The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-02
Jhe eJ1orm Center Of the G)ortd
BY DR.. r. WARREN coNANT.

be drilled to move like a machine, fed
with a handful of rice, paid with a few
cents, and require no baggage or equip
ment except rifles and ammunition. The
latter they will quickly learn to use to
perfection. for they are naturally inn
itative and ingenious.
Against such numbers the armies which
the European nations maintain at sui
cidal cost will be powerless. The ques-
ton of the near future will be, not what
is Europe going to do with China but
what will China do with the world? 1t
is not impossible that eyes now living
shall behold that great and dreadful Cay
OF Armageddon, the day when the kings
of the whole earth shall go forth to bat
tie. In any event the United States will
reap the fruit of it's wise and righteous
policy of refusing to be a party to the
spoilation of China.
The first step toward an adequate I'M
Outstanding of this new eastern question
is to realize that China is land of mag
nificent distances and statistics. So ac-
customed are we to thinking of ourselves
as the biggest thing on earth that it
comes as a. kind of shock to be told that
in many respects the Chinese can out
class This inaccurate view is doubt
less due in large measure also to the
fact that our maps give to the United
nence than to Asia.
Now the fact is that the Chinese en-
pre- is more than one and half times
the United States or the whole of Europe.
OF course it is not possible to obtain eX-
act figures on SO vast a subject, but The
area is estimated to be about 100000
square miles
The distance around the Chinese empire
is 14,000 miles. Although the ocean wash
es it on the eastern side only its coast
line is about equal to our own, being 4,40O
miles. The Great Dragon could swallow
us without any Indigestion, for they are
five to our one. In age they regard us as
the merest parvenus, claiming with char
acteristic modesty that the Chinese al
! ways have been and always will be!
They have river almost, if not quite,
| as long as our own boosted Mississippi,
the Yang Use Kiang being about 5000
| miles in length The Hoang Ho is 2,7OO
miles long. Every one has heard of
/ the great wall of China, about 1900 miles
| in length, but not every one knows that
| the Grand canal is twice as long as the
| Erie canal
| The internal commerce through the in
| Vulnerable waterways is enormous, and
| the tonnage of it is said to be greater
| than. that of all other nations combined.
! Several of the cities are said to have a
| million or more inhabitants, though that
| is difficult to determine with any ac-
| curacy. According to some accounts,
| Pelkin is the Oldest city in the world, out
| ranking even the Eternal city. The first
emperor of China is placed at 1900 B. c.
| At any rate Pekin resembles Rome in
| that the present city stands on the debris
| of several preceding cities.
/ The above figures are so large that they
| convey little definite idea to the mind
| but they are of valuable help in appre-
| ciating the yastness of the subject. For
| instance. it seemed last August as if the
| allied forces We're very slow in making
| ready to march to Pekin, but 1t is feces-
sary to realize the vast distances to be
! reckoned with. From Hongkong island
where the British colony is established,