The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-05-22
TRADE WITH CHINA
.vrRICAN AsIATIC ASSOCIATIONS
ANNUAL DINNER.
RoCKHILL GUEST OF HONOR.
,cLACRIN AND PRITCHARD TALK
ABOUT SOUTH.

nth Insist That the Market for the
sooth,s Raw Cotton Is in the ORR
ent and That the Retention of the
philippines Is a Necessary COrOI-
larry TO the Development of East
.rn Trade-McLaurin Explains His
Vote on Chinese Exclusion Bill,
saving He Sympnthized With
views of the West, but Thought
Trade More Important.
New York, May 21.-Members Of the
American Asiatic Association gave
DsImonicos. The guest of honor was
william w. Rockhill, late commission
Or of the United States to China, who
responded to the toast, 1.-THE Open Door
m Commerce in China" About 200
we're present, nearly all of whom are
interested directly or indirectly in
Asiatic commerce. Senator John l..
McLaurin of South Carolina, and Sena-
for J. c. Pritchard of North Carolina
we're among the guests.
Senator Pritchard responded to the
toast The President of the United
States" He said, in part:
1T affords me great pleasure to say
IN YOU that, although the President of
the United States halls from north of
the Mason and Dixon line, it is his de-
sire and honest purpose to do that
which will promote the welfare of ev-
cry state in the Union. He has taken
I'D the work of the late President Nc
Kiney which had for it's object the ex-
tension of the trade of the Southern
people into the Orient. With respect to
the retention of the Philippine Islands.
I confidently believe that in the
end the good judgment of the Ameri-
can people will be that we should re-
tain the islands permanently. l want
to say the only hope of the Southern
people in respect to finding an ade-
quate market for raw cotton and cot
ton fabrics is in the Orient and mas
much as the Philippine Islands lie in
the pathway to the Orient l cannot I'M
derstand how any Southern man who
has the good of his country at heart
can for one moment contemplate the
idea Of relinquishing our jurisdiction
over those Islands,
Mr.. Rockhill made an address on
trade in China and was followed by
Senator McLaurin.
Mr.. McLaurin's Address,
Senator McLaurin said in part:
Most of the members of this asso-
cation are Northern men, educated in
enterprises of Northern origin, and
therefore naturally looking at things
from the Northern point of view. But
l cannot too emphatically assure you
that the business interests of the
North are intreXicably interviewer with
The business interests of the South
In matters affecting our national
honor, progress and prosperity, there
should be no North and South, but
with general and invincible union of
hearts and hands, we should make the
United States the commercial mistress
Of the world. Now, gentlemen, we see
all things in a clearer light. We all
see that all our Southern Industries
have a national and international i'm
portance. So that, while Massachu-
sets and South Carolina used to do
nothing but sit and glare at each 9TH
er and illuminate at each other in the
speeches of Webster and Calhoun, and
finally on the field of battle, they now
hobnob together. most amicably at
tend each others banquets and hold
blocks of stock in the same concerns.
Wider Market Needed.
The United States has learned of
late years that it needs an ever WIDEN
Ing and expanding market for it's prod
ucts and it has found an important
foreign outlet among the teeming mil
mons OF the Orient. The Asiatic mar
ket has come into the field as one of
Tile most prominent factors in the
commercial problem, and l feel quite
sure II has come to stay"
After giving his opinion that the mas
sage of the Chinese exclusion bill in its
extreme form would have been a ca
!amlty, the speaker continued:
me conversion of our Chinese trade
appears to me to be one of the utmost
III portance. We are rapidly becoming
me greatest cotton manufacturing
country in the world, and the story of
inc recent development of this indus
Ty IN the South reads like a dream.
~ I6so we had thirty-four cotton mills
~ south Carolina; in 1900 we had
eighty. The product increased in value
- non $4,000 900 to $SO,OOO,OOO and al
-lost an or at least the bulk of the
China" ee' vi ootiS ~
MS vote on Chinese Exclusion.
,19st before Senator McLaurin con-
Nuued his speech he said:
nov mat the newspapers have all
,oaIe 10 say publicly, I have this ex-
TT1sanallon to make among ourselves:
a 3ne reason some of the Southern SEN
a a.. voted as they did on this Chin
so or question is because they felt
tora nat indebted to the sena-
b.5 rom the Western coast who
eu assisted the senators from the
south in some matters we had mend