The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-10-16

i DRY of man, vet the FLOODED
/ Cinnamon of the south look upon the
/ Manchu dynasty as uSurperS, a condl-
! ton which is always resented whenever
! opportunity arises. The great TAPPING
! rebellion, which brought Ii Hung
/ Chang into prominence and placed Cen
era1 Gordon on the pedestal of fame,
was an enlarged evidence of the exist
! ing feeling. As a matter of fact, the
| followers OF the Mamchu clan were
afraid that were the riilroad construct
ed, it would provide IA opportunity for
hordes of rebels to fling themselves
suddenly on the imperial capital and
work great havoc, even if they did not
succeed in ousting the emperor. Per-
Sonally, the emperor has not felt so.
He has been consistently for progress,
but the power of the Tsung Ii Yamen,
or council, has restricted his radi-
cal efforts So, while some railroad
concessions were made in the empire.
and While England and Russia have
commended alternately for privileges
which would favor the one or the other,
there has, until the present year, been
granted no railroad concession which
aspires to tap the country in a way to
bring all of its wonderful resources
within easy reach of the civilized
world.
HOW THE FRANCHISE WAS WON.
Early in the present year ex-senator
Calvin S. Brice, who was associated
with the previous railroad scheme, and
Frederick P. OlcOtt, president of the
Central Trust company, came together
with the diea of rejuvenating the
proposition of a Chinese railroad fran
chise. They felt that the old project
had been abandoned prematurely; that
at least the situation might now be re-
viewed and placed before the Chinese
government through the medium of the
Chinese minister in Washington, WI
Ting Fang, much Travelled, well edu-
Gated and altogether well intentioned
official. In conjunction with Thurlow
Weed Barnes they began a, series of
communications with the Chinese gov
eminent, which were meant to prepare
the way for more extended negotiations
later on. These first communications
were carried on by cable and cost Leo
word. Thousands Of dollars were
spent in this way before an imperial
edict was obtained from the throne
authorizing the Chinese minister. WI
Ting Fang, to act as agent, and to
treat with the American company Mr.
Barnes, who engineered most of these
negotiations, tells the following story
Of how the great franchise was OBJ
tanned, and how the emperor of China
ratified it by cable:
BARNES TELLS OF NEGOTIATIONS
Il began operations for the new COM
pany last March. At first we cabled all
our communications straight to the
Chinese capital, but after we spent
thousands of dollars for mistakes in
transmission we concluded to adopt an
other plan L succeeded in obtaining
from the throne an imperial edict
which was sanctioned by the Chinese
parliament, and by his excellency.
Sheng Ia Jen, authorizing Minister WI
Ting Fang to act for his government
and vesting in him imperial power to
close a contract. I found his excel
lency, WI, most accomplished gentle
man, with wide experience of affairs
and like most Cinnamon, an extremely
good business man, abundantly able to
make a conservative and careful con-
tract. I visited him eight or ten times
while we took up the matter of conces-
sions and discussed informally the lines
on which a contract might be negotiat-
ed The minister received some sug-
gestions from his government, but only
in a very general way, as a sort of |
framework to go upon, the wording and
minutiae of the business being left to |
his own discretion and judgment. Dur
ing prolonged negotiations we came |
nearer and nearer to the point of set |
and incidentally gained a bet |
ter appreciation of the oriental charac-