Thursday, February 13, 1992
Thank
by Tom Strunk
Once again, last week,
Japanese officials took time
out of their busy schedules to
reiterate their claim that
Americans are lazy and
illiterate.
America's responses to
these accusations have been
mostly anti-Japanese
sentiments, charged with a
vow to 'Buy American.'
I would also like to say
two words to the Japanese:
'thank you.' Thank you for
analyzing our domestic
situation better than any
American politician,
economist or auto executive.
Now, you might try to
defend our country by crying
that the Japanese do not play
by all the rules. You could
also argue that American
workers do their best, and
that they are treated better and
get paid more than others. I
am sure that the economic
explanations are endless.
Perhaps, the answer to our
problems does not lie in
economics, but rather in our
priorities and lifestyles.
We need to look truthfully
at ourselves and question the
Like trade, golf is
by Mike Royko
The executive from the Ben
Hogan golf club company was
indignant. And maybe he had
reason to be.
He had just read a column
about the "Buy American”
crusade in which I said it was
difficult to know which products
are really American.
1 had given a number of
examples, including these two
paragraphs:
"Maybe you are a golfer
planning on buying a new set of
clubs this spring. But only a
couple of American-owned
companies remain. 'Ben Hogan'
might be stamped on it, but the
company is owned by some
sushi-eater.
"So you seek out those
American-owned companies and
buy their clubs, and you will be
able to say you buy American,
right? Not really, because all they
do here is assemble shafts and
club heads they buy overseas."
The Hogan exec thought I was
misleading readers (and patriotic,
potential golf-club customers).
True, Hogan is owned by
Cosmo World, a giant Japanese
corporation.
But as the executive said: "We
make our clubs here," meaning
Texas, U.S.A. And he added: "We
buy our forgings from a Chicago
Company."
Which is true, because I also
heard from the Chicago company,
Cornell Forging. The president
validity of Japan's claims.
Contrary to Japan’s claims,
we would like to think of
ourselves as hard working
and educated.
But are we? Is American
society improving? Are our
schools educating better
students today than they were
yesterday? Is our government
running smoothly and
efficiently? Is drug use
declining?
The answer to these
questions and a thousand
more is no. America is on the
verge of decay and decline.
We have failed ourselves
continually by dealing with
our problems in a manner that
is designed for the quick fix.
We have become too busy
to take care of our problems
properly. America's work
ethic has become nothing
more than a desire to get the
job done with the least
inconvenience to ourselves.
Our priorities are simple:
having fun and spending
money. These are matched by
Japan's priorities of working
hard and saving.
These practices have
resulted in a failure to invest 1
in our future. In the past fifty
expressed pride in his long
relationship with the Hogan
company.
So I was wrong, right? Well,
not really. All I said was that the
Hogan company is owned by the
Japanese. And that's entirely
correct. Japan is where the
profits will wind up.
But the Hogan executive had a
point. The heads on the highly
regarded Hogan irons, which are
the company's main product,
begin life in Chicago, produced
by Americans working for an
American-owned company.
The forgings are then finished
at the Hogan company by
American workers.
So we can say that while the
company is owned by the
Japanese, the product is
American.
Well, that's not entirely true,
either. After the executive called,
I became curious.
A golf club also has a shaft.
Most of Hogan's shafts are made
by True Temper Sports, which is
owned by Black & Decker, which
is an American company.
That's good, if you believe in
buying American.
However, Hogan also offers
clubs with shafts that are made of
graphite. And it turns out that
those shafts come from United
Sports Technologies, Dallas,
which is owned by Olympic Co.
Ltd. of Japan.
An executive at United Sports
Technologies said: "Our shafts
are manufactured in Japan and
The Collegian
You,
years the Japanese have
realized the fruits of rigorous
education and hard work.
During the same period
America has been blessed not
only with unprecedented
growth, but also cursed by a
false sense of invulnerability.
And today the future has
arrived. Japan's hard work
has paid off, as they have
eclipsed any advantage we
had over them. In America
we are now seeing the
excesses of the past catching
up with us. Our economic
superiority has vanished and
our once unquestioned
educational superiority is a
an international game
finished here. We basically apply
paint coats and the logo and the
graphics to the shaft"
So that means that if you buy
the Hogan forged irons with
metal shafts, you'll get a product
entirely made by Americans,
although the company is owned
by the Japanese. (The grips are
made here by an American
company.)
