THE SPECTATOR

It was a sunny, dusty day, but there was a good breeze, and the road was full of Indians in wagons and on horseback, all headed for the Sun Dance grounds, three miles away to the southwest. They were a gay crowd, for nearly all of them were decked with bright-colored handkerchiefs and ribbons. "Ask Charlie Lee,' said the Spectator's frontier friend, “what the Sun Dance is for, and he will say, 'Ah, just for good time!' and no other Indian interpreter will tell you anything more. But it means important things to all these Indians, or they wouldn't come from far and near and build this circle of trees and this camp and have all this complicated ceremonial. It is a medicine dance-it makes medicine.' And it has sun worship in it too. They hold it in these July days, just when the sun is in his strength, and when you see the deadly earnest of the dancing, you will realize that it means business. Look-there's the camp, and that's one of the old medicine poles."

A semicircle of tents lay on the flat meadow in the morning sun. In front of them was another semicircle of green arbors, made of sapling willows, which looked cool as well as highly picturesque. Here and there rose a gaunt, crotched pole thirty or forty feet high, with a formless bunch of brush in the crotch. "There are eagle feathers in the brush, and it is tied there securely," explained the Spectator's companion. "Each medi"Each medicine pole has been used as the center of a Sun Dance, and then left there as a memorial. Each year a new one is cut from the mountains. Last night the Indian men went up into the hills with songs and chants and chose a medicine pole, and other poles and trees to make an inclosure about it. To-day they will bring these up from where they have been guarded all night beside the stream, and then they will build the circle ready for the dance. Any one can see the dance by paying a quarter admission fee. It didn't use to be so, but now the Indians are willing to sell admission. But, though they may let you in, they will never tell you what any part of the ceremonial

But

means. You have to guess it out yourself, and unless you are a mind-reader you'll probably guess all wrong. The Indian isn't easy to puzzle out. Funny thing-these Utes, as a rule, have a language the trader can learn and use. when they talk among themselves, at the time of this dance, for instance, the trader can stand among them and not understand a word of what they are saying. They seem to have a different speech, of which no white interpreter ever gets the meaning. Friendly? Oh, yes, they're friendly enough. It isn't that. They fly the American flag, as you see, on their wickiups."

Sure enough, from some of the tents and arbors the flag was flying. Women sat at the doors finishing beaded moccasins and getting feather bonnets into fine trim. Soon the men, who had been lying asleep inside, came out fully dressed for the opening event of the dance-the sham battle, which was to take place a mile away, down by the nearest watercourse. They were a really gorgeous sight, about two hundred of them, with many chiefs among them. Their faces were painted, they wore brilliant feathers and beads, and their horses were likewise lavishly painted and decorated with fluttering ribbons bound into their manes. Three squaws rode among them, one in a wonderful beaded cape of blue beads sewn in patterns with white ones, and another, an older woman, with a cape made entirely of elks' teeth, which would have excited the cupidity of the whole united order of Elks. In a long, marching, wavering line of colorred, green, blue, and yellow-under the July sun, the procession undulated through the tufted sage-grass to the little river, and joined in tame sham battle about a small wickiup erected for the purpose to guard the poles that had been cut and brought thus far the day before.

firmly into the ground, and the rim of the wheel was formed by a wall of young trees -cottonwood, willow, and cedar-planted upright in the earth with their leaves on, making an inclosure of good size. As the sun set, a long procession of Indians, naked to the waist, barefoot, painted white and yellow and bronze, with loincloths and skirts of white, or of beads, or Navajo blankets, with their hair braided and hanging on their shoulders with feathers stuck in it, and tootling on queer little whistles made of eagle quills, marched solemnly around the inclosure, and then in at the gate. Then a canvas was stretched across the entrance, and a ticket-man placed there to admit the white audience-quite a few of them. While the Spectator lingered outside, first one and then a dozen of the dancers came out again, wrapped in blankets or in white sheets that covered them from head to foot. With their backs to the sunset they advanced toward an old medicine pole not far off, and fell on their knees, remaining there for some time. Then they marched back into the inclosure, and the Spectator followed to see what happened next.

