Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1903-08-25
e.
HOW TO GET THE TRADE.

Senator McCumber of North Dakota
presented a paper before the Trans
Mississippi Commercial Congress at
Seattle on how best to obtain the
Oriental trade. His address was pub
,;sbed and will be distributed by the
society. Among other suggestions,
Senator McCumber made the follow
ing:
The people of China are ready and
waiting for the magic touch of Western
civilization, when its great labor en-
ergy. in%telligently directed, will result
in a productive capacity almost incom-
%prehensible. The moment this labor
energy is directed towards the devel-
opment of her resources untold wealth
will leap from her mines and be lured
from her soil, to add to the worlds
That wealth must and will
be expended somewhere. 1t is a well
known law of trade that all people
buy the comforts and Injuries Of life
10 the oNlSHt VI luCAi hiSoho nv
will be no exception to this rule in
the Orient.
"The Chinese people heretofore
have not been heavy purchasers be-
cause they have not had the means.
When they have made their own coun-
try prosperous that prosperity will be
felt all over the civilized world in in
creased commerce, purchases and
sales.
Now how may the government as
sist in securing this trade? We seek
to sell goods to a people commercially
unacquainted with us and with the
goods we desire to sell them. One of
the very first things to be done is to
demonstrate to those people that we
do produce things in this country for
sale: and that these products are USE
full to them. If the products are a
class of articles hitherto unknown to
them. we must demonstrate their
utility. If they are a class of articles
of which they have some idea through
their dealings with the merchants of
other countries. we must be able to
show them that our particular goods
are either superior in quality or can be
delivered to them cheaper than like
articles from other countries. In
- --x~~~ tla,0 ~ no 0,,lo -
demonstration. We are n of the
greatest purchasers from the Celestial
empire. yet our sales to that country
amount to very little. In articles of
general merchandise Great Britain's
sales to China are sixty-seven times
that of all American sales. What is
the remedy? How may WI the one
overtake our competitors?
Starting a century behind Great
Britain, we can hardly expect to over
take her, following the same slow,
tedious process by which she has built
up her trade in China. If we wish to
overtake her we must take a cross-cut
somewhere. Great Britain, Japan and
Germany are on the ground. They
have the trade. They have to a Ger.
tain extent learned the requirements
and wants of the trade, and secured
the confidence of the Chinese mer-
chants. We must give them some
good reason for making a change.
They are not compelled to deal with
us. Outside of petroleum. they can
obtain most of the goods they are
purchasing from other countries; but
we need their trade, we need it as a
field for the contamination of the sur
plus of our manufactured and agri
cultural products.
Il believe that a permanent exhibit
of orr goods. so that they can be seen
by the Chinese merchants under the
most favorable conditions, in a clean
bright and airy building, kept in order
and %tidiness, would be worth more tC
our merchants than a whole army O
commission men. And l believe thaI
an institution of this kind could BIZ
made more than self-sustaining. Sucl
an institution could be located a
Shanghai, the gateway of China.
Let government effort, directed b,
good Judgment, be continued with per
sistent energy for a quarter of a cen
fury, and the trans-Mississippi terri
tory will reach and hold a position II