New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-09-12

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isher will get the Chinamau's bust.
ness.
Mr.. Smith illustrates this with
an example from Robert Dollars
lumber business.
when Mr.. Dollar first went to
China" he says. "the Chinese want
ed their LUMBER in logs from sixty
to seventy feet long and two feet
or more equare. They were accus-
toned to get their lumber in that
shape and cut it up themselves by
hand. Mr.. Dollar sold his first ship
load Of lumber to them in that form.
The next time he asked permission
to send one log cut up in the sizes
the Chinese were accustomed to cut
e into by hand in their own yards.
By degrees he got them 20 taking
more and NJ ne sawed and dressed
lumber,'until a: slre and of ten years
he was sending -u,em only lun4bep
that had been sawed and dressed IN
American mills.
"That is the sto y-missionary
work. Begin by giving the China
man what he asks for, and if you
want him to change to your ways do
it gradually. You can bring him
around little by littIe, but you can't
cram your customs down his throat
with one blow. lie 1as been doing
things his own way for too many
thousands Of years"
Graves Are Everywhere
AS for the limitations Of trade op.
portunities in China, Mr.. Smith says
there is only one-farm machinery.
"China is all cut up INFO little one
and two-acre farms. Where would
one Of our big binders scd reapers
find room to work :h.re, or our
tractor plows? Moreover, you can
never tell where you are going to
run across an ancestral grave. The
Chinese bury their dead on top Of
the ground. After a certain length
of time, when burning joss sticks
will no longer serve the purpose,
the graves are covered over. China
is pimply with ancestral tombs.
They may be in the middle Of a
field or they may De IN front Of the
door Of the house. Wherever they
are, they have 10 Say unless the
priest gives permission for their re-
moval. You can't farm AROUND
those pimples with modern naaehin-
cry.
''The ancestral pimpIe Is one .og
the reasons, and the CHIEF fog theuss
why transportation facilities are 80
poor in China. The roads have to
wind in and out among the wmples.
They can't be disturbed for wagon
road or trolley line or a steam
railroad, and SO the roads arc not
built. Transportation is chiefly by
water, along the rivers or the many
canals. That is what makes the de.
velopment of China SO slow. For the
foreigner, China is still practically
a seacoast country. A few hundred
miles in widely separated districts
along the rivers is as far as the for
eigner has penetrated in China. OF
course, there have been explorers.
but that is a different thing FROM
systematic and developed trading.
"Yet, wherever the Americau
trader goes he WIFI: Gna, English
spoken. There are few Chinese, even
in the interior, under fifty years old,
who do not speak English, By that
| mean that in every district the
American will find plenty Of English
speaking interpreters. Besides that,
the American trader will end the
Chinese more friendly to him than
to the representatives Of any aother
nation. There is traditional friends
ship between the two countries
that gives the American the inside
track over any other nationality"