The Nome daily nugget., 1936-07-11

port markets In the Philippines ana | Hawaii, and a good share of them in South America.
 Idle Plants Our Cost. Figured in dollars and cents, the Japanese imports from the United States are twice our imports from Japan. But Japanese imports are mostly raw cotton which is manufac- tured and then sold back to us at prices that cost us many millions in idle plants and unemployed workers.
 Japan's skilled laborers, working for wages that would hardly keep Amer ican bodies and souls together, have genius for initiating American prod ucts. In appearance, the Japanese ar ticle looks quite like the American one, but almost invariably the materials used, and therefore the service to be obtained, leave much to be desired. An American flashlight, made to sell for 50 cents, has to compete, often on the same shelves, with Japanese ilashlight identical in appearance, which costs 20 cents less. American pencils, sold for $40 gross, are re- produced in Japan to sell here for 94 cents gross; device to sharpen them, made here to sell for S1, has a Japanese counterpart of inferior metal which sells for 37 cents.
 Rubber manufacturing in the United States dropped from 1O0,0OO,OOO pounds to 30,OOO,OOO in three years. An American-made tennis shoe sells for @ cents a pair, it's Japanese counter part for 30 cents An American hot water bottle costs 30 cents; one just like 1t but "Made in Japan" costs ex- actly half that.
 And so it goes. all the way from microscopes American, $12.5O-Japa- nese, $1.95) to hinges (American, $3.5O Japanese, $1.25). Here Is partial list of articles, made in America, that have been reproduced for American sale by the Japanese, giving the re- tail price as 1t is in the United States today. In each case the Jap anese article has exactly followed the American in appearance:
 Article American Japanese Baseball $O015 $oo.l0 Atr pisto, 500 1.95 Comh - 20 10 Toothbrush ........ .oV 'ao ' Light Bulbs ........ ~ 'oo (The Japanese article Is identical in appearance, but consumes far more cur | rent, does not burn as long and gives much less illumination. Handled chiefly | in stores which are notoriously "cut- rate.~
 Article American Japanese | perfume Bottle ,...SOO75 $0020 | Candlestick Holder .. 1.5O 70 | Silver Mint Dish .... 400 .69 Dishes US-piece set) 5000 1850 | SaIt Shaker Set ,,. 1263 1.69 | Candy Dish .. 500 .59 | Cirarette Holder .... 3.75 1.25 | Wholesale Invasion. Tn the United States the fishnet business is comparatively obscure one. if not in point of size at least in
 point of familiarity. Yet it did not
 take the thorough orientals very long
 to discover it. AS an example, ar
 American fish netting which once en
 loved a good sale at 75 cents is now
 giving way to the identical article O
 a Japanese competitor which sells fol
 32 cents.
 Where were the beginnings and wha
 is the cause of this wholesale invasion
 of American business by the Japa
 nese? Most authorities attribute l
 to the lower standards of living ant
 the cheap labor in Japan, and partl.
 to the cotton processing tax (the Nev
 Hampshire mill which lost $1,OOO,OO
 last year paid $1,274,173 in process
 ing tax).
 That is only the situation as It eS
 ists today. The seed of the Japanes export business was planted in 1855;