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Show kj. : "It Is To Laugh" Or Cry ! rANY American newspapers are still debat- , I J Yi in& whether the recent treaty between Rus- ' sla and Japan, relative to their capture of b Manchuria for capture is the proper word will 1 1 or will not interfere with the open-door policy I laid down by Secretary Hay. Neither the Rus- ,1 sian nor the Japanese, as a racer is much given f I to humor, but this earnest debate among Amer- lean newspapers must cause a smile in both em- 1 plres. I Both those governments insist that the policy of the open door has not been in the least changed by the treaty, and we can well believe m it. We will suppose that an American flour mer- m chant, confident that where he has a fair chance, K. ho can sell .his goods, loads a ship, say, in Port- ' ft land, Oregon, and ships It to Manchuria. Ho E ' finds the open door wide open, he has no obstruc- K tlons placed in his path; he gets his flour to its t destined port and offers it for sale. A friendly K Japanese merchant drops in, praises the quality fit of hiT flour, the way it is put up for a foreign 1 market, seems greatly pleased that the fine cargo W had arrived safely, and finally asked the price of H the flour. "When informed as to that, the smile & leaves his face and it is suddenly overspread with , m sadness. He fears he cannot purchase, and final- I wL ly asks the importer to go with him to his own store. Arrived there, he shows the American his t K stock of Manchurian flour, and informs him that I m he could send it to the coast, then freight it to ( W Portland, Oregon, and sell it there for 60 per W cent of what the American asks for his flour, 1 m and make a handsome profit. The same would a apply to cotton goods, woolen goods, wool, steel, i iron, coal and many more staples. Why, then, 1 need American editors worry whether the open door be kept open or not? The government of the United States has closed that door against its own people, by legislation as imbecile as It was wicked. With that legislation still in force, of what business concernment are affairs in Asia to our people? It Is clear enough that it is the intention of Russia and Japan to divide Manchuria between them. That will be the culmination fifteen fif-teen or twenty years hence, if all goes on as they have planned it. In the meantime they want peace, and the open door does not in the least concern them, for they can outtrade every generous gen-erous nation on earth on equal terms, but at present, without any effort on their part, the rate of Oriental exchange shuts out the exports of the United States from those countries as effectually ef-fectually as would an impenetrable blockade of their ports. |