The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1900-03-24

PHILADELPHIA. Pa. March IA let
ter to the philadelphia Record under
date Of Hinghua. China. says:
The Empress Dowager is sorely in need
OF ready cash. She is trying to train and
equip an army and buy or build modern
feet. She has also been building for her
self a magnificent mausoleum, which has
already cost a fabulous sum. and which
she is said to have determined 10 make the
most costly monument ever built.
To meet these extraordinary and i'm
essary to resort to extreme measures.
Any civilized country would meet the
emergency with few additional taxes in
its budget, but China has no such modern
coEtrivance. and If she had she would not
know how 20 use IT,
The trouble with the Chinese taxes Is
that they are nearly all lost on the way to
Pekin. Formerly It did not make so
much difference. because the Imperial
Maritime Customs Service at the open
ports. conducted by foreigners for the Chi
nese Government. furnished regular and
ample income. All this has been mort
incurred by the japanese war indemnity
Of $l00, 900 600 in gold.
So her Imperial Highness is short Of pin
money. She has sent out fOraging party
in the person of an aged Manchu official
OF the ltra-COnservative type. who is call
ed kang vi. This gentleman now enjoys
the distinction OF being the best-hated and
mOst-feared man in the Empire He has
az least this virtue-he Is fulfilling 10 the
LOT he fTFz HHrrfs hi
tress.
He has already earned for himself The
title of Lord High Extortioner" He
spent a month in Shanghai, Marking ard
SOOchow, near the mouth OF the Yangtse.
and, IL is claimed on good authority,
increased the annual imperial revenues to
the amount of $1,jG0. 600 in gold. How
much his own private revenues have in
creased in the meantime is not yet mao
public.
His method has the merit of simplicity
at least, and II does not require a Sher-
man or Gladstone to conceive or 10
execute it. Upon arrival at a pro gincial
capital he at once begins ar irvestiga-
tion Of the probable income of each Off
oial. In a few days he submits to each
what sum he thinks he should ada to his
contribution to the imperial exchequer.
OF course. this suggestion is followed
By pleas Of poverty by the officer; but
In the end the unhappy official yields
for the present, at least. II the demand
Is really too great, and the victim re-
fuses. the throne is promptly memorial
lied that said official has been guilty OF
and in every case such
a report by the Lord High Extortloner is
followed by dismissal rom Office and. gen.
orally, degradation in ank, and sometimes
severer punishment.
For example. Shen Tun-ho. a Taotai
OF Shanghai educated at Cambridge. Eng
land. AID said to be one OF the abiest
and broadcast men in the empire. has been
not only eashiered but condemned 10 w-rlr
on the military roads His real crime was
that he had been too honest to amass suf-
hecient wealth TO buy of his tormentor
Doubtless the fact that he was progressive
and had seen the opposite side of the
world, which KaDg Vi firmly holds with AN
men OF his class to be fiat. tad sometime
to do with the determination to ruin this
able and honorable servant Of an nm
grateful Government.
Another source of revenue discovered by
this far-seeing political economist is re-
trenchment by closing Up the Government
military and science schools. An item of
S45. 900 gold annually was saved by this
plan at Marking. How many more Of these !