Evening star., 1903-12-26
OUR AS|AT|C MARKET
Chances for American Goods
Across the Pacific.
INVASION OF CHIN A
THE PEOPLE LIKE OUR FOOD
sTUFFs AND CoTToNs.
Possibilities in Siberia-New Railroads
and Mines-In Other
Lands.
INVASION OF CHIN A
Copyright, 1908. by Frank G carpenter.)

Copyright, 1903 by Frank G. Carpenter)
Written for The Evaning Star.
In this my last letter on the American
invasion write of our trade possibilities
in Asia. That continent has already a
foreign business of $4,000, 100000 a year,
and it is just on the edge of it's commercial
development. 1t has three-fifths of all the
worlds people, the most of whom are dress
ing in cottons and living on a few cents a
day. With the Introduction of modern ma
chinery and the development of it's mineral
resources it's trade will be increased twenty
fold. 1t will hum like beehive and there
will be rolling mills. textile mills and all
sorts of machine shops from Siberia to
CeylOn. Wages will rise and purchases
increase and the trade will be worth tens
OF billions annually.
But suppose we put on our seven-1eague
boots for a tramp over Asia We shall
take a country at step nosing out the
possibilities of American trade. We start
in the Russian possessions, which have
twice as much land as the United States
proper with population just now of about
twenty millions.
AT the north is Siberia the wild west of
the world. 1t is one-third larger than the
whole of our country. Parts Of 1t are un-
derlaid with coal and iron and it's gold
mines compare with those of Alaska. 1t
has never been prospected and no one
knows how great are it's mineral resources.
Siberia has some of the best wheat lands
upon earth. 1 Travelled from Vladvo-
stock inland over the Trans-Siberian road
through a country that is a very granary.
The soil is black as your hat and it
yields like the valley of the Nile. All along.
that road, the longest trunk line upon
earth, there are great tracts of culti-
vable land, and here and there, not far
from the road. are coal and iron. That
country will support vast population, and
1t is being as rapidly filled the Russians
can push immigration. 1t Is now humming
with commercial activity. The lands are
being taken up, towns are growing, and
there is a great demand for the kind of
goods We have to sell.
Not Hard to Work
I have written how one Cape Cod boy
made a million dollars selling American
goods in Siberia when everything had to be
carried over the snow on the rivers. The
American drummer of today can work the
same territory, spending his nights in the
sleeping cars and eating his meals on the
trains paying some of the lowest railroad
fares of the world. The people there are
making money, and they are anxious to
buy. The new factories will need American
machinery, the rivers should have Ameri-
can bridges, and there are already AmeTi-
can boats on Lake Baikal and other water
ways. The traffic over the TranS-Siberian
Is so great that 1t requires new track, and
there is room for heavy orders for steel
rails.
The Russian provinces In western Asia
are now buying most Of their goods from
Europe and coal Oil from the Caspian sea-
Nevertheless there is chance for Ameri-
can hardware. notions and cottons.
Our Invasion of China.
A step over the mountains and the great
wall brings US into another trade field of
enormous proportions. The Greater China
has an area of 100000 square miles, and
its people number 400, 600 600; that is their
country is bigger than ours, and there are
five Chinese to every American. They are
more industrious than we are, and will work
from daylight until dark. Just now their
wages are about the lowest on earth, but
they spend we'll in proportion to what they
make. and, China develops, they will be
among the best customers on earth.
The Chinese are now in the same position
Japan was about a generation ago. when
the foreign trade there amounted to dollar
a head Since then the Japanese have in
creased their purchases seven-fold and the
same will be true of the Chinese. The for
eign commerce now amounts to more than
$500 900 600 year, and with this growth it
will then be more than 81 600 600 600 a year,
or more than the present trade Of all Asia.
American Food Stuffs in China.
China offers big field for American food
stuffs. The land is often looked upon as
one Of rice and rats, it being supposed that
rice is one of the chea pest foods upon
earth. This Is not so. There are millions
in China who cannot afford rice. The north
ern Chinese live largely on millet and other
grains not SO expensive to grow. They
would eat Indian corn, and when the
Panama canal is completed there will prob
ably be great fleet carrying out corn to