The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-11-25

effort il to be made at the forth-
coming session Of congress to slim
ulate trade between the United
| States and the far east. 1t will be
based on the theory that there must
i be a sort of vacation OF trade with
| Europe and that, meanwhile, the
United States must find and develop
| q new market for her large surplus.
/. All the world knows that two
strong elements prevent much
trade with the great manufacturing
powers OF Europe. First. the for
eignf exchange situation practically
forbids extensive purchases by
European nations from the United
| States. This Is because the Euro
pean ctirrencies are SO badly depre-
ciated that a. disproportionate
amount OF the foreign money Is re-
quired to purchase a dollars worth
OF goods in the United States. Sec
ond, the American protective tariff
| is SO high that European manufac-
! turers cannot ship much here, pay
the tariff, and still compete with
the goods manufactured within our
+, borders. Therefore, there is a
check on both outgoing and incom-
ing goods-the two currents which
make up foreign trade. =
The United States is 30 attuned
industrially that to attain her great
est prosperity she must sell the
surplus of her manufactures
abroad. If she cannot sell to Europe
she must find another market. The
! present indications are that she
will look toward Asia.
The Asiatic countries do no man
i ufacture goods in the same vast vol
ume that the European nations do.
Japan, it is true, rapidly is forg-
ing ahead as manufacturing state,
but her population, her facilities
| and her manufacturing skill have
not yet developed to a point where
they can supply the whole OF the
far eastern trade. While China has
made rapid advances in the last de-
! cade, she still is too far behind to
supply herself with all the manu-
featured goods for which a market
| can be made.
These circumstances invite a de-
termined effort on the part OF the
United States to develop the far
eastern market and, in all prob
ability, congress will suggest that
either existing machinery such as
the bureau of foreign and domestic
| commerce. or some new agency,
make a special study of increasing
! trade between the United States on
the one hand and Japan, China, the
| new states of the Siberian terri
tory, Australia. New Zealand, the
Dutch East Indies and the islands
| of MALAYSIA and the South seas, OH
| the other.
China's Purchasing Power.
Population makes markets. Be-
fore Columbus discovered America,
America was here but did not fig
ure in trade. Indeed, for many
years after the discovery, America
was not a market The country
! was here, but no people to buy. The
vast republic Of China has a popu-
lation OF nearly 50,000,000 persons.
The United States has only some
los, 100000 1t is true that the
Chinese are not so wealthy as the
Americans and therefore the indl-
vidual Chinaman cannot buy as
much as the individual American.
but there are more than four times
as many Cinnamon as there are
Americans, and, in the aggregate,
they represent a tremendous puT-
chasing power. When the peoples
of the other Oriental countries are
added, a total of many hundreds Of
millions of prospective customers
is found
They are not. primarily, manu-
featuring peoples. They produce
vast stores of raw materials and
consume vast stores of manufac-
tured goods. The situation is ideal
to develop trading and there is less
arrangement of foreign exchange
between the Orient and the United
States than between Europe and
the United States.
What is of especial importance in
connection with the upbuilding of
trade in the east is the rapid strides
which China has made toward
prosperity in the last few years.
Julean Arnold, trade attache of
the department of commerce, in
recent report on China. says:
During the past few decades
wealth in China has increased con-
siderably A Chinese banker tells
me that 30 years ago a man with
$4,000 was looked upon as well off.
Today little distinction is given to