March 24, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



451 



that in China the 'iron road' has not yet 

 become a household word. Foreign ob- 

 servers who have but a superficial view of 

 the subject do not hesitate to attribute the 

 cause of this to the superstition, ignorance, 

 prejudice, and what not, of the Chinese 

 people. In my opinion there are two 

 fundamental causes back of this, the one 

 financial and the other political. If we 

 bear in mind that the construction of every 

 mile of railroad costs upwards of $10,000, 

 we can well imagine the financial diffi- 

 culties with which we are confronted in the 

 construction of a complete system of rail- 

 roads. Moreover, the heavy indemnities 

 and exactions Avhich have been wrung from 

 us by the foreign powers at different 

 periods since the Opium War of 1841 up 

 to the Boxer uprising of 1900 have almost 

 exhausted our resources, and have con- 

 sequently increased the difficulties of our 

 problem. Again, railroading is more than 

 a mere economic undertaking; it has polit- 

 ical as well as strategic importance. The 

 main objection which has been urged by 

 the high officials against the adoption of 

 railroads is that as long as China is not 

 strong enough to defend herself against 

 foreign aggressions, the presence of rail- 

 ways would be a constant menace to the 

 safety of the country. If we read the 

 Chinese state papers on the subject, we shall 

 notice that the problem has been somewhat 

 overestimated in its political and strategic 

 importance, and underestimated in its eco- 

 nomic and commercial aspects. 



To Li Hung Chang is usually given the 

 credit for the construction of the first 

 permanent railway in China in connection 

 with the Kiping coal mines, eighty-four 

 miles northeast of Tientsin ; but the credit 

 is justly due to a subordinate official, Mr. 

 Tong King Shing, the pioneer of the intro- 

 duction of modern improvements into 

 China. 



After the Chino-Japanese War of 1896, 



the idea of constructing railroads exclu- 

 sively with Chinese capital was abandoned 

 as being impracticable, and in March of 

 that year an Imperial Edict was issued en- 

 couraging the construction of railroads, and 

 in October, an official of high rank, Sheng 

 Sun Hawai, was appointed Director-Gen- 

 eral of Railroads with full power to raise 

 foreign loans. This was the beginning of 

 the period of 'concessions.' 



Within the past few years 'railroad con- 

 cessions ' covering about 5,000 miles of rail- 

 way lines have been granted to different 

 sj^ndieates, the largest of which is the 

 Belgian. These 'concessions' provide that 

 the ownership in the railways ultimately 

 reverts to the Chinese government. Con- 

 cessions are really contracts between the 

 native company of Chinese railways and 

 the foreign syndicates. 



Can the South Manufacture Her Own 

 Cotton? Charles Lee Raper, Univer- 

 sity of North Carolina. 

 Slavery was a decided hindrance to the 

 highest industrial development, ju*t as the 

 free negro and the free negro's ghost in 

 politics are obstacles to present industrial 

 progress. 



The new south is not largely a product 

 of outside energy and capital, but is a 

 revival and continuation of the old life; 

 she is a product of the ability of the south- 

 ern white man working under neAv condi- 

 tions. Though the new south is still far 

 behind the north in wealth and industrial 

 activity, the first twenty years of her life 

 saw more remarkable progress than any 

 other section of this extensive country. 



General statistics are not all the evidence 

 that goes to the support of the conviction 

 that this section can become the world 

 center of the manufacture of cotton goods. 

 There is much in the general situation to 

 which statistics can not give adequate ex- 

 pression. Climate, lack ci damagin^■ frost, 



