Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-21

money as it came due for building the
road, were Plerpont Morgan. John u;
Sage. George Gould, Jim Hill and the
Vanderbilts. With such names but little
real money was necessary. and the ROAD
could have been completed on credit Al
together about 5000 shares OF stock were
issued, and of these over 1900 were stlll
in the hands of the Americans when the
road was turned back to China.
According to the conditions. the Ameri-
cans were to survey the road at once ana
begin its construction They were to
push it rapidly forward to completion.
1t was also the understanding that tney
were not to sell the control or that con-
cesson to other nations. nor to allow
them to have much stock In It, 4hey
violated these conditions. They made an
incomplete survey and then built about
thirty miles of line and stopped. Later
on they sold 1000 shares of tie stock
to French banking house and con-
trolling interest to the Belgians. Much
of the Belgian stock was taken by King
Leopold who set about trying to gain
possession of the concession. His people
already owned much of the Hankow-
Picking road and, If he could nave Sc
cured the right to build into Canton, the
Belgians would have controlled the chief
trunk line of China. Worse than this,
it is generally believed here that the Bel.
gians were merely tools in the hands OF
the Russians, and the Chinese could not
afford to have the Russians own their
chief railroad. The result was that China,
upon hearing of the Belgian plans. de-
clared that it would have to annul the
concession or buy back the road.
y
This fact was communicated to Wash
!ngton and the American capitalists took
advantage of the situation. Pierpont Nor
gan, who was disgruntled at some treach-
financial tr9nSa ntiOOS which King
Leopold had had with him, forced the lat
ter to sell his stock back to the American
company; and the king, not suspecting
that the deal with China was possible,
did SO for low price. Then an ar
rangement was made with the Chinese
government, by which the American
rights were sold back for 100000 taels.
or about Sc, 100000 in gold, and this money
was divided among the 1900 odd stock
holders. How much hard cash the
Americans put into the scheme l do not
know, but that is what they drew out.
What China got for all this money is
only a little stretch of railroad. thirty
miles long. running from Canton to the
town of Samshui. which could not have
cost, l should say more than $10OO.OOO,
or $33, eco a mile 1t is standard gauge
road laid with seventy-five-pound rails,
and it has, altogether. only about twelve
miles of double track and eighteen miles
of single track. A part of the road Is
stone ballasted, and a part is ballasted
with sand. In addition to this, the Chi
nese have the surveys made by Barclay
Parsons and others, but they, in the
words of Mr.. Tsou, are not what the
Chinese want, and could easily have been
made at cost of few thousand dol
lars 1 understand that the Americans
claim that they expended on the enter
prise. all told, about $3.OOOOO0 in gold;
and that the additional amount of $S.-
100000 was claimed for the loss of their
valuable rights. On this basis, suppos-
ing that the stockholders originally paid
par for their shares. which is doubtful,
the 1000 shares would have cost them
S4O0,OO0; and they drew out, according
to their own statement, S3,10O.O0O. which
equals over 900 per cent. Indeed:
For ways that dark and tricks that are vain
The Christian Yankee is peculiar.
Since the Chinese took hold of the