The herald., 1896-06-07
SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 1896
RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT IN
CHINA

Railroad building in China has Of late
received great impetus, the government
having undertaken the construction of
several lines. Chinese capital is being
entirely employed In the work, but Eng
Iishmen have captured the engineering
jobs. Whether this railway activity is
part of the work of domestic develop
ment so freely predicted as the result
of the war with Japan is not certain.
but the probabilities are strong that it
is. That conflict aroused China from
the slumbering condition in which she
had lain for centuries, and the nature of
the outcome was such as to demonstrate
the necessity of recognizing and util-
izing the agencies of production which
the genius of the younger civilization
of other parts of the world has devised
1t is likely that one of the most impor-
tant of the practical problems unsuc-
cessfully encountered during the war
was the rapid and economical trans
portation of troops, and it is not at all
unreasonable to suppose that with
fairly efficient system of railway trans
portation connecting the densely popu-
lated interior of the empire with the
coast the japanese would have expert
enced much more difficulty in making a
conquest in fact, they might have found
victory quite impossible, for though the
armies of the mikado displayed a gal
lantry in battle and skill in tactics as
splendid as they were surprising, and
proved their ability to cope with vastly
superior forces, even valor and military
intelligence can be overwhelmed by
sheer numbers, and China is possessed
of resources of population beside which
those of Japan fade into insignifcance;
supplied with the requisite railway ia
cilities she could have made things de-
cidedly tiresome for the Japs,
! In the wake of railway building will
come other forms of development. The
agricultural and mineral resources of
the empire will be tested as never before
and with a numerous, cheaply working
and industrious people the fruits of the
exploitation of these resources may as
tonish the world In fact the intro
ductiou of railroads is bound to produce
effects in the interior of this vast un-
knoWn-to foreigners-that cannot be
less than revolutionary in character. for
the railroad is a great civilizer and a
wonderful eliminator of prejudces and
provincialisms; with it will come the
European and American capitalist, ira
der and promoter before whom the an
cient and nerveless elements of Chinese
social and industrial life must inevita-
bly, succumb.
AS to the railway projects actually in
hand the following from the London
Financial News is very interesting:
"A line from Canton to Pekin--a grand
trunk railway it is called-is referred TO
in Sir n. O'Connor's last published re-
port, and in that connection it is stated
that LII Huns Chang was establishing
large iron works at Marking, to supple
ment those already in existence at Han
yang, for the supply Of the material for
the Canton Pekin undertaking. Pekin
is the starting point of two of the three
new lines, which are described as con-
stituting railway program one would
run to Tientsin and its cost is to be a
charge on the finances of the province
Of Chilli. country Of nearly 80 900 square
miles. with a population of %. 600 OO0
\ second railway is authorized from
I>ekin to HankoW, on the Yangtze. at a
cost % nearly $4,000, 900; but the impe-
rial edct is that this line shall not be
built with public money. but out of the
sum the emperor's wealthy subjects are
disposed to invest in its construction in
the hope of future gain The third line
would run from Soochow to Shanghai, a
distance of sixty miles. Its estimated
cost Is 2, 000, 900 taels, ,and of the three this