The Irish standard., 1905-12-02
Like Our Own, it is a Land of Unlimited
Agricultural and of Every Other Kind
of Cultural Possibilities.
Il the World and of 1t, If We Are to Avoid
the So-Called Yellow Peril, All We
Have to Do is to Be Honest
copyright; 1905, by The Catholic AS

Copyright, 1905, by The Catholic AS (,
sociated Press.)
China is rapidly rising in import |
ance. AS the Western world learns |
more and more about it's people, their
past, present and prospective future,
it turns to it as to terra long incog-
nita, but, after all, as to a land fascin-
ating as a dream.
Lying in latitudes identical, many Of
them, with the latitudes of the United
States, it has hundreds Of geological
and climatic conditions similar to
those found here. In the first place it
is land of vast natural resources.
Nobody, not even China, knows the
Chinese empires wealth of coal, iron,
copper, gold, silver, etc. Richthofen,
the great German geographer, assured
his people that he had seen at least
225,000 square miles Of coal. In one
province alone he found $4,000 square
miles of anthracite, with seams, in
some places, forty feet thick. In an
other part of that same province he
found $4,000 square miles Of bitumin
Gus coal. What the $4,000 square miles
of anthracite may mean appears when
one is told that the anthracite of the
United States is limited to little
above 450 square miles, and the mines
have long been in operatiOn
China has a marvelously fertile soil.
Its loess or yellow lands are covered
year in and year out by nitrogenous
dust; dust filled with fertilizing
phosphates borne to it from the hills
of Asia by the winds of God. 1t is the
greatest tea producing country on
earth; it is the worlds greatest pro-
ducer of silk. 1t is the Flowery King
dom. 1t is land, like our own, of un-
limited agricultural horticultural, flor
icultural, agricultural, cericultural, and
ties. Cotton is grown successfully in
the south. For the $S5,0O0,000 worth
of cotton goods imported from the out
side world, particularly from England
and the United States, the empire pro-
duces $915,OOO,OOO worth at home on it's
hillside looms.
In measuring the empire we make
the foolish mistake of gauging it's
economic or industrial life by the size
of its foreign commerce. Suppose that
was made the measure Of our trade?
AS matter of fact the United States
does a business beyond $20,000,000, 900
a year in the lands lying between the
Atlantic and the Pacific, the Great
Lakes and the Gulf. It's foreign COM
merce, imports and exports, is only a
little more than two and one-half bill
lions. Now, I am not ready to claim
that China does anything like the
amount of business done in the United
States. What do claim is that the
empires internal trade is enormous. I
AXE the cotton trade and consumption
DR. the purpose of comparison. If it
an be increased to seven or eight dol
lars per capita the worlds work will
be wonderfully advanced.
Manufactures.
For thousands of years, in its homes,
China has been manufacturing all
kinds Of products. It had a daily pa
per before Christ was born, the Peking
Gazette. It had the compass, block
printing, silk weaving, gunpowder and
porcelain factories. It has had a sys-
tenn of morals, philosophy a liter
ature, and a national system Of educa-
tion as old as Assyria. What If it was
not like ours? AS workers in wool,
silk, cotton, and other textiles, the
Chinese long led all Eastern people.
The 225,00O of coal mines, the iron,
gold, silver, copper and other mines
will all have to be opened up. The
world wants, or will want, every ounce
of those minerals. But before they
can be successfully mined, even with
China's cheap labor, the world will
have to build many miles of railroad
On China, or nearly as many If not
more, than now network the United