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Chances for American Goods Across the Pacific
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RANGOON, THE BURMESE POST FOR AMERICAN COOD3L
(Copyright. 1ST3, by Frank Q. Carpenter.)
I ABlIINaTON, Dec. J.-(8pec al
Yy I Correspondenco of Th Bee.) In
iii mm toiirr uii ne Ameri
can Invasion I write of our trod
poflsibilltlea In Asia. That conti
nent hhs already a foreign business of
2.0(W,W0.0 a year and It la just cn the edga
of Its commercial development. It has
three-flftha of all the worid'a peopl. tlin
moKt of whom are dressing; In cottons and
llvlrs on a few centa a day. With the In
troductlon cf modern machinery nnd the
development of Its mineral trsouices tt
trade will be Increased twentyfo'd. It w li
hum like a beehive and th?re will be rcl Ing
mllln, textile mills and all aorta of machine
hoM from Slbtrla to Ceylon. Wage will '
rise and purchases Increase and the trade
will be worth tens of billions annually.
But suppose we put on our Sfven-lfairue
boots for a trnmp over Ala. We shall take
a country at a step nosing out the possi
bilities of American trnde. We start in lha
Russian possesBlona. which have twice no
much land as the United States proper with
population Just now of about Ib.CkOOOO
At the north is Siberia, the wild west of
the world. It Is one-third larger than the
whole cf our country. Pnrts of It are under
laid with coal and Iron and Its gold mines
compare with those of Alaska. It has never
been prospected and no one know how
great are Its mineral resources.
Siberia has some of the best wheat land
upon earth. I traveled from Vladivostok
Inland ove the Trans-Siberian road throi th
country that la a very granary. .The soil
is as black as your hat and It yields like
he valley of the Nile. All a!ong that toad,
the longe.t trunk line upon earth, there ar
rcat tracts of cultivable land and here and
there, not far from the road, are coal and
iron. That country will support a vatt
Population and It Is being as rapidly filled
s the Russians can push Immigration. It
Is now humming with commercial activity
The lands are being taken up, towns are
growing and there I. a great demand for
me kind -of goods we have to sell -
I have written how one Cape Cod boy
made a million dollars selling American
goods In Siberia when everything had to
be carried over the snow or on the rivers.
The American drummer of today can work
the same territory, spending hU nights In
the sleeping cars and eating his meals on
the trains, paying some of the lowest rail
road fares of the world. The people there
are making money and they are anxious to
buy The new factories will ne-d American
machinery. -the rivers ehould have Ameri
can bridges and there are already A-nerlcan
boats on Lake Baikal and other waterways.
The traffic over the Trans-Siberian is so
great that it requires a now track and
thero-ls room for heavy orders for steel
rails.
The Ruxstan provinces In western AsU
are now buying most of their goods from
Europe and coal oil from the Caspian sea.
Nevertheless there Is a chance for American
hardware, notions and cottons.
A step over the mountains and the great
wall brings us Into another trade field of
enormous proportions. The Ore iter China
has an era of 4.000.000 square miles and Its
people number 00.000,000; that Is, their coun
try U bigRor than ours, and there are five
Chinese to every American. They are more
Industrious than wa are and will work
from daylight until dark. Just now their
wages are about the lowest on earth, but
they spend well In proportion to what they
make, and, as China develops, they will be
among the best customers on earth.
The Chinese are now in the same position
Japan was about a generation ago, when
the foreign trade there amounted to a
dollar a head. Since then the Japanese
have Increased their purchases sevenfold
and the same will be true of the Chinese.
The foreign commerce now amounts to
more than $300,000,000 a year and with this
growth It will then be more than $2,000,000.
00 a year, or more than the present trade
of all Asia.
China offers a big field for American food
stuffs. The land Is often looked upon as
ne of rice and rats, It being supposed that
rice la on of the cheapest foods upon earth.
MAKING BOARDS IN JAPAN.
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This Is not so. " There are millions In China
who cannot afford rice. The northern' Chi
nese live largely on millet and other grains
not so expensive to grow. They would eat
Indian corn and when the Panama canil
Is completed there will probably be a great
fleet carrying out corn to Asia. China has
large wheat fields, but It cannot supply the
demand for flour and of late It has begun to
Import from the Unitrf States. We are now
annually exporting about 60 0.0.COO pounds
of flour to China. The flour is packed In
cloth sacks of fifty pounds each and taken
across the Paclno at a cost of $1 per ton.
Flour mills like ours have been put up at
Shanghai and at several ports along the
Tangtse Klang, and they are grinding Chi
nese wheat by the roller patent process.
The machinery of these mills came from
Milwaukee and Americans were sent ever
to show the Chinese how to use them.
We already send canned gocos to China
and our fruits and relishes are making their
way among the rich. The better class Chi
nese spend much on their stomachs. Din
ners of twenty courses are not uncommon
and I have eaten soup at a Chines? banquet
which cost, I was told, $2 a plate. There
are Chinese in all the larger ltles whase
living expenses are $10,0(0 and upwatd a
year and there Is a demand for all soria
of luxuries.