All around one-half of the circular interior were seats for the audience. The other half was lined with tiny green willow booths, one for each dancer, where he could rest after his exertions. A single Indian was standing by the pole in the center, addressing the others—or the sun -in a chanting speech. An old squaw was aiding him by singing away at the top of her voice, and then the drums came in and completed the noise. After that another chant, much more solemn, was sung to the accompaniment of the little. eagle-quill whistles, which sounded like innumerable piping crickets. The Indian who stood by the pole now struck the earth with a fan of feathers, and then touched his bare breast and different parts of his body. "He's making medicine," whispered the Spectator's companion.

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The music rose, swayed, and changed. Sometimes it was martial, sometimes mournful, sometimes gay. The dancers had only one step-jumping with both

feet together, first forward, then backward, then forward again, each time a little nearer to the pole. When the pole was reached, the backward hop was made the longest, and the dancer thus gradually retired. It was a step that even a trained white dancer could hardly keep up five minutes, but these Indians never stopped. One after another joined in. The squaws, who sat close by the musicians, each holding a willow branch, took part only by chanting. Sometimes applause broke out, but no dancer appeared to heed it, for the eyes of each were kept firmly fixed on the pole. "Once started, they can neither eat nor drink," the Spectator was told, "and they usually keep at it for three days and nights. When they get too exhausted to stand, they can retire for a while and lie down in their booths. But it is a point of honor to dance every minute they can. Some say they hope to draw strength from the sun for the whole tribe, and to cure the sick. Others say it is to keep the sun from going away, and that it used to be held on the longest day of the year. See that fellow holding the wolfskin out in front of him and touching the pole with it, and then touching the boy? That's medicine,' and the boy certainly needs it, for he's far gone in consumption. That image tied up on the pole, just below the crotch, is the Sun God, some people think. But only the Indians know—and they keep their own counsel.”

Truly, it might have been Central Africa. The Indians, not content with the heat of the July night, had started a fire, which cast strange shadows upon orchestra, singing women, and dancers. The feathers tied to the fingers of the latter, "to keep the devils away," and the long rags. of cloth attached to the medicine pole for the same purpose, fluttered in the night wind. The shrill piping whistles gave an unearthly sound. The painted figures, dripping with sweat, kept up their mad, monotonous jump. But in the middle of it all one dancer jigged solemnly, with the black cord around his neck holding a large gold cross that shone in the mingled light of the fire and the moon. He wore the symbol ignorantly, but to the Spectator it had a meaning.

TH

HE Government at Washington announces that American exports to China have declined from a maximum of $58,600,000 in 1905 to $15,500,000, which is the estimated total value of exports during 1910.

The ledger thus shows that American trade in the Pacific has been routed. This is the striking comment of cold commercial history upon America's vaunted expansion in the Pacific, which, after the acquisition of the Philippines and with the prospect of the Panama Canal, it was prophesied would become, with its circle of nine hundred million people, "an American lake." During President Taft's candidacy for the Presidency, which was partly promoted on the basis of his statesmanship in the Orient, the decline in the importance of European affairs to America and the appreciation of the Pacific, as prophesied by William H. Seward in 1852, were confirmed. It was pointed out that Alaska was purchased from a desire that America should become the foremost of Pacific powers, and that Hawaii was acquired through the necessity of excluding foreign control from a commanding position in the midPacific. In 1908, when this was said, it had been for ten years the active policy of America to maintain for the benefit of future generations all outlets in the Pacific for American manufactures that could be commanded. It was recognized that any obstruction to American expansion and development in the Pacific would limit the American Nation in its influence and destiny. In the light of these facts, the condition of American trade in the Pacific suggests a commercial and political defeat.

A complete change has come over trade conditions in China. Previous to 1903 foreign goods were laid down on the seaboard docks in China, and, it might be said, left for the Chinese to carry away if they chose. At any rate, they were transferred by the foreign resident agent to the direction of Chinese managers, and the foreigner retired to his shooting-grounds,

I See an editorial elsewhere in this issue.-THE EDITORS.

his golf course, or his club. Now the foreign trader has been forced by competition to go into the highways and byways himself.

