Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-25
OF WORLD wilde INTEREST
AMERICAN TRADE WITH JAPAN
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN


$2,000,000 worth of this work finds its
way into the United States every year.
A new item In the exports from
Japan to the United States is lumber.
There are extensive forests of hard
woods, both In northern and southern
Japan, and lumber from them can be
laid down In California in large quar-
titles at lower cost than Oregon pine.
This imported lumber is used for rail-
road ties, for making furniture. and
also Tor building cars. The oak ties
from the Japanese forests are far SUI
perior to the Pacific soft pine. While
the Importation of these hardwoods Is
only in Its infancy 1t is expected that
the Pacific coast will draw quite heav-
lily upon the Japanese supply In the
future.
The principal items that the United
states sells to Japan are cotton flour,
Kerosene and manufactured products
of iron and steel. There is no likeli-
hood of falling off in the demand for
any OF these, unless it may be flour.
Although the Japanese have acquired
large areas of good wheat land i'm
Korea and Manchuria, and are buying
quantities of modern milling machin-
cry, 1t is a question whether their de-
veiopIflent along this line will be in eX-
cess of the increase of consumption.
When it comes to direct competition
there is one point in favor of the Amer
lean millers which 1t is claimed the
Japanese cannot overcome. Sometimes
American flour sells by the barrel for a
price no greater than what the raw
wheat costs, On it's face this would
seem to mean that the millers are
working for nothing, but they realize
a profit from utilizing the by-products
of shorts and bran. The Japanese have
no way of doing this because they
have to stock to feed 1t to. The Jap
anese have endeavored to equalize this
condition by imposing a tariff duty on
flour. At a recent exposition in Japan
the Canadian millers were on hand
baking bread and giving 1t away~to the
crowds as an education in the use of
flour. Someone asked where were the
hustling Yankees? The reply was that
the demand for American flour was so
great that there was no need of giving
1t away in exploitation. The enormous
consumption of flour In Japan is all
the more remarkable when il is remem-
bered that thirty years ago nobody in
Japan ate bread and few had ever
heard of it. There is no word in the
language for bread, and one has been
borrowed from France. The conversion
of many of the people from rice eating
to bread eating is one of the most strlk-
ing sociological features of the new
era in this country.
Other important items among the
American imports to Japan are oil,
wax, paper, leather. lead, machinery,
chemicals, rubber goods, cars, wheels.
leaf tobacco, drugs, electrical appa-
ratus, engines and boilers, machine
tools and watches. Thus 1t will be seen
that the ulk of American trade in
Japan is of such character that there
is no immediate possibility of de-
crease in demand. In fact, the varied
character of Japan's manufacturing
enterprises and the extensive scale on
which they are planned will stimulate
rather than depress many lines of
American eoods.
One important exception must be
made to the foregoing statement, how
ever, and that is in regard to cotton
goods. The Japanese undoubtedly in
tend to supplant the American cotton
goods trade in Manchuria, Korea and
North China if they can, and the Amer
! lean manufacturers will have to exer-
else the utmost vigilance to protect the
great trade they have developed In
this field. In their efforts to attract
the Chinese trade for Japanese-made
cotton yarns the Japanese spinners
have taken advantage of the great ma
tional fault of the Chinese-gambling.
The cotton mills at Osaka send bales
OF cotton yarn into the Chinese mar
kets with the statement that In some
| OF these bales will be found prize
tickets which will entitle the finder TO a
handsome sum of money. A Chinaman
| takes to a lottery as a duck to water
| and the effect was to boom japanese
trade. But as the Chinese taotais ana
mandarins live altogether by the con-
duct of official lotteries they scented
q. Japanese competitor and have Tor
hidden the importation of cotton yarns
with prize tickets attached.
Serious as the other nations may re-
gard Japan's attempts to corner the
market for her products In Chinese ter
ritory, a nation SO poor in naturalraW
resources cannot maintain an attbude
Of commercial exclusion. Japan must
nave foreign trade to live, and NOBODY
knows better than the japanese pusl-
ness man that the United States is the
hiegest and most profitable factor In
thef DEMONSTRATING trade. Whatever
the military clique may think or DO
The business men and the laboring men
| of Japan will oppose to the iast uitcn
anv governmental program Whlch
liS,,+ a,iS res,,It in a cessation of exports to
the United States. 1,.s,,,,>
copyright 1908, by Frederic D. haSA'h''
ro,orrow-The Greatest Trust In the
World.