selves to equal, and, if possible, excel, the workers and artisans of the old civilized nations of the West.

"There are ten cotton mills running at Osaka, the combined capital of which is about $9,000,000 in gold, all fitted up with the latest machinery, and completely lighted by electricity. They are all under Japanese management, and, it is said, all paying handsome dividends—some as much as eighteen per cent on the invested capital. Out of $19,000,000 worth of cotton imported into Japan in 1894, the mills of Kobe and Osaka took and worked up about seventy-nine per cent."

A silver "yen" is now worth about 50 cents in gold. The Hon. P. Porter in the North American Review has an interesting article. We quote him in part.

The Japanese themselves do not hesitate to boast of their approaching triumph in the "industrial war." Mr. Porter says:

"When in Japan I had the pleasure of meeting, among other statesmen and officials, Mr. Kaneko, Vice-Minister of Agriculture and Commerce. I found him a man with intelligence and foresight, and of wide experience in economical and statistical matters. Educated in one of the great European universities, he is up to the spirit of in all that relates to Japan and her industrial and commercial future."

the age

Mr. Kaneko recently made a speech to a Chamber of Commerce, in which he said:

"The cotton spinners of Manchester (England) are

known to have said that while the Anglo-Saxons had passed through three generations before they became clever and apt hands for the spinning of cotton, the Japanese have acquired the necessary skill in this industry in ten years' time, and have now advanced to a stage where they surpass the Manchester people in skill."

A dispatch from San Francisco, dated Nov. 9, '96, says: "M. Oshima, technical director of the proposed steel works in Japan, and four Japanese engineers, arrived on the steamer Rio de Janeiro from Yokohama. They are on a tour of inspection of the great steel works of America and Europe, and are commissioned to buy a plant costing $2,000,000. They say they will buy just where they can buy the best and cheapest. The plant is to have a capacity of 100,000 tons. It will be built in the coal fields in Southern Japan, and both Martin and Bessemer steel are to be manufactured.

"Mr. Oshima said: 'We want to put our nation where it properly belongs, in the van, as a manufacturing nation. We will need a vast amount of steel and do not want to depend on any other country for it." "

Further evidence might be produced in abundance to establish the position taken, that when the next panic from over-production comes America will find no outlet. That foreign countries, instead of being markets, have entered the competitive field, and the over-crowded American markets will remain in a state of glut.

The desperate efforts of capitalists to find foreign and

domestice markets will be more desperate than ever, and likewise more futile.

How many people stop to think of the frenzied efforts made to get rid of product. Advertising is considered good business sense, yet in the long run it is a waste and loss to the commonwealth. It only gauges the desperate efforts put forth to get rid of product.

Geo. P. Rowell & Co., the largest advertising firm in the world, stated recently that there were many firms in New York that spent $1,000,000 a year each for advertising. A billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) would be a moderate estimate of the amount so spent in the United States each year. And all this is nearly dead loss to society.

Then, to recapitulate. In two ways are we making for the next panic..

First, by wild and reckless speculation-gambling, in fact-in the inflation of stocks and bonds to greatly exaggerated values, and by keeping the volume of money down to the lowest limit. The crash that follows such proceedings sometimes results in the most serious of panics.

Second, over-production, or under-consumption, which is inevitable under a system that only enables the people to buy back from one-seventh to one-fifth of what they produce. This latter way is the more deadly. It is more widespread and general, because the people cannot buy back the vast amount of goods they produce, and the outlet to foreign countries is rapidly being cut off.

The inevitable result follows that production must cease. And, of course, no work, no wages. No wages means no bread, no shelter, none of the necessities of life. In this condition people will not think or legislate. They will revolt.

CHAPTER XX.

FINIS.

How All the Elements of Destruction Are Being Mixed Like Deadly Chemicals-How and When the

Revolution Will Be Precipitated.

A dangerous joke is sometimes played on chemists and apothecaries. A prescription is sent to be compounded, which calls for a number of ingredients that will explode when mixed in certain proportions, and sometimes the chemist thoughtlessly or carelessly falls into the trap. Taken separately, these ingredients may not be dangerous, but to mix, pound and stir them up may develop an irresistible force.

To-day our Republic is in danger. On all sides have arisen dangerous and threatening elements. Their power for evil is increased many fold when taken together. If assailed by one or two evils, it may put down and survive them. This happened when slavery was abolished. It was met and overcome. However, now the Republic is assailed by a score of dangers from all sides. And, like the chemi