The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-01-27
ASIATIC ASSOCIATION.
Held Their Second Annual Dinner at
DcllMOnicO'S

NEW YORK, Jan. 2S.-One hundred
and two members and guests Of the
American Asiatic Association sat down
TO the second annual dinner of the or
ganiZatiol at Delmonico's tonight.
Among the guests of honor were Senator
John l.. McLaurin, of South Carolina;
Jutaro 1lemura, minister from Japan,
Charles DENLY, eX-UniteG States minister
to China; WI Ting Fang. minister from
China; Cornelius n. Bliss, John Barrett,
ex-minister to Siam, and Brayton Ives.
the English and American correspondent.
Letters Of regret were read from Presi-
dent Mckinley, Secretary of State John
Hay, Secretary Gage, Senators Beverage,
Lodge and Aldrich and Morris X. Jesup.
president of the Chamber OF Commerce.
The toasts and the speakers were as
follows:
THE President of the United States"
Charles DENLY: 1.-THE American Asiatic
Association Everett Frasar: "Cllina. the
Greatest Potential Market in the World. =
WI Ting Fang; 1.-The Pioneer OF Asiatic
Progress Jutaro Eemura; The South
and the Open Door in the East" John L.
McLaulin: THE Pacific Slope and the
Asiatc Trade Hon. Addison 6. Foster;
1.-The Paramount Interests of the United
States in Asia" John Barrett.
Minister WI Ting Fang wore his bril-
liant Oriental costume Of silk einbroiCer-
ed with heavy gold braid and decorated
with Chinese characters. The minister
from Japan wore full evening dress after
the American model Ex-Minister DENLY
was the first speaker.
Senator McLaurin, of South Carolina,
spoke at length of The industrial growth
of the South and its stimulation by trade
with the Orient.
Senator McLaurin said:
Under favorable conditions there IS
no limit to the industrial possibilities
and progress OF the South. The mills are
bound TO come to the cotton in the near
future and you will find in every little
town q ginnery, oil mill and yarn fac
tory run by the same power and COM
bined under one management Add to
this system cattle feeding, and think
what it means. There is no by-product
in the world whose possibilities compare
with cotton seed The profit for such
plant would be about SO per cent. ner
annun.
when every. neighborhood has such
a plan, of this kind the South will be the
richest country on earth.
I'm iron, steel and other industries re-
narkab!e progress has been made. 1t
was confidently predicted. and, l fear,
hoped by the New England manufac-
turers twenty years ago that the South
would never become u manufacturing
centre. The labor problem, the predicted
obstacle. has been satisfactorily solved
Its cheapness and adaptability has been
demonstrated. Where the New England
mills pay sl.25 per day, our mills pa" %
cents There is no better class OF citi-
zens and no better class OF lahorers
than the mill operatives of the South,
They are the children of those who for
four dreary years followed Lee and jack
son without reward or the rope OF re-
ward, for they We're not slave owners.
All efforts to use the negro in the FAC
tories have been futile, but the negroes
are directly benefited, because the factory
draws labor from the farm. thus en-
larging the colored mans opportunity in
a field for which he IS peculiarly adapted.
The magnificent possibilities Of q ccN-
merce eagerly awaiting Developments is
a prize worthy to be solved. The, South
cannot stand still and conservat lively OPP
pose commercial expansion. To do so
means to so backward toward the ruinous
conditions of thirty years ago. The an
expected and unintentional acquisition
OF the Philippines is to mark an epoch
III the history of this country. The
worlds conflict in the East at this time
is in reality the outsrowth of CONNER
cial competition IT Is q question of mar
kets ana market places.
The great race between the nations of
this century is to dispose OF their surplus
productions. Russia has made an adroit
advance by rail into China to forestall a
large measure of supply at her Seaports.
Germany, in the interests of her trade,
has forced China to ,elinq1ish rich prov
inces and England. France Italy and ia
pan have acquired we'll developed spheres
OF commercial influence. To-day. with a
foothold in the Philippines. we hold the
key to the door.
The loss of our Chinese trade would he
q calamity to the American farmer and
manufacturer: without outside markets
its prices must fall, mills shut down and
labor thrown out of employment The
South is peculiarly interested in our
Asiatic markets. From the Orient comes
a continually increasing demand for raw
and manufactured cotton. The outlet
there for our surplus products seems al
most 'imitless. IN China to-day the most
popular products come from Southern
mills. Southern manufacturers have not
vet reached more than one-thirtieth of
the population of China. It is not unrea-
sonaile to say that when the entire field
is covered it will more than require dou-
bic the capacity of our mills 20 supply
their demand. This market presents the
astonishing condition of demanding both
raw and manufactured cotton from the
same section. II is Of inestimable impor-
lance to The entire South that this trade
should be developed, held and protected
With millions Of capital invested in
Southern factories, dependent as they, are
upon the markets OF the Orient. the rep
resentative- from the South, who oppose
commercial expansion with all its results
and Responsibilities. is blinded to the true.
interests Of his section and welded to
mere political sentiment.
In striving for commercial progress,
commercial expansion and commercial SUI
.premacy would not favor.the incorpo-
ration into our body-politic Of any semi
barbarous races totally unable to ap-;
preciate our system Of government: but
i do favor the policy of expansion. will
vote for the retention Of those islands
In Some constitutional way. so as to con-
troll new markets and new commercial adj