The San Francisco call., 1909-06-28
|JAPAN'S MASTERY
OF THE PACIFIC
Mikado's Whole Mercantile
Fleet Less Than One Big
Yankee Ship, but They
Get. the Trade

carrying trade is pretty well known
in this country, says the Literary Di-
gest. Now Europe IS beginning to
take notice of it. One of our big
Pacific steamers can carry practically
as much freight as the whole fleet of
japanese liners that ply between our
shores and Asia, but the japanese
steamers carry the freight, while the
American steamers carry air. as Har-
riman puts it. Furthermore there is
less to carry than there used to be.
In 1906 we sent s161.5s4,ooO worth of
exports to the far east; the next year
the figures sank to s14O60O,Oo0, the
next year to sl38, $4,000. and last year
rose to s14S,575,OoO.
This record spells failure, thinks
DR.. Ernst Schultze, an eminent author
and editor-of Hamburg, who writes In
the Preussische Jahrbuecher of Berlin.
He declares that "the exalted optimism
of the Americans has caused them TO
see the whole future in too rosy col
,ors." This is especially the case with
regard to our trade with China and
Japan. The first setback we received,
he SAYS was the Chinese boycott in
1906. The difficulties with the Japan
ese in California caused feeling
which even the visit of the American
fleet could not by quasi intimidation
put an end to. AS a matter of fact,
from whatever causes, the commerce
of North America, out of which Amer
lean shipping interests were expected
to reap so great an advantage, has
passed with remarkable rapidly and
unalterable finality into the hands of
the Japanese
This writer proceeds to state the
plans of ]. J. Hill and the oriental
projects of that Napoleon" Above all
things he wished to make overpopu-
lated Japan a consumer of American
wheat" Il intend" he remarked, "to
make wheat as cheap to the millions
of the east as rice now is. and our
farmers shall reap the benefits of this
new demand" He sent flour to China
nd Japan in small sailing ships. he
to bake bread. In time from 15O, 900 to
zoo 900. tons of flour We're sent from
Tacoma and Seattle to east Asia. Cot
ton was also exported to the same
country to the amount of 10000 900
pounds. In 1907-S the export of flour
fell to less than half the earlier
expectations, and there was only one
fifth of the cotton exported to China
and half to Japan in comparison with
previous amounts.
The same failure has attendaa Amer
ica's attempt to control the freight and
passenger trade. we are told To quote
the words of Doctor schultze:
For long time after Perry
opened Japanese ports qS5S-4) the
whole carrying trade of Japan was
prosecuted under American and
English flags. Within the last y
years Japan has ships of her own
plying between her ports and those
of China, India, Australia, Eng
land and America
The Japanese shipping subsidy has
done much to bring about this state
of things. and in 1906 some $4,000 900
was voted by their parliament for this
purpose. Thus it appears that the tom
mage of Japanese shipping has risen
from 477,430 in 1898 to 1115.SS0 in
1907, and while in 1898 Japan had 35
per cent of the foreign trade, in 1907
she enjoyed 43 per cent.
Doctor Schultze sums up the situa-
tion as follows:
The prospects of American ship
ping in the Pacific are very poor
No one can be accused of pessimism
in declaring that they are actually
nil. The high protective tariff
which the United States maintains
has raised the country to great
wealth. but has also put both her
industries and her shipping at
disadvantage in international COM
petition. Manufactures are con-
Quoted in the United States with
such high wages that in a depart
ment where she is not benefited by
protection, such as is the case with
shipping, she must be outdone by
other nations. When she enters into
competition with a country in
which wages have sunk to the low
est limit, as in Japan, it is impos-
sible for the United States to over
come a rival.
Yet it must be allowed, we are told.
that the commerce and carrying trade
of Japan have been artificially inflated
by government subsidies. If these are
America may perhaps step
in to supplant Japan in the Pacific.
The United States has, however.
one faint glimmer of hope The
trade policy of Japan does not rest
upon an altogether solid founda-
tion. The subsidies which are paid
to the navigation companies and
ship builders may give transient
prosperity to these branches of in
dustry, but may fail to make their
success permanent.