Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/137

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The future of the Great West must be considered from two view points: (1) In its relation to the Asiatic countries and their trade; and (2) in its ability to support a large population. These will be taken up in their order.

Asia and Oceanica comprise an area of 21,262,718 square miles, and have a population of 847,000,000, or more than half that of the globe. Of this number, 435,000,000 are in China and its dependencies, Japan, Asiatic Russia and Corea. Asia, and the islands of the Pacific, annually buy from the world goods valued at $1,446,000,000 and sell to it goods of a value of $1,436,000,000, representing a total trade of $2,882,000,000. The United States will in time have a tremendous trade across the Pacific, although at present our proportion of the business is inconsiderable. In the year ended June 30, 1901, only 9.25 per cent of our foreign commerce was with Asia and Oceanica, of which 2.17 per cent was with the British East Indies; 2.09 per cent with Japan; 1.67 per cent with Chinese ports, and .37 with the Philippines. The new theatre of the world's activities is a virgin field, as little understood on our Pacific seaboard as on our Atlantic seaboard, for the exporters of both sections make the same mistakes in packing, and in long range dealing with the Oriental customer, to whom the first essential in trade is what our consular officers persistently pour into unwilling ears as the "look see," or the privilege of inspecting the commodity offered for sale, before buying it. These, however, are details of commercial organization which our exporters can be depended upon to settle on a satisfactory basis. The fear expressed in some quarters that the opening of Siberia by the completion of the great Russian railroad, and the consequent development of a region that will become a competitor of the United States in the trans-Pacific country, would appear