In 1909 the writer was on the Taiyuanfu road, in the province of Shansi, in the company of several foreign travelers, when a correspondent of a London newspaper, who had been fifteen years in eastern Asia, boasted that he had traveled over more of China than perhaps any other foreigner. A British "drummer " from Manchester, "traveling in pills," as the British say, took exception to this boast, and said that he would back the American inspector for British-American cigarettes, who had been only a few years in China, as the best traveled of the two. He had himself just come from the heart of Manchuria and was en route to Szechuan. A glance at the map will enable the reader to appreciate, with reference to the movements of these commercial men, the great change that has come over foreign trade methods in China. To-day over China's highways plod the consular official, compiling trade reports; the civilian trade inspector, as well as the foreign trader himself; and even the foreign itinerant vender hawking patent medicines, etc. In Manchuria foreign travelers are surprised to find Japanese hucksters. Even unadvanced Russia has come into trade conflict with China in Mongolia. It is an active question with England and Russia as to how to deal with the Japanese match trade in Tibet, while under the shadow of the Long White Mountain, on the Korean frontier, Osaka knives are contending with Solingen blades for the favor of the Yalu lumbermen.

In this new state of competition American trade has not discovered its true position. America, which had the flower of the Russo-Japanese War trade in 1905— in fact, an abnormal year-was the only country that did not then prepare for the post-bellum prosperity in the Far East foreseen by other nations, especially Japan, and prophesied by Count Okuma. American trade must admit that Japan and Germany have reaped the profit of

this prosperity, Great Britain has held her own, and America has fallen behind.

The story of the decline of American exports to China from the year 1905 is graphically pictured in the successive dropping in figures: first, roughly, fiftyeight millions to thirty millions, to twentythree millions, then to twenty-one millions, to nineteen millions, and now to fifteen millions, little more than a fourth of the maximum. Some idea of the fray is gained from the recent despatches of the American consular officials in China. specimen is as follows:

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Shanghai: In two years American cottons have decreased over 60 per cent; British increased 50 per cent; Japanese from 30 per cent in some lines, to fiftyseven and one-half times original sales. The American flour trade is negligible; Shanghai mills have captured the trade in all the regions between Shanghai and Hongkong.

Newchwang (Manchuria): American American cotton goods, previously found everywhere in Manchuria, have been replaced by Indian and Japanese.

Antung (Manchuria): American flour imports in 1908 were $305,127, in 1909 $73. The trade has been taken by Shanghai, Japanese, and Russian flour.

The consuls, on the other hand, report American flour making a good stand in the zone of Hongkong and southward. During the first six months of 1910 American kerosene conquered Sumatra oil in southern Manchuria. American oil is making a hard fight, showing an advance in quantity over last year of 29 per cent, but a decline in price of 12 per cent, a phenomenon due to the rate war now in progress between American oil interests and the oil producers of Russia, the Dutch Indies, and Japan. in the best light of interpretation the Government's reports from China must be bitter reading for the captains of American industry and the friends of trade expansion in the Pacific.

THE DECLINE

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The reasons for the decline of American trade with China are: first, that in all the more important lines, such as cottons, flour, and steel, sales and distributions are in the hands of foreigners and are left to

shift for themselves; and, second, American trade receives no assistance from the American Nation.

