The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-28
Hang Yang Iron Works
BY FRANK 0. CARPENTER.

WRITE of the biggest steel plant on the mainland of the Asiatic continent. \ It lies here at Hankow, in the inte- r,or of China, TOO miles south of Pekin. and as far west of the Pacific as Cleve- land is west of the Atlantic. It is in the very heart of the empire, accessible by | water transportation to population of | over 100, ,0Oo. 900, and at a point where rail- | roads will eventually converge as they |, do at Chicago The Yangtse Kiang is | said to carry one-third of all the com merce of China, and by it the biggest ocean steamship can come right to these steel works during the greater part of the year. Boats from a half dozen different provinces which contain coal and iron mines can reach 1t in any month of the 12, and it's products can be sent by water to the edge of Thibet, on the Yangtse tributaries down to Yunnan, the great province which borders on Burmah. Han kow, which aljoins Han Yang, already has a trunk line of railroad to Pekin. and others are projected to Ranking and Canton.
 The Chicago of China.
 HankoW has been called the Chicago or China. It will eventually be the Pitts burg and Birmingham as we'll The smokestacks of It's factories are already polluting the air. and 1t has all the nat urel resources of a great industrial ana manufacturing center. It has coal ana iron on all sides, and deposits of lime stone, almost equal to Cararra marble In purity, lie in it's back yard
 Take the ore which this steel plant IS now using. It comes from a solid noun tain of iron about 50 miles down the Yangtse. The company has something l u square mics of iron deposits, ana upon this are hills 300 feet high. It is estimated that more than 250OOO,0OO tons are already in sight, and that the noun tain which Is now being mined contains , over 150000,000 tons. The ore is 66 per cent pure. I am told 1t Is 10 per cent pet ter than our best Lake Superior ore, ana equal to the highest grade of iron or Sweden.
 The coal which the steel plant uses now comes from about 200 miles up the Yangtse, and its mines are so situated that it can easily be loaded and brought down by water. It makes excellent coke and there are now about 200 ovens on fire at the mines. The present coal out put is about 15 tons daily, and with lit tie extra machinery, this can be increased to three thousand tons. Both the coal and iron deposits belong to the steel company, although the iron mines have been mort gagged to Japan by a longtime contract which furnishes so much ore per year ae low price per ton
 China's Steel City.
 But let me tell you about the steel plant itself. It lies on the north bank of the Yangtse, in the city of Han Yang, just west of Hankow, being separated from 1t by the Han river. There are three great cities at this point. Hankow, where I am writing, has population or over a million. It is the present termi-
 JaIrf fxx rotl the chief tea-shipping city of China, and is great industrial center. It is an c~-o nort and has several foreign con sessions inhabited by Europeans. on h.. .,,Jpos.te bank of the Yangtse- hlang' which Is here a mile wide. Is Wuchant, another great Chinese city. This Is about half as big as Boston and covers much greater space. It is the vice regal cap ital of Hupeh and Human. two thriving industrial states, both containing mil lions. Han Yang extends far up the Yangtse above Hankow. the three sister cities combined exceeding Chicago In size
 The steel plant lies on strip or low land at the Junction of the Han and the Yangtse. Up to few years ago the ground on which 1t stands was a swamp, but the viceroy, Chang Chi Tung, nav ing decided that China ought to build US own railroads and make it's own steel chose this as the place. He was viceroy
 
 and his capital city was Wuchang, which lies in plain sight across the Yangtse- Kiang. He first raised entertainments to keep out the water, and then nlled up the several hundred acres of swamp until he had raised the whole area IA rect. m this work the dirt and other materials were carried in by coolies in little shovel like baskets slung to the ends of poles on their shoulders Basket by basket they laid the foundation, and now no ono would imagine that the ground had ever been anything but solid. It IS covered with great factories and foundries, ana there are smokestacks 150 feet high ris- ing upoh 1t.
 Indeed Han Yang reminds me of Pitts burg. Its mighty chinlneys, vomiting smoke stand out against the sky, and US huge foundries and blast furnaces can pe seen for miles up and down the fanstse river Altogether the works cover anoue 12 acres. and, including the mines wnicn VI, ona supply them, they employ force Of W,ooo hands. There are about 400o hands In the steel plant itself, and several thousand more in an armory and gunworks max ing rifles, artillery and small arms con nected with 1t. Then Han Yang has a smokeless power factory, a large eieotrlo works and a military academy which has 1000 students. It takes about three hours steady walking to go through the various establishments
 Owned and Run by Chinese.
 All these works arc owned and run by Chinese Of the 10000 employees in the steel plant and mines. there are only twenty Europeans, and they act merely as foremen and advisory direc- tors. As I have said, the works were originated by Chang Chi Tung, and that as goverinment enterprise. That fe- nous viceroy had memorialized the throne that it should not be dependent upon foreigners, but should build its own railroads and make its own rails. The late emperor, Kwang-Su, and the great dowager consented to this and directed Chang Chi Tung to go ahead and carry out his ideas. He did so, but 1t was at a great expense and enormous loss. He sank millions. and was up to his eyes in debt. when the works were turned over to Sheng Kung Pao, China's multi-mil- lionaire Sheng bought them of the gov ernment and although he has nominally given them over to stock company with a capital of S15 900 or SO, he is still practically their owner.
 Sheng Kung Pao lives at Shanghai. but ls has able assistants here in the per sons of V. K. Lee, V. T. Tsang and Wang Rok Shan, all business Chinese, who have been brought up in the works. MT Lee, the manager, Is a native Of Suchow. He was sent abroad to study the iron and steel plants of Europe and America. and from there brought back the plans upon which the plant was re- ]