But if you prefer graphite
Y. ~g "..ti11,.,'
ri:
shafts on your irons, only the
head and grips will be made by
American workers; the shafts
come from Japan. However, they*
are polished by American
workers.
So that's that. Almost.
Hogan also makes woods,
although most modem woods are
made of metal, which means they
are metal woods. That doesn't
make sense, but neither does
golf.
Anyway, the metal-wood
Japan
When we look at our
education system, is there any
wonder that we are now
falling behind the Japanese?
The average Japanese student
spends forty-two hours a
week in school. The average
American spends twenty-six
hours a week in school.
Also the Japanese student
devotes nineteen hours a
week to studying. While their
American counterpart only
donates four hours a week to
studying. With disparities
such as these, it will be nearly
impossible for America to
compete in the future.
So what do we do? We let
our politicians cut education
funds and then we re-elect
them. The American voter has
failed to detect the
relationship between voter
apathy and political failure.
Most years voter participation
goes down and discontent
rises. So do our domestic
woes. We need to let the
politicians know that
education is our top priority.
We can only hope that the
rude accusations made by the
Japanese will result in a
strong commitment to solve
heads are made by a company
called Cast Alloys in California.
It is American-owned. So if you
buy a Hogan metal wood, you are
getting an American product,
right? Well, almost.
The company makes the
heads, but then it ships them
across the border to Tijuana,
Mexico, where the polishing is
done. The polishing must be
important, since the Mexican
plant has 350 workers, while the
American plant has only 150.
Then there are the shafts. If
your Hogan driver has a
traditional metal shaft, you will
have received a 100 percent
American shaft. (Why does that
sound like a political statement?)
But if you prefer the higher
tech graphite shaft, it will come
from Japan and be finished off by
Americans. In which case, you
will have a club taht has an
American-made head, polished by
Mexicans, with the shaft coming
from Japan, although finished by
Americans. And the profits will
go to Japanese tycoons.
Are you still there? And you
understand? No? My advice is,
take up bowling.
What surprises me is that I
heard from the Hogan executive
but not from anybody at another
golf company, Karsten
Manufacturing Corp.
As most golfers know,
Karsten makes clubs called Ping.
The name sounds like it might be
Asiatic. ("I am Ping. This is
Wong.") But it's an American
our domestic problems.
We have spent the last fifty
years fighting communism
around the globe. We have
won and that challenge has
been met. I
Now we need to take care
of ourselves rather than other
nations. We must start
working together to eliminate
our domestic failures, while
realizing that the results will
not be seen today or
tomorrow. The time to
question our convictions and
priorities has been forced
- upon us by a foe that will not
wait.
So if we somehow turn
ourselves around we owe it
all to the Japanese fof rapping
us on the shoulder and
reminding us that we are no
longer alone atop the world,
and that no one can stay there
without facing facts and
working very hard.
Tom Strunk is a fourth
semester history major. His
column appears every other
week in The Collegian.
company, founded by a
mechanically-inclined hacker
named Karsten Solheim, who
thought he could make a better
club in his garage. He did. An
ugly thing it was. But Karsten is
now the biggest club maker in
America, probably the world.
Basically, I was right about
the Hogan company because all I
said was that it was owned by the
Japanese.
But then I wrote that all the
American-owned companies do is
buy foreign parts and assemble
them here. Wrong, wrong,
wrong.
That's what most American
owned golf companies do. But
not Ping. As they will tell you,
if you ask, they produce all of
their own stuff. In fact, they ship
clubs all over the globe. That
helps reduce our trade deficit,
which is a patriotic thing to do.
More important, it puts golf
clubs in the hands of foreigners.
And if enough of them play the
game, they, too, will become
potbellied idlers, wearing foolish
looking clothes and drowning the
memories of their miserable
scores in the clubhouse bar.
And that is known as fair
trade.
Mike Royko is a Chicago
based, nationally syndicated
columnist. His column appears
weekly in The Collegian.
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