The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-10-12
ORIENTAL COMPETITION A MEN
ACE-CHEAP LABOR AND
RAW MATERIAL.

Why workingmen and farmers
should vote for Pratt and Jackson
who stand for Protection.
The rapid development of the
manufacturing industries of Japan
has greatly disconnected Western
nations. When the latter forced
the subjects of the Milado to enter
into trading relations with the out
side world it was generally assumed
that the japanese were an incapable
people who would remain dependent
for an indefinite period upon West
ern manufacturers for their pro-
ducts.
A comparatively few years has
sufficed to completely change this
erroneous estimate of the Japanese
1t is now generally conceded that
they can turn their hand to almost
any pursuit and achieve success.
There is no longer any disposition
to assume that they are merely imi-
tative, for it is seen that with their
acquired knowledge they are rapidly
becoming inventive as well as adap-
tive, and that they have other quail
ties which make them formidable
competitors in lines of manufactur-
ing which Westerners had no eXpec-
tatiOn of their entering into.
But now comes another competi-
tor on the scene. The Chinese,
whose stores of iron ore and excel
lent coal are reputed to be enorm-
Gus, have commenced to exploit
them. Cargoes of coal and pig iron
have recently been received from
China, and those who have imported
them predict that in a very short
will oh In
ped to California and the other Pa
cific coast states.
1t is not probable, however, that
the Chinese will content themselves
with shipping to us their raw pro-
ducts. They are very apt people,
as we know from observation and
experience, and now that they have
got rid of their conservatism, we
may expect them to make the best
possible use of their varied advan-
tages.
Foremost among these must be
reckoned an immense body of cheap
labor which can easily be converted
into that of the skilled sort. 1t is
idle to suppose that capital will fail
to avail itself of this possibility. 1t
has already done so to some extent
in cotton manufacturing lines and
it is inevitable that it will enter the
iron industry.
For some time to come, as in our
own country, progress will be slow.
At first the coarser products will be
turned out, but sooner or later the
Chinese will engage in every branch
of manufacturing in which iron is
used, and they will succeed as they
did in this city when they made the
shoe industry their own and practi-
cally held the market until the oper-
alton of the exclusion act hampered
them in their ability to secure cheap
labor.
1t is an interesting situation that
will be created by the new develop
ment. Hitherto the white people
| of the Pacific coast have been suf-
| ferers from Chinese immigration, and
when the demand for exclusion was
made it met with little sympathy at
! the East and the relief we asked
was grudgingly extended.
The new invasion, if we may call
it by that name, is of different
sort. The manufacturing industries
of the Pacific coast have been back
ward in development, and we are
still largely dependent on the East
for our supplies of manufactured ar
ticles. This is particularly true oi
manufactures of iron and textiles
in which our advances have beer
slow.
If the expectations of those who
are now observing the new develop
ment of China are realized; II that
country makes half the progress pre-
dicted, in a very short time Chinese
manufactured articles of iron anC
cotton goods will be entering oul
markets and shutting out those
from the East; and perhaps the in
vasion will make hopeless the at
tempt to build up Pacific coast in
} dustry.