Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-07-09
HAWAII PIVOT Of
PACIFIC IN FACT,
SAYS PUBLICISI

Arthur l. Street. the magazine writer
and publicist. who has been on a tour
OF the Pacific since last fall in the
interest of Sunset Magazine OF San
Francisco. passed through Honolulu
today on the Ten!o Maru. en- route 10
the coast. Mr.. Street was accompan-
led by his wife, Madame Carusi. the
harpist who appeared in recital in Ho-
nolu last October Madame CaruSi
was unable to leave the ship, owing t.
serious illness.
Mr. Street stated in an interview
with a Star-Bulletin reporter that he
started on his long journey in the be-
lief that the great battle of the future
would be the trade battle in the Pa
cific between the various nations of
the Occident, but that he returned
with the conviction that the real bat.
tie would be on the part of the nations
Of the Occident against the Orient.
. Il do not profess to be prophet"
said he, but cannot help feelins
that the day of the white mans hopes
in the East is about past ! have Wis
tied aud studied intimately into the
conditions in almost all the countries
bordering the Pacific, and | cannot
see where the Occidental races can
expect to hold their ground. The yell
low and brown races, one after an
other, are awakening not only to the
so-called civilized forms of living but
also-which is far more important
to sense of their own potentially.
Instead of being willing, as hereto
fore, merely to labor in the service of
the white man and under his direction,
they are beginning to aspire to bel
their own masters, their own employ
ers, their own capitalists.
Even in Java, whose people are
mostly Malays, of whom students of
raciology have never been willing to
predict much advancement, | found
the natives operating the railroads.
acting as engineers in the sugar fac
tories, and experimenting the intri.
cate cultivation OF the tea plantations.
I'm India, whence most of the lower
class of labor for the rubber and 9th |
er plantations of the Orient has been
recruited in the past few years. it is !
becoming increasingly difficult to pro, |
cure workers OF the coolie sort, while !
hundreds of young men are flockine |
from the farms to the cities to take |
up work in the textile mills and the
iron boundaries. ..-..--
The Chinese, surprising though it
may be to those familiar with the sit.
uation, so far from being dependent
race, already absolutely dominate the
retail trade of the entire Oceania. !
Even the shrewd Dutch traders of Java
and the other Dutch East Indies are
no match for them. In the Federated |
Malay States, their grip extends be-
yond the retail business and touches
the speculative ownership Of real es.
tate in such places as Singapore and
controls the jobbing and contracting. !
In the Philippines the American and
other merchants do not pretend to |
compete with the Cinnamon in general
distribution of goods to the common
people. " 81" .#...
"At home in their own country, in
spite of all their revolutionary strug, |
giles, the Chinese are constantly en-
tering into new lines of modern enter |
prise. They are erecting textile mills, !
iron foundries, harbor improvements. !
and railroads. And gradually they are
developing shipping. 1t can be but
a question of a short time-five years
at the most, / should say, when their |
industrial and commercial progress
will become even more astounding |
than has been that of the Japanese. |
When that time comes. it doesn't |
take much of a prophet to forsee what |
will happen when the two great ORR |
entail nations work side by side along |
lines of modern development. Ha.
waiian residents have already had ex-
perience with the mercantile power Of
both Chinese and Japanese, and they
can imagine more easily. perhaps, |
than residents of the mainland, what
the effect will be of the combined Gu
trance of japan and China into the
worlds markets. -.
With manufactured gods produced
on Oriental scales of wages, the Oc-
races may expect competi- |
ton that will be little less than dead |
~ | could cite dozens of articles. |
Occidental in form and nature. which |
are already being manufactured in |
the Orient and sold in America and
Europe at prices which undercut the |
American and European prices; and |
the number and quantity CT these is ]
more likely to increase than diminish |
in the next few years.
So far as | can see, the only de-
fensive course open to the white race
is to recognize the situation without |
delay, and to alter the tactics in the |
Orient from that of concession hunting |
to the hunting of trade connections.
If the Orientals are going to be able |
to place goods in the American mar |
ket. for instance, cheaper than the |
same goods can be manufactured !
there. the wise thing is for the Amer |
lean business men to begin to get |
acquainted with the men and the fac |
tories in the Orient from whence these |
goods are to come. and thus put them. |
selves in position to handle the i'm,
porting and distributing end of the
business. No matter how much cheap
- O.sz