CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES. 569 



careful estimate of Baron Richtofen, the famous German traveler and 

 jreolog-ist, the province of Shansi alone can supply the whole world, at 

 the present rate of consumption, for three thousand years. In most 

 cases beds of iron ore lie in close proximity to those of coal and can 

 hence be easily worked and smelted. In short, the natural resources 

 of China, both in variety and quantity, are so great that she stands 

 second to no other nation in potential wealth. To reduce this poten- 

 tiality to actuality is for her the most important question of the hour. 

 For this purpose she has an almost unlimited supply of labor at her 

 command. 



Every village can count its thousands of laborers, every city its tens 

 of thousands. Experience proves that the Chinese as all-round laborers 

 can easily distance all competitors. They are industrious, intelligent, 

 and orderly. They can work under conditions that would kill a man 

 of a less hardy race; in heat that would suit a salamander or in cold 

 that would please a polar bear, sustaining their energies through long 

 hours of unremitting toil with only a few bowls of rice. 



But have the Chinese sutficient capital to carry on their industrial 

 operations ? Thej^ are a nation of shopkeepers. What capital they 

 have is usuall}^ invested in small business ventures. It is their instinct 

 to avoid large enterprises. Thus the capital in the country, though 

 undoubtedly large, may be likened to a pile of sand on the beach. It 

 has great extent, but is so utterly lacking in cohesion that out of it no 

 lofty structure can be built. Before China can be really on the high 

 road to prosperity it must find means of fully utilizing every economic 

 advantage that it has. Modern methods are its greatest need. Here 

 is America's opportunity. 



The Yankee is never seen to better advantage than when experi- 

 menting with a new idea on a colossal scale. To direct vast or novel 

 enterprises is a perfectly new experience to the Chinaman. Give him 

 a junk and he will with ease ride out the fiercest typhoon that ever 

 lashed the seas. But give him an ocean leviathan of the present day, 

 with its complicated engines, dynamos, compasses, and other modern 

 appliances for navigating a ship, and he will be truly "all at sea" in 

 knowing how to handle it, even in a dead calm. 



Of all public works, China has most pressing need of railroads. 

 Only ten years ago it would have been difiicult to convince one man 

 in ten of the inunediate necessity for the introduction of railroads into 

 all the provinces of the Empire. To-day, at least nine out of ever.y ten 

 believe that railroads ought to be built as fast as possible. This com- 

 plete change of public opinion within so short a time shows perhaps 

 better than anything else how fast China is getting into the swing of 

 the world's forward movement. There are at present only about 400 

 miles of railroad open to traffic throughout the whole country, and all 

 the lines building and projected foot up to 5,000 or 0,000 miles more. 

 SM 1900 40 



