The Idaho scimitar. [volume] (Boise, Idaho) 1907-1908, 1908-02-08
Making Steel In China.

An enormous steel plant is to be erected at Han
kow, China. 1t will be owned entirely by Chinese
and controlled by Chinese capital The primary OBJ
ject of the plant is supply steel for the construc-
ton of the various railroads being built and which
contemplated in China. The initial cost of this
plant is $6OOO,OOO. Hankow is 700 miles from
Shanghai and is situated on the Yangste River which
is navgable for large vessels from Shanghai to Han
kow
railroad has been completed and is in operation
between Pekin and Hankow Hankow is so situated
that it get its steel products easily and cheapy
to all parts of Asia, and to all parts of the world
China has more coal, more iron and more labor
than any country in the world and when she COM
her industrial in earnest will greatly
affect industrial conditions throughout the world
Other plants will follow the one in Hankow one be-
ing already projected in Japan
The first equipment for these initial plants will be
purchased in the west. The United States will
share of these ORDERS but Germany and Great
Britain will furnish of the equipment than
country 1t will be but short time when Japan and
China will not only furnish all the equipment needed
for their own plants, but they also will enter into
competition in the worlds markets in the sale of
equipment. There already large wooen mills
at Hankow, of which employs 5000 hands,
and boys at an average monthly wage of $175, and
the laborers board themselves. The white races of
the world must prepare themselves for industrial
war with the yellow We must preserve the
markets in Europe and America. Any attempt to
invade the Asiatic market will be short lived and
injurious.
Asia produces some things we will purchase which
we cannot produce, as tea, silks and curios like
cloisonne, satsuma and articles requiring deft fin
gers and great patience in the making. On the other
hand, we produce nothing which they really want
need, which they cannot produce themselves.
There is no cloud on the horizon which portends
armed conflict with the Asiatic. We owe to the
white races of the world, especially to the laboring
classes, prepare ne11igenty for active industrial
competition. 1t used to be the slogan of the Re-
publican party, that home market all the
United States needed.
Speaker Tom Reed would grow eloquent in prov
ing that our foreign sales but or per cent
of total sales and that a protective tariff bar
rier sufficiently high to prevent foreign goods from
getting over the wall and competing with our home
people, all needed to insure great and con-
tnued prosperity Since then the cry of "the
kets of the world" has become very popular with
Republican leaders, and they have sought to inn
press the advantages of the "open door, Our
people.
1t will be difficult to open the doors in Asia for
our trade and close them in the United States
against Asiatic trade 1t will be difficult to keep
markets for Our own people and at the time
expect free access to the markets of the world, es
pecial1y the Asiatic market
The white races must begin to act in concert, and
there seems better way to commence than through
intelligent reciprocity treaties. The treaty with
France recently submitted by President Roosevelt
to the Senate should be ratified by the Senate and