Arizona republican., 1909-12-24
A New Phase of the Silver Question.

some distinction as political econo- mist was an ardent champion of the 1s-to-1 idea He was anxious to have the United States and England form a league for free coinage. Mir Frewen has abandoned the hope of restoring silver to its lost place. but he IS Just as insistent as ever that the United States and Europe mus do some thing to maintain a flair price for silver as a commodity, or lose to China an enormous manufacturing trade.
 In this contention NIT. Frewen has presented some interesting facts in relation to the development of nanu- featuring in China.
 Silver being the measure Of value in China, he shows that the great fail in the value of silver. coupled with T labor market which has not advanced, has enabled Chinese manufacturers to enter actively into competition with Americans here at home. That IS 10 say while the purchasing power of silver generally has diminished ex- ceedingly, it will still buy as much Chinese labor as before. It is in the manufacture of pig iron. and steel that the Chinese are beginning to make themselves felt. MT Frewen quotes officials of the United States Steel corporation as admitting that the Chinese steel rolling mills at Han kow. for example, are. for efficiency, quite up to the American standard They admit further, he says, that the rails are as good as possible. and that the hands required are not 10 per cent in excess of those required in Ameri- can steel mills This fact of itself-if if be a fact-is a revelation to most Americans. who have been taught that Chinese labor cannot compare in ef- ficiency with American labor.
 According to Mir Frewen. the Ameri- can importation of steel and pig iron from China. which already is consid- erable. will soon be enormous-not- withstanding the high tariff wall Of which our democratic friends com plain. The Chinese manufacturers sell their iron and steel in this coun- try for gold. take the gold to China and exchange it for silver-nore- sil- yer than ever before, proportionately- With this silver they are able to get more labor than the American manu- facturer can buy with his gold. More over. Japan. which has been heavy buyer of iron products in the United States. is turning more and more to China Mir Frewen foresees stu pendous industrial development in China. because of the advantage of cheap silver and cheap labor, and he thinks the United States will be the principal sufferer from the compe- tition. But all Europe, he says, will suffer to a considerable extent. As he puts it:
 Now. when I recall the amazing de- velopment I have seen in the Orient during the past thirty years-how great. modern, industrial Bombay has sprung into existence-the partition of the English jute and leather indus tries-the murderous competition of the Malay states in tin and other minerals. I am justified in describing as a madness the passive mood in which we today contemplate the wholesale removal of our steel and iron and coal industries to China. Look at the remittances of every Chinaman working on this continent who sends his savings home. Two years since if he remitted five dol lars. he remitted five and half taels: today that sum remits for him eight taels It is safe to say that If you had not passed a Chinese exclusion act. the present rates of exchange would have brought a very exodus Of Mongolians to these shores, to cut your rate of wages and return to China with the proceeds. But of what
 
 you admit the pig-while you admit not merely free pig iron. but pig iron bounty fed by the recent fall in sil- ver?"
 There is no gainsaying the truth of MT Frewen's remarks concerning the changed industrial conditions in China. Depreciated silver does. Of course, amount to a bounty on the importations which we make from China. And. on the other hand, it serves to prevent the Chinese from buying from us. A few years ago ships from San Francisco to China were always loaded with American goods: they had difficulty in getting return cargoes from China Now it is the other way. Expectations to China are decreasing steadily. while our importations from China are in creasing enormously.
 Unquestionably it would be of i'm measurable benefit to the United