The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-11-30

A3ul al IL AOA 10
the United States-The Beginning
Of an Industry Which May Hustle
the Steel Trust.
Copyright, 1909, by Frank G.. Car
penter.l
HANKOW. 1909.
write of the biggest steel plant on
the mainland Of the Asiatic continent.
1t lies here at Hankow, in the interior
of China, seven hundred miles south
of Picking. and as far west Of the Pa
cihc as Cleveland Is west of the At
lantic. It is in the very heart of the
empire. accessible by water transpor-
tation to a population of over one
hundred Millions; and at a point
where railroads will eventually ON
verge as they do at Chicago. The
Iangtse Kiang is said to carry one
third of all the commerce Of China,
and by it the biggest acean steamers
can come right to these steel works
during the greate part of the year.
Boats from a half dozen different
provinces which contain Goa and iron
mines can reach it in any month Of
the twelve, and it's products car be
sent by water to the edge of Thibet
or on the Yangtse tributaries down
to Y%unnan. the great province which
borders or Burmah. Hankow, which
6IOJlIIS Ildi1 IduS, LII cduy HAS d
trunk line of railroad to Picking, and
others are projected to Marking and
Canton.
The Chicago of China.
Hankow has been called the Chi
cago of China. 1t will eventually be
the Pittsburg and Birmingham as
well. The smokestacks of its facto-
ries are already polluting the air. and
it has all the natural of a
oraaf industrial and act
center. It has coal and iron on all
Sides, and deposits Of limestone, al
most equal to Carrarra marble in
purity, lie in its back yard.
Take the ore which this steel plant
is now using. 1t from a solid
mountain of iron, about sixty miles
down the Yangtse. The company has
something like ~thirty-five square miles
of iron deposits, and upon this are
hills three hundred feet high. It is
estimated that more h 100000 0
tons are already in sight, and that
the which is now being
mined contains over 100000 09 tons.
The ore is Sc per cent pure. [ am
told it is 10 per cent better than our
best Lake Superior ore, and equal to
the highest grade Of iron of Sweden.
The coal which this steel plant uses
now comes from about two hundred
miles up the Yangtse, and its mines
are so situated that it can easily be
loaded and brought down by water.
1t makes excellent coke and there are
now about two hundred ovens on fire
at the mines. The present coal out
put is about fifteen tons daily: and.
with a little 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 mortgaged to
Japan by a longtime contract which
fI1rnfChaC IN V7yfOh ORC nar VoxlP Of a
low price per ton.
China's Steel City.
But let me tell you about the steel
of the Yangtse, in the city of Han
Yang. just west Of Hankow. being
separated from it by the river. There
are three great cities at this point.
Hankow, where I am writing, has a
population Of over a million. It is
the presnt terminus Of the Hankow-
Picking railroad; it is the chief tea
shipping city Of China, and is a great
industrial center. 1t is an open port,
and has several foreign concessions
inhabited by Europeans. On the OPP
posite bank of the Yangtse-Kiang,
chan@ another great Chinese city.
This is about half as big as Boston.
and covers a much greater space. It
IS the vic regal capital of Hupeh and
Hunan, two thriving industrial states,
both containing millions. Han Yang
extends far up the Yangtse above
Hanko, the three sister cities com
bined exceeding Chicago in size.
The steel plant lies on a strip OF
iowland at the junction Of the Han
and the Yangtse. Up to a few years
ago the ground on hich it stands was
a swamp, but III viceroy Chang Chi
Iung, having decided that China
ought to build it's own railroads and
make it's own steel. chose this as the
place. He was viceroy Of the Hulk
wang provinces at the time, and his
tapital city was Wuchang, which lies
~ PAIN sight across the Yangtse-
hlang. He first raised establishments