The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-05-12

When 1t comes to direct competition
there Is one point In favor OF the Amer
lean millers which Il Is claimed the
Japanese cannot overcome. Sometimes
American -four sells by the barrel for
n price no greater than what the raw
wheat costs. on Its face this would
seem to mean that the millers are
working for nothing. but they realize
a profit from utilizing the hS-products
of shorts and bran. The Japanese have
no way Of doing this. bee. Use they
have no stock to feed II to- The Japan
csc have endeavored to euualize this
condition by imposing a tariff duty on
-four. At 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
-four. 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 il away in exploitation. The
enormous consumption of -four in. Jap
an is all the more remarkable when IL
is remembered that thirty years ago
nobody in Japan ate bread. and few
had ever heard OF II. 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, ehemi-
Gals. rubber goods. ears, wheels, leaf
tobacco. drugs. electrical apparatus. en-
sines 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 he
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-nla ie
cotton yarns. the Japanese spinners
have taken advantage of the great ma
tional fault of the Chinese-gambling
The Gotten mills at Osaka send bales
of cotton yarn into the Chinese mar
kets with the statement that in some of
these halps will he fOund prize tickets
which will entitle the finder to a hand
some sum of money. A Chinaman takes
to lottery as duck to water, and the
effect was TO boom Japanese trade. But
as the Chinese taotais and mandarins
live altogether by the conduct of OH
eial lotteries, they scented a japanese
competitor and have forbidden the i'm
portation of cotton yarns with prize
tickets attached.
Serious as the other nations NAV re-
gard Japan's attempts to corner the
market tor her products in Chinese ter
ritory. a nation so poor in natural raw
resources cannot maintain an attitude
of commercial exclusion. Jauan 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 life-sustaining trade. Whatever
the military clique may think or do, the
business men and the labOring men Of
Japan will oppose to the last ditch any
governmental program which might re-
suit in a cessation of exports to the
United States.
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