One of our chief exports to China Is cotton
goods. The poorer classes . dress In cottons
and there are about 35,000,000 people there
who need a new cotton suit every year. As
It Is now we have the bulk, of the north
ern trade and especially that of Manchuria
and Mongolia. Our cottons are heav er
than the Engllrh or German cottons ard
they are In demand on account of the cold
climate. Further south lighter goods are
worn and there the English have the
preference. There Is no reason why we
should not capture that market as well. In
deed It would pay the owners of cur c t'on
mills to send agents to China to study the
wants of the people.
Within the past few years the Chinese
have been spinning and weaving all sorts
of cloth. There are now more than four
great cotton mills In the country, which
make about 60.000.000 pounds of cotton
annually. Some of these mills are at
Shanghai. They are equipped with
machinery as good as our own. They
have foreign managers, but the worfmea
A STREET IN BOMBAT.
are all natives, who are paid bat a few
cents a day. - -
There will be a big demand for railroad
materials and mining machinery In the
development of China. That empire has
the greatest coal fields of the globe. Bhansl,
a state as big as Illinois, on the edge of
Mongolia, is underlaid with coal. It was
anthracite beds greater than those of Penn
sylvania and thousands of square miles of
bltumnous veins. There is Iron close to
the coal, and a manufacturing Industry
will spring up there. This country 'has
been ceded to the Pckin syndicate and it
Is to be worked In connection with the
English and Italians. There Is coal In all
the other provinces and In many iron
as well. There will be a demand for coal
mining machinery, diamond drills and
also for timber.
The railroad era In China has Just begun,
only a few hundred miles of track having
been built. Roads are now projected
throughout the busiest parts of the empire.
One of the best concessions Is owned by
an American syndicate and has been sur
veyed by American engineers. This is a
line which will eventually connect Hankow
and Canton. Each of these cities has more
than 1,000,000 inhabitants, and the coun
try between them has 100,000,000. The
distance is about as great as from New
York to Chlcsgo, and it la estimated that
the road can be built fur $30,000,000.
An extension of this line owned by the
Belgians is projected from Hankow to
Pvkln! This U partially built. There are
a number of other roads planned or In
course of construction, so that the demand
for steel rails and all sorts of railway ma
terials will be great. Millions of ties are
needed, and an enormous number of
bridges, as much of the country is cut
up by canals. Ihe ties and bridge timber
could be furnished by the Philippine
Islands.
The Jap 'nose are now among our best
customers. They had practically no for
eign trode a gene-ation ago. but they now
buy and sell to the' extent of $600,000,000 a
year. Their purchases of foreign goods
amount to $2(0.000.000. and one-sevenlh of
them come from the Unite! States. Brltlah
-India set's Japan as much as we do and
Great Biltan more. Germany and China
rank about even, but both are far be Mad
the United States.
During a visit to Tokio some years ago
I talked with the premier. Count It, about
the chances for American enterprises
there. He said that the trade with the
United States would Increase and suggested
that Americans should establish factories
In Japan to supply the Chinese market.
He said that property would be safer thera
than In China and that the labor could be
handled much better. As an evidence of
the growth of manufacturing he said that
twenty years ago the Japanese spinning
was all done on old-fashioned wheels and
by hand. It is now porfonmed with the
best of modern machinery,
Japan has now sixty cotton mills, in
wh.'ch 70,0:o hands are employed. There
are more than 50,000 women at work In the
factories. A large number of machine
shops have been estab.'lshed and all sorts
of work Is done In Iron and steel.
The Japanese make their own war ma
terlals. They have their own navy yards
and railroad shops. They buy our pneu
matic tools and e'.ectiloal material. They
are grinding American wheat In their flour
mlllj, which are equipped with American
machinery. They are al33 using type
wtl'ers, tlcycles and other small machines
of our make.
The Japanese are growing rich. They
have banks everywhere with heavy de
posit. One of their statisticians estimates
the present wraith of the country at about
$8,000,000,000, whlth Is an enormous sum for
an Asiatic land of that sise.
Our connections with Japan and Chtna
are steadily Improving. When I first
crossed the Pacific, about fourteen years
ago. there were only two steamship lines.
There are now about five times that many,
and two of the lines belong to the Japa
nese. You can get ships from Ban Fran
cisco, Portland, Tacoma and Vancouver for
Yokohama, Shanghai and. Hong Kong, and
there are also steamers from San Diego,
Cal., sailing at Irregular Intervals to the
same ports. Two of the biggest ships of
the world are Just about ready to make
their first voyages across the Pacific. Thoa
are the Minnesota and Dakota, built by
the Great Northern railroad to accommo
date Its transpacific trade. They have each
a displacement of 18,000 tons, and can carry
230.000 barrels of flour. The Dakota la 14,001
tons bigger than the Great Eastern aia
"VntlaueJ ou Page Sir teen.)
A.
