Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1902-08-28
AANU I'LL OhSA0s
~
OF he N,tlea's Prsspsrtty- Cavern
neot al Z Profitable
rrspssltlss.
How The Osieatal Irate Csa lacrease
a0d now Il Got Z
Start.
Extracts From J. J. nill's Address
Before the Trans. Mississippi
Congress.

VUUVU COSs
- ---
J.J. Hill made an address before the
Trans. Mississippi Congress at 81.
Panl on "Our Trade in the Orient.
The address was interesting and in
structiye as his public utterances
usually are. He spoke of the increase
in the Oriental trade, a trade which
all commercial nations since the dawn
of history competed for. In % years
Hhe foreign trade OF Japan has lncreas-
ed about ten fold, he said;
s0Ten years ago we imported from
Japan about s3O,OO0,0O0, and SOLO 10
them about s5,OO0000. At this time
we are selling them over $50, o,ooo'ooo'
and our imports are about s9,OooOoo.
japan has population OF something
over 100000 The people OF the
Orient with whom we. might trade
constitute practically half the popula-
tion Of the earth.
The great nation that is now about
to be opened up to the com
mence Of the world is emma.
There is no reason why China should
not make as great or greater progress
in its foreign and domestic commerce
than Japan.
The Chinese have not been able 10
extend their commerce1for one reason
that the government taxes are Dur
dens to all enterprising residents, ana
they are obliged to cover up thelr
business. Traffic with China can De
enormously developed.
WHAT CHINA BUYS.
There are some heavy articles OF
iron and steel, such as machinery ana
other manufactures, which Wecan fur'
nish them. Again, we canfurnish them
Awith raw cotton. Wecanfurnish them
with flour. We do. A few years ago 1T
was entirely new to them to use Amer
ican flour. Last year, Notwithstanding
the fact that the war had restricted the
use of flour in China, they used enough
flour to consume from fifteen to eight
cen million bushels Of wheat. 1t IS
only few years ago 4 think SIN that
the first American cotton went TO
China or Japan. 1t came aboutin this
! way:
Some japanese on their way to Eu-
rope were in my Ctfice. They wanted
to buy rails for their railroad. ask
ed them where they proposed to buy.
They said they would buy either Eng
lish or Belgium rails, delivered on ship
at Antwerp or Middlesboro, England.
I asked them why they did not buy
American rails. 1t never occurred TO
them. 1t had never occurred to them
that we could deliver rails in Japan.
THE OPENING WEDGE.
At that time we had made a contract
with the Japanese Steamship COM
!. pany to run to our Western terminus,
Seattle, and by making low rate and
getting the Illinois Steel company to
bid on the rails at about six or seven
dollars a ton less than they sold them
to us (laughter,) they outbid the Eu-
ropean railmakers, and the first 15, 700
tons American rails went to Japan.
/ asked them also why they didn't
nse American cotton. The same diff
culty existed as to that. 1t was one
of transportion cost. They
were using short staple India cotton,
which made an inferior yarn, and they
were selling their yarn at prices below
the English yarns from the Manches-
ter district. l asked them to take a
hundred bales of American cotton, and
if they were not satisfied would pay
for the cotton, if it did not sufficiently
improve the quality of their yarn TO
make it worth their while. The result
has been that every: year they are in
creasing the amount of their purchas-
es of cotton from the United States.
And there is no reason why that should
not increase indefinitely
We.haye been compelled to refuse
in a single month 10000 or 10000 bales
OF cotton because there were no ships:
no ocean -transportion to carry it. Y
Within few months we will nave
in that trade two Of the largest carry
ing ships in the world, which with tive
Others two of which are on the Pacl'
fic ocean and the third on the way
there will make a respectable fleet