572 The National Geographic Magazine 



ling. They perhaps suggest the possi- 

 bility of a disturbance of values. It 

 does not follow, of course, that with 

 the production of $400,000,000 of gold 

 per annum the monetary stocks will be 

 increased by that amount. The uses of 

 gold in the domestic arts draw off at 

 least $75,000,000 a year, but that will 

 leave over $300,000,000 a year to add 

 to the gold reserves. 



While there will undoubtedly be a 

 tendency to advance prices as a result 

 of this influx of gold into the bank re- 

 serves of the world, I do not believe the 

 gold production is likely to become a 

 serious menace. I do not believe that 

 it will so disturb those business relations 

 that are based upon the terms of money 

 as to cause any vital derangement of 

 affairs. 



What I do believe is that there is 

 likely to follow just what followed in 

 the two former periods of the world's 

 history when there was an extraordi- 

 nary production of gold added to the 

 monetary stocks. One of these periods 

 followed the discovery of America, when 

 the treasures of Mexico and Peru were 

 exploited. The other was in the years 

 following the discovery of gold in Cali- 

 fornia and Australia. In each case a 

 mighty impulse was given to the ex- 

 ploitation of virgin fields of develop- 

 ment. 



It seems to me not improbable that 

 the next few years will witness the 

 expansion of the field of commercial 

 enterprise into new places. Countries 

 that are commercially and industriously 

 backward will yield to this new influ- 

 ence. It seems to me that one of the 

 direct and important effects of this great 

 production of gold will be to give an 

 impulse to the development and indus- 

 trial exploitation of South America, 

 Africa, Asia, and eastern Europe. At 

 our own hand is South America on 

 one side and China and Japan on the 

 other. We are rapidly awakening to 

 the commercial possibilities within these 

 countries. 



CHINA IS NOT OVERPOPULATED 



OUR minister to Peking, Mr W. W. 

 Rockhill, shares the view of Ad- 

 miral C. E. Clark, published in this 

 Magazine in June, 1905 (page 306), that 

 the population of China is greatly ex- 

 aggerated. The last official estimate, 

 that of 1885, which was made by the 

 Chinese board of revenue, gave 377,- 

 636, 198 as the population of the Empire. 

 Mr Rockhill believes that the popula- 

 tion does not exceed 275,000,000 at the 

 present time, and that probably it falls 

 considerably below this figure.* He 

 vouches for the fact that none of the 

 northern provinces are overpopulated, 

 and he is inclined to think that China 

 could support a much larger population 

 than it now has, which would be im- 

 possible if the number had reached the 

 enormous figure given by some imagi- 

 native writers. 



An Observer in the Philippines, or Life 



in Our New Possessions. By John 

 Bancroft Devins. Illustrated. Pp. 

 416. Boston, New York, Chicago: 

 American Tract Society, 1905- 

 The Philippine. Islands, By Fred. W. 

 Atkinson. Illustrated. 8vo, pp. 426. 

 Boston: Ginn & Co., 1905. 

 Our Philippine Problem. By Henry 

 Parker Willis. 8vo, pp. 478. New 

 York : Henry Holt & Co., 1905. 

 There has been a vast deal written 

 about the Philippine Islands in the past 

 five years, much of which is wrong and 

 some of which is false. Contradictory 

 statements abound, and the plain reader 

 is at his wits end to know what to ac- 

 cept and what to reject. Dr Devins, 

 the editor of the New York Observer, 

 spent two months in the Archipelago. 

 It was long enough to learn the situa- 

 tion, but by no means long enough to 

 understand it. The book is largely nar- 

 rative, describing with interesting detail 

 life on an army transport, on which the 



* Report of Secretary of Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution for 1904, page 675. 



