Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-24
OF WORLDWIDE INTEREST
TRADE FOLLOWS THE GROSS
by FREDERIC }. HAsklN

regular business in many lines of for
eign wares Notwithstanding the almost
insuperable difficulties of distance and
transportation.
In Japan the missionary has been q
successful furniture drummer without
knowing 1t. The advantage of sitting
on a chair appeals to the Japanese
mind, although the sitting posture
tires him dreadfully. But 1t is fact
that into whatever towns the mission
aries went the demand fos chairs and
tables was created, 1t has now
reached the stage. that wherever there
is a Christian community--that is,
where the missionaries have been at
work-almost every family not actual
ly poverty stricken has at least one
foreign room" in the house. This
room always has a carpet, a few
chairs, table and sometimes even a
bed. The presence of these things
means that the missionary created q
demand by bringing the existence of
common western conveniences to the
minds of the Japanese. At first these
articles were all imported, but now
most of them are made in this coun-
try but with imported. machinery.
The missionary In Japan has not
only carried the Eight" to the Japan
ese in spiritual sense, but in the
actual physical form of kerosene
lamp. The ancient lamp of Japan, q
vessel filled with vegetable oil In which
hoated rude wick, was fit only to
show how dark 1t was. To read by it
was to invite blindness. The mission
aries, the first foreigners to get to
the interior, carried kerosene and
lamps with them. The practical ad-
vantages of this strong, clear light
was instantly recognized by the people
and they asked how they could have
lamps, too. AS a result the kerosene
lamp is almost as universal in rural
Japan as 1t is in rural America, while
in the cities 1t is everywhere. The
Standard OIL company has a tremen-
dous business in Japan, as have also
the Japanese oil concerns. This busi-
ness undoubtedly would have followed
the opening of Japan to foreign ideas
even IL there had never been a mis-
sionary, but the fact that the mission
ary was twenty years in the interior
before the foreign traders were per-
mitted to go there means that the i'm
mense business of today was built up
twenty years sooner than it would
have been had there been no missions.
In China, where everybody wears
cotton, there was no such thing as a
cotton mill until missionary built
small spinning mill to give employ
ment and support to his band of Chi
nese students. Out of this beginning
has grown a considerable number of
spinning mills in China. Missionaries
in the New Hebrides discovered the
arrowroot. of which the natives knew
nothing, and the annual trade is now
worth several hundred thousand dol
lars How trade has penetrated into
darkest Africa through the opening
made by the great missionary Living
stone is known to all the world. That
the interior and remote reaches of
China are being brought closer to- the
ports by traffic in foreign supplies is
directly due to the missionaries for
by their agency alone was the demand
for foreign goods created in those in
land places.
Trade follows the cross. That fact
cannot be disputed, but at the same
time the commercial set and the mis-
sionary set in any oriental port have
an entirely different point of view and
are often at loggerheads on local ques-
tions. The missionaries in Japan, for
instance, are nearly all so thorough
ly pro-Japanese that they partake of
the fanatic loyalty of Inc natives
themselves to the imperial govern
ment. The commercial foreigners in
Japan, on the other hand, are almost
unanimous in their criticism of Japan
eSe methods and practlceS. IL was the
missionary influence which was large
ly responsible for the revision of
treaties which in 1899 brought Japan
into the 'most favored nation" class
This revision was bitterly opposed by
many of the commercial class.
But, differ as they will, the mission
ary realizes and admits that commerce
has given him the means to come to
the lano where he is working for the
advancement of his holy cause, and
that he owes much to the presence of
the foreign commercial spirit. The
business man also, If he be fair, will
confess that it was the missionary
who first created the tiny demand for
foreign trade upon which has been
built the great superstructures of the
import business of the Japan Of to-
day. And most business men ip the
east will say that the money spent on
missions has been more than repaid in
advantage to commerce, leaving out
of tie question the results in educa-
ton, civilization and Christianity.
Copyright, 1908. by Frederic j. Haskin.)
Tomorrow-American Trade with Japan