The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-12-07

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| one-half of this amount was in the prod
ucts of India, that great contiguous coun-
| try.
| Another large portion was from Hong
kong. which, although 1t belongs to Great
Britain. is a natural part of China. We
will need something more than impc sing
columns of figures to demonstrate how
even the possession of the Philippine ISL
ands is to enable US to compete in China
with the products of Hindostan or with
| the trade from Hongkong The imports
| from the United States to China. as APP
pears from the document to which 1 have
referred. are about equal in value to the
imports of that country from the whole
| continent of Europe. In the natural
| course of things you would naturally ex-
pect that the $50. 900 OF more people
in Europe would sell China as much mer-
chandise in value as the 10000, 900 in the
| United States.
The only chance for us to gain mate
| rally in China is from Great Britain, a
| country which was exceedingly anxious
for us to enter into the competition, II it
| is considered that our going to the Phil
ippineS made us competitor in any diff
| ferent sense from what we were before.
| II the exports to China from the United
States and from Great Britain. not in
Guiding Hindostan and Hongkong were
equally divided between the two coun-
tries our exports to that country would
aggregate something over $50, 000, 900. How
! many warships or how many soldiers
| would the profit on that trade, which
| would go to few individuals, pay the
American people for maintaining It? And
what reason is there why we should not
have substantially all OF 1t il we had
nothing whatever to do with the Philip
pine Islands beyond at the most main
tanning naval station there?
We can manufacture no more cheaply in
the United States with the Philippines
than without them. We shall have to go
to China in competition with the other
nations. The Philippines have had no i'm
mediate trade relations with China which
by becoming their pOssessors We have Sc
cured the advantage OF. You will find from
the document to which I called your atten-
ton that the total trade between China
and the Philippine Islands. going both
ways, was an absolutely insignificant item.
There Is no possible advantage that the
possession of the Philippine Islands can
give us in securing the trade with China,
unless IL should BE- that the other Powers
might shut us out from our natural rights
of trade and that the possession Of the
Philippines would afford us a place from
which We could send our ships of war to
threaten the Chinese coast. That is the
sum total of the possible advantage of the
possession of the Philippine Islands in pre-
serving the Chinese trade. A coaling sta
ton would, as have said. give us the same
advantage in this regard that We should
derive from the whole group, although no
nation has ever yet attempted to abridge
our trade. Certainly our recent experience
has not very forcibly demonstrated the
value Of the Philippines with reference to
China from the war point Of view.
: The attention of our $4,000 men seems
10 have been SO thoroughly engrossed with
the internal affairs of those islands that It
was only after considerable time and
most painful efforts that few thousand
men were available for the movement in
China. Assuming that We possessed the
transport facilities. we could have landed
in China about the same time about the
same number of men from San Francisco
and taken them from our small ante
bellum army.
But we are not treading upon new
ground. The recent history of other ma
tions is rich in the experience for which
We are about to pay. The experience of
England with the tropical colony of ia
maica is well known to all Jamaica was
basis than the contract labor system,
which meant practical slavery.
Take the experience Of Italy in Abys-
sinia. The financial statement OF the Min
lister of the Treasury to the Chamber on
May 5, 1896. showed that 10000. 600 lire
had been actually appropriated for the
African expedition, and that the expendi-
lures for the fiscal year 1885 amounted
to 124, coo lire, or nearly S25 .000, 600.
The war was abandoned because General
RecOtt, the Minister of War. calculated
that to succeed would require the en-
pigment OF ali army of 10000 men for
two years, at cost of 1, 900 900, 600 lire.
In about six months the Italians lost
nearly 1000 men. not counting prisoners
and this does not include the number
who succumbed to the climate. The death
rate among the troops from disease
reached the enormous figure of 15T in
! 600. The total trade for that same year,
in which s25,0O0,00O was expended,
to $4,000. 900. which is higher
than the average annual trade. The av-
erage cost to Italy of maintaining her
east African possessions for thirteen
years was more than s4,6So 900 each year.
or more than 50 per cent in excess of
the total trade; and 1t Is notorious that
the official reports of the Italian Gov
eminent do not show the full extent of
the cost. The result was not merely |
most adverse to italy. so far as the |
loss of men and the expenditure OF money |
was concerned, but revolution was pro-
duced in Italy and the throne itself was |
shaken.
The experience OF France in Tonkin is |
directly in point. Tonkin, including Co. |
chin. China has about the area of The |
Philippine Islands. They do not approach |
by many hundred miles so near the equa-
tor as the Philippines. The population is |
almost exactly the same. From the onor- |
nous cost OF the war in 1856 France has |
not yet fully recovered. Her men per-
lshed by thousands; she expended in less |
than year 100000. 900 francs. The cost
Of Tonkin to France for the eleven years
from 1888 to 1894 amounted to $4,000 600
francs, or yearly average of IS. 900 900.
france, as Is well known. pursues most
rigorous closeddoor policy. making the
most favorable possible conditions for the
importation OF her own products.
The total trade between France and all
her colonies with Tonkin amounted in the
ten years 1888 to 1892 to S12,642,0 600, a
yearly average of 81 ,264 ,000 as against
yearly average cost to her Of sS.9OS.0OO.
Frances efforts, other
nations have traded with Tonkin during
nat PEI iou " tue amount VI So,oio,yVo PEI
year. or more than three times the trade
Of France. In other words. in ten years
France spent 47e.0OOOOO francs on Ton
kin, In order to dispose of total of
50. 100000 francs Of products. imagine
hat no one would contend that we
should govern the Philippines more
than France has govern
I'd Tonkin. We are a Republic more
han In name, and republican govern
nents are not cheap governments. The
Heath rate OF the French soldiers was
equal to that OF the
Italian soldiers in eastern Africa.