The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1910-09-17

as a naval base from which to strike
our Pacific coast; we may hold them
at arms length and bemoan our fate
at having them on our hands; or
we may use them to our own and
their advantage.
Mr.. Mind points to the fact that
the English dominate the eastern
market. They have bases at Shang-
hal and other treaty ports at the
heretofore have been the only means
of access to the interior of the coun-
try. with intelligent men on the
ground, who study conditions, and
they send their goods in English
ships. SO the orientals find the
English flag everywhere, the Eng
lish language and English customs
everywhere. and Englishmen every
where better acquainted than their
competitors with the Chinese nature
and demands Of the trade.
Railroads are ramifying the king
dom now and railroad building is
progressing rapidly. giving other
means of access to the interior; but
the advantage Englishmen hold still
clings to them and will unless we
adopt a similar plan.
With branches in Manila and
American ships to carry our pro-
ducts he believes Americans could
soon gain the ascendancy in China.
To quote from him:
1T was my good fortune to travel
from Seattle to the Orient with a
delegation representative OF the
Commercial club of that city. At a
dinner given this delegation by the
Merchants association of Manila,
the business development of the
Philippines and the development OF
trade in the Orient was very fully
and frankly discussed. During my
lifetime / have had opportunity to
the development of centers
Of trade in close proximity to the
fields of distribution. / have seen a
large part of the jobbing trade which
was once New York's shifted to Chi
cago. l have seen centers OF dis
ministering to more or less
local fields grow up at Minneapolis
and st. Paul, Kansas City and st.
Joseph, Omaha, Dallas and Denver.
and so / ventured to express the
opinion, in the talk which / was
called upon to make at that dinner.
that il the merchants of America
are to get a share OF the trade of
the Orient they should establish
themselves and carry stock in Ma
Mia. ] am still of that opinion. and
my suggestion met with the endorse
ment of the business men present
who have had opportunity for a
fuller study of the proposition than
have had.
Let us look at the possibilities.
Hong Kong is 1875 miles from
Bremen. and about 500 miles nearer
London. Shanghai is 1865 miles
from Bremen; Nagasaki, the most
port of Japan, 1907
miles, and Yokohama, 1876 miles.
The shortest sailing time. by the
p. & o. steamers, which are the mail
steamers from London to Shanghai.
Is forty days. Boats carrying chiefly
freight over the same course would
require even greater time, particu-
larly If stops were made en- route,
as there would necessarily be.
mot one Of the important ports
Of the Orient-Yokohama, Kobe,
Nagasaki, Shanghai, Hong Kong and
more than 5000 miles
from the ports on the Pacific coast
Of the United States. Chicago is i
nearer every one of these ports b,
several thousands of miles than the
cities of England and Germany
which are now supplying this region
with its merchandise chiefly. Our
ships-but come to think of IL. wei
have no ships-can cross
the Pacific in couple of weeks--in
a third of the time that
ships of the same character would
take to round Gibraltar into the
Mediterranean sea, pass through the |
suez canal and the Red sea, around