The Irish standard., 1905-12-02

derfully fingered, one-third of the en-
tire human family, are inevitably de-
termined to do much in the next
dozen decades to revolutionize the
worlds work. To shut our eyes to
this fact is to emulate or initiate the
ostrich. Nor is it to be deplored, this
ability of the East. The world wants
its willing workers, and the Chinese
and Japanese never tire. For my own
part, I think the Chinaman is destined,
in the providence of God, to solve the
vast problems of the tropics; and the
problems of the tropics are stupendous.
A vast part of the worlds wealth lies
therein.
Commerce.
What is true of manufactures and
agriculture is just as true Of COM
merce. Japan has 1000 steamers,
1000 sailing vessels, besides something
like 100000 junks. The methods by
which she built up her military, naval
and educational system will be en-
ployed in China. She, too, will go out
The few millions of today will be the
many millions of tomorrow. Japan did
a dollar per capita foreign trade twen-
ty years ago; today she does seven or
eight and is constantly increasing. See
what such an advance would mean
among the 45O,0OO,00O Of China! See
what the increase of one or two dol
lars per capita would mean! When
the 1000 steamers and 1000 wooden
ships of Japan's 50,O0o,000 people are
augmented by a proportionately large
number of Chinese ships, the worlds
Western trade will hardly surpass that
that Of the East. In short time, how
short can only be conjectured from
what Japan has done, China's junks
will give place to thousands of steam
ships and to thousands of fast sailing
ships. Apropos of the subject of ships
it is interesting to note that the United
States, in a single century, the last
revolutionized the worlds shipping
several times, at least six times, an6
yet is far behind most important
states in foreign shipping at the pres
ent time. Fulton gave the world the
first steam propelled ship, Ericsson the
screw propeller, Boston and Baltimore
the clipper ships, Pennsylvania the
first iron and, afterwards, the frs
steel ships. Ericsson's monitor made
the wooden walls of England obsolete
And still, in spite of alt this, the bull
of our foreign trade is done in English
German, Norwegian and other bot
toms. To go back to China, she !:
sure to take a leaf from the log bool
of Japan, or from the log book of ou
own land. Here, then, is the outlook
The nimble fingered Chinese and Jap
anese, once they go over to automatic
machinery, will do large part Of tn
worlds work. Economists will hav'
to go over their books again for an
| other revision. Much that has stoo'
the test of long time in the West will
go to pieces on the coasts of the East
Readjustment and realignment Of ma
terial forces will be the order of tn
day. The whole economic, social, mill
tary, naval, industrial and Commercial
world will require not only Napoleon
Of finance but Solomons to decide hov
best to proceed. This is the peril tina
confronts all our policies. If we ar
wise we will go slowly to work. In tn
isolation desired by the fathers of tn
Republic was safety If not glory. Still
we are in the world and of it. Onl
cowardice, cunning and craft woul
lead us to look upon the rest Of tn
world in anything but a friendly ligh
To avoid the so-called Yellow Peril a.
we have to be is honest.
| PROF. J. c. MONAGHAN.