The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-10

anna canal to American commerce.
The incident is one of the indirect eff
fects of this colossal undertaking. 1t
is one of good many which have
been observed in this city. All
of the west upon the Pacific slope, in
dustry and business, commerce and
manufacture, are beginning to feel
the symptoms of the gigantic indus
is certain to follow the opening of the
Panama canal.
The Real Lever.
Many of our business men are now
strongly inclined to the opinion that
the real lever which will serve to start
the inconceivably great machinery by
which American industry, commerce
and agriculture are to be driven will
be moved when the first steamer nav
igates the Panama canal. 1t is not
expected that there will be a very
great revival of business during this
presidential year. Nor is it likely that
prosperity which SO many believe
certain in the future will have
demonstrated itself until after the
president elected next fall is inaugur-
ated, on March 4 of next year. Ac-
cording to the opinion of competent
engineers the waters of the Atlantic
and the Pacific will be admitted to
the vast channel cut. across the Pana-
year. There is not likely to be any
session of congress called for the
spring of next year, although the SEN
ate will sit for a while in order to
confirm presidential appointments.
Therefore. in the spring and summer
of 1913, political agitation will have
subsidized and there will remain moth
ing to distract the attention of the pub
lie from the pomp and circumstance
which attend the opening of the Pana-
ma canal in the fall of that year.
It has now for a year or two been
felt by business men that some direct,
conspicuous action or Incl
dent would be needed in order to bring
about the beginnings of the era OF
prosperity which is expected to sur
pass. relatively and absolutely, any
season of material activity the United
States has ever known. Exactly what
that incident would be no business man
ventured to predict until recently. Now
the feeling is entertained without dis
sent, apparently, that this incident is
to be the opening of the Panama ca
nal to navigation. The changes which
it is to make in American industry
agricultural and transportation develop
ment, of course cannot be foreSeen, Dut
there is no one who doubts that these
changes will be of the highest benefit
A New Private Secretary.
Whether the title of Wellington kee
is to be merely that of private secre-
tary of the more dignified appellation
of secretary to the president of the
of China, Mr.. Kee himself did
not know and, in fact, did not care
when he sailed from New York tc
China on Saturday of last week. He
knew no more than this-he had been
summoned be cable to China to ente1
upon his arrival at the
capital of the republic upon duties sim
liar to those exercised by the secre-
tary to the president of the United
States.
Again, as so many times since the
awakening of China, her leading men
have turned to the United States for
assistance. Years ago China sum
noned Yung Wing, who had been edu-
Gated at Yale college, who had ac-
eepted the Christian religion and had
married a brilliant woman of Hartford,
which was his home, to China to aid
n the establishment of a new educa- |
-ional system, and, as a part of the
educational reform Yung Wing tnsti- |
tuted, a company of some 200 Chinese
youths of about 10 years of age were
sent to the United States under the
direction of mandarins of high rank |
% be trained in the educational meth |
DDS that prevailed in the United States |
These young men taught the people |
If the United States what the differ |
,nce between the Chinese peasantry and |
he intellectual aristocracy of China |
,eally is. 1t is in part due to the |
eachings of these American-bre schOl- |
IRIS who afterward returned to China |
hat the seeds were planted of which /
he harvest is the new Chinese re-
public.
Many years later China telegraphed /
o the United States one brief mes
age. 1t contained a request to John |
" Foster, who had been secretary OF
tate, to come Immediately to China to
i'd in preventing the tearing Of the /
chinese nation to pieces after the |
war. That purpose Mr..
Foster fulfilled.
Now. Wellington Kee, who mas been |
or eight years a student at Columbia
University, who is a man of unusual |