Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/212

204 hillsides, as I saw being done in places, they will set out forests, and arbor culture will be well suited to their patient ways. As yet they have worked their lands only with a view to home consumption; there are many ways in which they can devote them and their energies to furnish export articles for the imports they will buy.

The position of the United States in China is peculiarly advantageous, because, in the first place, China regards our country as friendly in the desire to protect rather than despoil her territory, and because, in the second place, other nations have been willing to see ours come forward when they would have objected most strenuously to the same advancement on the part of one of their own number. The men who guide our national affairs and foreign commerce should always see to it that China's confidence is not abused. But as for the friendliness of other nations toward us in relation to China, so soon as the pressure of American trade begins to be felt by them, efforts will be made to thwart it if possible; and it must be remembered that to-day all the machinery of commerce, in the way of banks, transportation companies, cable lines, and other forms, is in their hands. When the meeting of the American and European invasions takes place, unless we have an organization, a base and rallying point, a tangible something besides mere labels on boxes or bales as representing American force, the struggle will be a hard one, for the native is apt to judge his associates by the outward visible signs, and with a natural tendency to deal with the strongest. In this respect commerce in the Far East stands, and will stand for a long time, on a different footing from that of commerce in Europe.

In order to be thoroughly successful, to expand our trade far beyond its present boundaries, we should make a careful and intelligent study of the Chinaman in his tastes and habits. If we wish to sell him goods, we must make them of a form and kind that will please him and not necessarily ourselves. This is a fact too frequently overlooked by both the English and ourselves, but one of which the Germans, who may be our real competitors in the end, take advantage. For example, at the present moment, if a careful study were made of Chinese designs, the market for American printed goods could be largely broadened. It is not for our people to say that our designs are prettier; the Chinaman prefers his own, and he will not buy any other. The United States Minister to China, talking upon this subject, gave me a striking instance of foolish American obstinacy. The representative of a large concern manufacturing a staple article in hardware, let us say screws, had been working hard to secure an order for his screws, which he knew were better than the German article then supplying the demand. At last he obtained a trial order, amounting to $5,000, which he cabled out; but it was given on the condition that the screws be wrapped in