper cultivation
What does the Chinaman already use?
Mr. Barclay has not only studied the man
and woman on their own ground, but he
has taken up their commercial reports,
and finds that we have excellent oppor-
tunities in iron and steel, copper, tin and
tin plates. machinery of all kinds, flour,
fish, ginseng, matches, lead and quick
silver, kerosene Tin competition with
Russia) and in sugar. The Chinaman
actually loves sugar and sugar candy. lie
must ultimately make very good Nell
can man, for he already consumes up
wards Of $1O,OO0,O0O of the sweet stuff
from abroad every year. What pos
sibility for that overproduction of the
Philippines which has struck such con-
sternation into the hearts of the Minne-
sofa congressman! Perhaps John China
man will eat up all that impossible ST.
plus, and cry for more. Our flour trade
has grown rapidly. from less than s. Co.,
600 in 1894 to upwards of 100000 in 1899.
Wheat is not grown in Southern China,
and American -four, he says, has caught
the demand, and can easily hold the ms =
ket If it gets to it. In certain grades
of goods, he says that our cottons domi-
nate the market over there Certainly we
sell to them as much value in cottons
as we formerly sold in everything.
But we must reach the markets. Rus
STA will soon seek to overrun all North
ern China by advantage of her trans
Siberian railway and it's feeders. We can
only reach the heart of the empire by
building railroads up their valleys, and
steamships of great carrying capacity to
freight from the coast to Manila and Can
ton or Shanghai. We have the railroads
at home, the best in the world, to do the
transcontinental freightage from the end
of the great lakes or any part of the
Mississippi valley. Our iron men must
finance the railroads in China, and our
Wall street men must advance the in
terests of the cotton mills of the South
and of New England to that point where
they are as independent and as able to