The Government's agents constantly emphasize the decline in American goods handled by "middlemen." The bulk of American trade which is thus handled may be called promiscuous. Although in volume the most important, it was, and is, at the mercy of all assailants. While the American Government has not yet taken measures adequate to protect America's trade in the Pacific, economic and political measures of other nations have dealt it the severe blow now realized through the Government's reports. America's maritime competitors first wisely subsidized their ships and then the European capitalistic powers secured large loans in China by which large volumes of trade were controlled. This movement, led by Great Britain and France and imitated by Germany, rapidly developed at the end of 1908. The fever for financing Chinese development at this time reached an absurd pitch. Its excesses, shown by the following incidents, illuminate the trade war in China. All the great war-ship builders and the constructors of military armament were expensively represented in Peking, ready to finance and build navies and armament for the Chinese Empire. The writer recently encountered one of these representatives, a veteran European naval constructor, in a street in New York City, dodging vehicles at a late hour at night. It was during the visit to America of Prince Tsai-Hsun, head of the Chinese Naval Department, whom he, along with others, was following. He said that competition for battle-ships and guns in Peking had become as acute as the problem of crossing a street in New York, and that in following the Prince he had escaped the meanest level which trade warfare had yet reached there. There was a regular traffic in stolen plans and estimates carried on by Chinese who had come into possession of them and were using them for blackmailing purposes. Torpedo-boat designs and training-ship drawings were being offered for sale by Chinese servants to their foreign masters, and a charge of blackmail had been filed in London courts against a member of the British Municipal Council at Shanghai

for complicity in an alleged attempt to blackmail English ship-builders to the extent of $2,000 demanded by Chinese for the restoration of a written proposal to finance and build a Chinese navy. A Jew had turned up in Peking with a Chinese official whose services in securing battleship orders he offered to sell for fifteen hundred pounds!

But successful financing of Chinese development is largely confined to rail ways. Germany, however, made a large investment in general commerce, in which her efforts were more strenuous, perhaps, than those of any other Power. She minutely and efficiently organized the entire commercial field of China by extending her official system, and her traders made what is now admitted to be a successful conquest of the market through extensive credits, although through trade congestion at Tientsin and other places the Germans are reported to have lost about twelve million dollars. This has been such a serious burden to German enterprise in China that an effort was made to get the Chinese Government to take the responsibility for this debt, but without success. The struggle for the Far Eastern market shown by these exploits has doubtless been all that printed reports have represented it to be.

One of the recurring statements in the American official reports accompanying details of the decline in the American trade is as follows: "At the same time Japanese goods show large increases, British stationary, etc." Of all those countries whose commerce with China is outstripping our own, the commerce of Japan is the most interesting, since it is most elaborately supported by subsidies, loans, and official encouragement. The exact place of Japan in the commercial and industrial life of eastern Asia is not yet to be accurately known, but it is well for American industry to remember that Japan's development has exceeded the expectations of the Japanese Government; specifically speaking, of the "War Cabinet," which contained such men as Marquis Ito, Count Inouye, Count Katsura, and others. The opponents of this Cabinet at the close of the Russo-Japanese War professed to believe in a great industrial and commercial expansion. The

results of this expansion have astonished the prophets. The American Government reports that Japan, with Manchurian coal, is successfully competing with the Chinese mines, and that Japanese flour-mills in Manchuria, financed by Government money loaned at four per cent, are meeting all competition. This touches the American flour trade, the losses in which are not compensated by the additional trade in American milling machinery extensively used in Manchuria. By the development of the Hokkaido and the Yalu River timber zones Japan also diminishes American timber export from the Pacific Coast. In 1907 the Japanese built certain kinds of rolling stock for the South Manchurian Railway of better finish and material at less cost than did American builders. Although Americans are great steel producers, Japan has even entered the war-ship competition. She built Prince Tsai-Hsun's naval yacht.

A great deal has been said in exaggeration of Japan's commercial importance, but her progress has some striking features. America has long had to accept terms laid down by Japan for shipping in the Pacific, as is shown by the long and painful record of losses on American Pacific liners. Japan built up a Bombay service that caused the British steamship lines to charge her with creating a monopoly of trade between India and the Far East. This was on account of the purchase of raw cotton and yarns in India by the Japanese cotton-spinners because of high prices of cotton in America, and the shipping of all cotton for Japan in Japanese steamers. But while India in her case lost only the carrying of the cotton, America, already deprived of the carrying trade, was also deprived of her cotton trade.

It is chiefly in cotton and mineral oils that American trade with China has declined. The falling off in cotton is attributed by the American Government to the fact that cotton production has recently been stimulated in China and that large. quantities of cotton yarn were secured from India owing to the advances in the prices. of American raw cotton. The latter reason is important because it relates to the rise of the Japanese cotton industries and Japanese invasion of the commerce and trade