The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-12-03
MR.. FREWEN'S ADDRESS.

IbNNit' put VI il' IlbSI uphabi' Nl
terances ever given forth here, What
Mr.. Frewen is urging now is not so
much the monetary COMA Of silver,
although this is part of his pro
gramme, but his contention is economic
rather than monetary, and monetary
chiefly by reason of the economic eff
feet of the great drop in the price of
silver. in its prospective change Of the
industrial energies of the world.
Mr. Frewcn would have an auxiliary
or special silver. based currency, with
the coin at command especially for the
Oriental trade, But that, even if eff
fected. would be n very small matter
compared with the threatened disas
trous economic conditions as between
China and Japan and the rest of the
world. brought about by the great fall
in silver price, although it would to
certain extent be a palliative of the
evil conditions. An illustration given by
Mr.. Frewen on the industrial side, is
tho added cost of water pipe in Hako.
date, Japan, which compelled that place
to erect water pipe works OF its own,
that are now competing successfully in
the Oriental world with English, Ger
man, and American iron manufacturers,
This being aptly illustrative of the
whole situation. He shows further that
in the great iron works at Hankow,
China, the rate of wages as compared
with Pittsburgh is that fifteen Chinese
workmcn can be hired for the cost Of
one Pittsburgh workman, and the ratio
of efficiency was we'll up to the Ameri-
can standard. The number of added
workmcn necessary in the Uankow mills
as compared with Pittsburgh was one
in ten. That is TO say, eleven men in the
Hankow rolling mills will do as much as
ten men in the rolling mills in Pitts
burgh, and the pay Of the whole eleven
men would be less than the pay to one
Pittsburgh workman. Surely Il con-
trast like this ought to awaken the
economic world to the peril Of the sit
nation.
Mr. Frewcn showed very clearly that
the fall in silver had brought about
this tremendous economic change so
much to the advantage of the Oriental
workmen In China silver. so far from
being a debased metal, is supreme
money, though it is not coined as the
western nations coin money. 1t passes
in taels Of varying value tho Hankow
tael being generally standard weight
and lump of silver. But silver in any
form is far beyond the aspirations of
the ordinary Chinese laborer. Copper
is the valuable cash to him, and he is
entirely content with it.
But when the monetary and economic
conditions arc such that the Oriontal
workmen can afford to build their own
iron works and establish centers of
industry, the saving on one contract of
water pipe enabling them to do this Mt
a profit, that saving resulting entirely
from the decrease Of silver exchange, the
conditions so brought about must neccs-
sarily attract the very serious attention
Of the civilized world. For it is menace
TO industry everywhere, and threat Of
supercedure of all of our great indus
trial plants by the like plants in China
and Japan, where iron can be made for
one-tenth the price for which it is made
in this country, and made there at
profit.
Further pursuing this idea, Mr.. Ere
wen again illustrated his point by cit
ing the steamship freight, as shown to
him by Mr.. Dollar, whose lines some
years ago were crowded with freights
from our west coast to the Orient,
bringing back very little in return.
Now the shipments are exactly re-
versed. The freights to the Orient
from our west coast are now light,
whereas the return freights are very
heavy, and largely consist Of this iron
that is made in China at mere frac-
tional cost of iron making in this coun-
try.
An eminent English authority not
long ago made forecast that if mat
ters continue as they are, and especially
if there is further fall in silver, China
would become the industrial center of
the world, within ten years, manufac,
turing at a price low beyond all pos
sible white race competition, China
could make and sell everything in gen
eral use and in large demand, at prices
with which no white race could COM
pete. And that is precisely what Mr..
Frewen IS lecture meant. The logic of
his position is exactly that. Unless mat
tiers are remedied, the industrial work
manship of the world is bound to 90 to
China. 1t is a situation calling for the
most profound thought of tho whole
European and American industrial
workers and manufacturers. The great
question is. whether they will sec the
peril, and what they propose to do in
order to avert it. 1t looks as though
preliminary step might need to be the
exclusion Of Chinese manufacture. the
shutting Of the ports Of the civilized
world to tho products of cheap labor
as this country has shut the doors of
immigration against the cheap labor OF
the Chinese race.