Evening star., 1934-05-06


until you reach the East?"
What are tfe-chances for young
men in the Orient? What is the fu-
ture of foreign trade there?
I have talked with Americans, Eng
lishmen and Frenchmen who have
spent their lives in the Orient. This
is their comment:
/. The old East is gone forever
the EasI OF unlimited opportunity.
Every year competition is keener,
profit harder. The day is past when
a young man can hope to come out at
rs, work until As, and 60 home with
competence.
2. 1t is true that a young man re-
ceives responsibilities that would not
come to him at home until middle life.
He is an executive almost from the
start. Also he may live on better
scale than at home-a bigger house,
more servants. But saving money is
difficult. Health conditions are not
so good There is the terrible price
parents must pay in having to send
their children back to the the States
for education-losing them from the
age of or 10 until after they have
finished college at %.
3. Every nation in the East Is
striving desperately to make itself in
dependent of the rest of the world.
While this effort continues there will
be smaller rather than a larger op-
portunity in foreign trade.
Sought to Keep Markets.
The last point bears enlargement.
Fifteen years ago we in the United
States had the notion there was no
limit to the amount of business we
were going to do. While Europe was
running itself in the war we had
stepped into South America and the
Orient in a big way Ours was the
only shop open on the worlds busi-
ness street, and the customers had to
come to US.
The war over, we said: Now that
we are in these foreign markets we
will stay in" We were going to show
the world. Think of the millions of
shoeless Chinese" we said. I'VE will
shoe them just contrast our
per capita ownership of automobiles
with the figures in other continents
Detroit will never. never be
able to fill the potential demand"
Cheerfully we lent millions of good
American dollars to foreign customers.
Part of those they used in buying
American goods. Today the bulk of
the dollars are still owed. and the
customers are running away from us
as fast as they can. When say from
us" I do not mean we are being espe-
cially Disseminated against. Every
body's customers are running away
running back home and bolting the
door. The universal slogan is: 1--WE
will not buy nickel'S worth OF what
we can possibly raise or manufacture
at home"
When any United States Senator
talks about the Orient as if it were
dry sponge waiting to soak up
unlimited amounts of the output of
our farms and factories, he is talking
nonsense. The japanese and Chinese
and all the other Orientals are trying
to do exactly what we are trying to do
sell as much as possible and buy as
little as need be. From the point of
view of the economist it is silly sort
of world psychology. But it is very
much in the saddle.
japanese Goods Imitators.
I spent some time in japanese de-
partment stores. I wanted to see how
the Japanese handled their mer-
chandising, but I wanted also to
gladden. my eyes with the sight of
familiar American trade marks.
should have carried microscope.
There were plenty of japanese trade
marks that look like ours. The
adapters. But American products,
where 1 could find them at all, were
in small quantities and we'll concealed
Japanese toilet goods, japanese rubber
goods, Japanese electrical goods,
japanese textiles, Japanese sporting
goods-all the things we taught them
to use they are now making after our
pattern. They are polite people.
THANK you very much" they say.
But no ordersl
They lack raw materials, so We
continue to sell them metals and lum-
ber and petroleum. But one OF the
first actions of the new Manchukuo
(made in Japan government was to
erect a tariff discriminating against
American and British kerosene and
in favor of the Japanese product.
Eventually the Toxic government
would like to compel the oil compa-
nies to bring their crude oil into
Japan and refine it in japanese
plants with japanese labor. Even
those things which they must buy
they intend to handle in such way
that the utmost possible profit shall
be squeezed out and kept at home.
French Indo- China is little prl-
vate French preserve with keep off
signs all over the place. If you don't
believe in signs, just try to get an
automobile or hairpin into Saigon
that was not made in France"
China Big Business Hope.
China we have always looked upon
as our yellow step-child, our big busi-
ness hope. Most Americans have the
naive notion that the Chinese love
us and that if, and when. they decide
to put on leather shoes, woolen pants
and derby hats, and ride around In
automobiles listening to the radio, we
and no one else-Will sell them all
these things.
1t is a fact that for the last two
years our trade with China has been
greater than that of any of our Euro
pean competitors, but the totals are
not what they were in the good olo
days. China, hardly less than Japan
Is seeking economic self-suffciency
Last year the United States blithely
authorized a loan of $50 900, ex-
pecting the Chinese to take 100000
bales of our cotton and goodness only
knows how much of our troublesome
surplus wheat. At the end of 1888
only $4,000 bales of cotton had been
ordered, and Of these, $4,000 were
still held by us awaiting shipping in
structions from China. have just
read that. owing to the protests OF
Chinese cotton interests, the Chinese
government has been compelled to say
to us: Take back your so millions;
all we can let you give us Is 30" As