The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-12

of these, unless il may be -four Al
| though the japanese have acquired
large areas of good wheat land in Ko
rea and Manchuria, and are buyins
quantities of modern milling machinery
il is a question whether their develop,
ment along this line will be in exces:
of the increase of consumption.
| When it comes to direct Sompetitior
there is one point in favor of the Amer.
lean milIers which it is claimed the
japanese cannot overcome Sometimes
American -four sells by the barrel fol
a price no greater than. what the raw
wheat costs. on its face this would
seem TO moan 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. bect use they
have no stock to feed it to. The Japan
| csc have endeavored to equalize this
tcondition by imposing tariff duty on
flour. AT a recent exposition in Japan
the Canadian millers were on hand
/ baking bread and giving it 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 -four was so
great that there was no need of giving
any of it away in exploitation. The
enormous consumption of flour in jap
an is all the more remarkable when it
is remembered 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 con-
version of many of the people from rice
eating to bread eating is one of the
most striking 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, chemi-
Gals, rubber goods, cars, wheels, leaf
tobacco. drugs. electrical apparatus, en-
gines and boilers, machine tools and
watches Thus it will be seen that the
bulk of American trade in Japan is of
such character that there is no i'm
mediate possibility of a decrease 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 goods.
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
American manufacturers will have to
exercise the utmost vigilance to protect
the great trade they have developed in
this field. In their efforts to attract
the Chinese trade for Japanese-m
cotton yarns, the japanese spinners
have taken advantage of the great ma
tional fault of the Understanding.
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 hand |
some sum of money. A Chinaman takes
to lottery as a duck to water, and the |
effect was to boom japanese trade. But |
as the Chinese taotais and mandarins |
live altogether by the conduct of Off
cial lotteries, they scented japanese |
and have forbidden the inn |,
portation of cotton yarns with prize |
tickets attached
Serious as the other nations NAV re- |
gard Japan's attempts to corner the
market for her products in Chinese ter |
ritory, nation so poor in natural raw
resources cannot maintain an attitude |
of commercial exclusion. Japan must |
have foreign trade to live, and nobody |
knows better than the japanese bust |
ness man that the United States is the |
biggest and most profitable factor in
that DEMONSTRATING trade. Whatever |
the military clique may think or do, the
business men and the laboring men of |
.JaDan will ODDOSe tn the last ditch anV |
governmental program which might re-
suit in cessation of exports to the |
United States.