Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-29
SUBSCRIBING FAR EAST TRADE

American financiers, and even Uncle
Sam himself, are subsidizing the fu-
ture commerce of the far
optimistic east. That the manufac-
turers and exporters in
hepOTtS the United States should
benefit very materially right now and
in compound way as the years pass
is the opinion of the congressional
delegation which is now making a
survey of conditions throughout the
orient, and of the trade scouts, COM
mercial attaches and business diplo-
mats that the United States govern
ment has had studying this region of
veloped.
The members of Congress visiting
the orient are sending back messages
to their colleagues that they never
imagined that there were such posi-
that they now are convinced the most
healthy development of foreign trade
will be such as is now awaiting
American capital, American sales
manship, and above all else Americas
personal interest in the far east.
world has received SO much intensive
cultivation by American bankers as
China and Japan during the last few
months. and American f1nancierS as
rule are pretty certain of their ground
before they start foreign agencies and
branches. Wherever the banker goes
there the statesmen for goods made in
the United States may very profltably
follow.
One of the most significant features Of
trade in China and the far east has been
the increasing part, dur
American ing the last year, that
American finance has
FINANCE played. The increasing
dependence on the United States for
loans, Consul General George E. Ander-
son reports from Hongkong. not only
is broadly significant, but the manner in
which American finance and even the
United States government itself have
come to the aid of all international
trade, as we'll as American trade. par
ticularly in the silver situation, has had
an immense influence upon the extension
of American interests in purely COM
mercial lines.
The agents of the State and Commerce
departments, the experts for private
commercial and industrial interests who
have been investigating the field. and
the members of the United States Con-
gress are unanimous in advising Amer
lean exporters that they must be pre-
pared for an increasing dependence of
China and Chinese enterprises Upon
American finance. No American plan or
program for developing trade in China.
they insist, can be successful unless a
scheme for financing Chinese trade is
put into operation. The absorption by
the United States of more and more
Chinese securities OF al sorts. not only
governmental, but railway and indus
trial, public improvements. port works,
municipal betterments, tramways-in
short securities in every commercial as
well as governmental line-should be
anticipated and encouraged.
i X
China's use of foreign goods in all
lines, as well as it's advancement in
modern social develop
Chinese ment, depends primari-
ly upon the develop
heSOuIceS. ment of it's latent re-
sources, which have lain buried under
the sands of centuries. The nation
that lends the greatest aid financial
ly in this development will reap
most of the attending benefits in
trade For the immediate present the
high exchange value Of silver renders
this difficult, but the desirability, not
to say the absolute need. of such aid
should be kept in view at all times
by American interests concerned in
any way with the trade and COM
mercial advancement of China.
With all the improved American
trade organizations and methods that
have been set up in that land of in
dustrial and commercial promise there
is as much need as ever for more at
tention on the part Of American ex-
porters to the special demands Of the
Chinese market. Special conditions
have enabled American exporters to
introduce into that field a large va
riety of goods that heretofore were
practically unknown there. Condi-
tons have been such that almost
any goods in particular lines could be
sold. With the return of conditions to a
competitive basis. however, more atten-
ton must be paid to the quality of
goods, to marks and brands, or Chops;