Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-04

llYeXll men of the United States de-
IA %Sl sire to acquire and hold for
lEYM nj future generations the great
IR xk3l est possible advantage in the
lAzs2ae99 greatest possible market of the
world, they will at once bestir them
selves to an activity in China. Other
nations are not slow, and unless the
Americans seize the opportunity which
now presents itself, the day will come
when il is too late. To create an ever
expanding market for American goods
in China is feasible proposition, and
once created it would be the best pos
sible insurance against the ultimate
calamity of stagnation that will befall
American business if there is no basis
for foreign trade expansion.
eThe chief reason why American trade
in China is now at such compara-
lively low ebb is that Americans have
not deemed it worth while to go after"
Chinese trade with the same combina-
ton of hustle and brains which is used
in business operations at home.
An American manufacturer selling
goods in Ohio will make the variety
and style of goods demanded by the
people of Ohio. If he refused to do
So, everybody would agree that he de-
served to lose his business The same
of the past, will decline to meet the
requirements of the Chinese, arguing
that what is good enough for Ohio is
good enough for any brand of yellow
heathens on earth. American manu-
facturers must get out of that narrow
groove, they must make goods to meet
the requirements and to please the
taste of the Chinese, so far as concerns
those things which the Chinese now
use. 1t is possible, however, to teach
the Chinese to use many things which
they do not now buy, but even then the
peculiarities of Chinese taste must he
taken into account.
What would the average American
think of a manufacturer making
certain line Of goods in Massachusetts
who desired to reach the market N
Kansas, if that manufacturer made the
Kansas City branch office of his mt st
powerful competitor his agent for Kan E
sas? How much would he sell? That
is exactly what American business
men have done in China. They have
made English and German firms their
agents, with the result that no Amerl-
can goods are sold when there are
British or German goods of the same
kind in stock, unless the customer ab-
solutely demands American products.
The American manufacturer who eX-
poets to build up in China must be rep
resented here by American agents
who will use American methods to
push American goods
Suppose a typewriter manufacturer
in New York made a practice of ship
ping his machines by tying a tag with
an address on It to a type-bar, and
chucking the machine into a freight
car without any Grating or other pro-
lection? Would his business prosper?
Yet the average American shipper OF
goods to the Chinese market Is just
as foolish, for he absolutely refuses,
DESPITE tons of consular advices and
thousands of protests and shortage
claims, to pac.: his goods for foreign
shipment differently than those he
packs for a short railway journey.
English, German or Japanese goods
for the foreign market are packed SO
securely that a case rarely breaks
omen and the goods are seldom damaged.
1t is the exception when an Amerlcan-
packed case Of goods arrives IN de-
cent condition. American shippers
must learn to pack their goods. Ihis
seems to be a little thing, and 1t Is
little Therefore it is fault which
ought to be easily corrected. That 1t
is not, proves that the average Ameri-
can shipper doesn't really care enough
for this eastern trade to deserve to
get any of 1t.
Americans must learn that Chinese
buyer will not accept delivery OF any
substituted wares. He will have exact
ly what he ordered, and if the shipment
does not correspond to the sample IN
the minutest particular it will be re-
fused. A thread of a different color
in the selvage of a piece of cloth, the
difference of one thirty-second of an
inch in width or the slightest Varia-
tion for better or for worse will con-
denim the whole lot. In the United
states retail merchants often expect
iobbers to make substitutions when the
article ordered is not in stock. The
American shipper is accustomed to do
ing this sort of business every day.
But it will not do for China, where
everything must correspond with the
sample in every particular.
An American merchant at nome
would not expect to make inroads
upon a market hitherto exclusively
,srnplied by a competitor without max
inc some effort to introduce his goods
into the new territory. Yet Americans
seem to think that the Chinese trade
will eventually turn from European
and Japanese wares to those maze IN
the U. S. A. without any lnduceIneht
whatever. If the Americans really want
the Chinese business they must come
to China to get it, and when tney come