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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, UA., FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
; Altered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
ajBSCRAFTIOK PRICE
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The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday
and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for
early delivery.
It contains news from all over the world, brought
by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff
of distinguished contributors, w^th strong departments
of special value to the home and the farm.
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mission allowed. Outfit free. Writ - * R. R. BRAD
LEY, Circulation Manager.
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Atlanta, Ga.
Last call on the midwinter reduction sales.
Second thoughts may he best—if they arrive in
time:
Market reports are to the effect that lead is still
heavy.
The Truck Farmers of Tift.
Forty farmers of Tift county, representing an
ownership of some ten thousand acres of land, have
organized a “Truckers’ Association,” through which
they purpose to co-operate in matters of common
interest and to make truck farming a thoroughgoing
and profitable business. ,
Their plan resembles in. some respee*. that of
the Fruit Growers’ exchange, which has proved so
serviceable to Georgia orchard men. They will act
together in the purchase of supplies, in crating
and shipping their products and, to an extent, at
least, in marketing them. District societies, aux
iliary to the county organization, will be formed, so
that definite and detailed results may be obtained;
and, what is particularly interesting, the members
will keep in constant and intimate touch with
sources of scientific information, such as the State
College of Agr’culture, in order that their methods
may be always up-to-date and accurate.
Such an enterprise merits the heartiest good will
giS. Th same spirit of progressive ag
riculture that has led to intensive cultivation and
diversified crops will inevitably bring the State a
greater number of small farms and truck farms.
These Tift county men have shown themselves
abreast the times and their reward will doubtless
be rich and enduring not only to themselves but
to the entire commonwealth.
The fact that their undertaking is to be con
ducted as a business, with the same study and con
centration that marks the successful banker or mer
chant, is a bright omen of its success; and when
such enterprise has succeeded, it will he followed
by, scores of others.
What this will mean to the development and
prosperity of Georgia is beyond reckoning. For
when the State devotes itself with true foresight
#nfl energy to the production of large and varied
food crops instead of confining itself chiefly to cot
ton, then the treasure of its soil will be realized and
its due place in the economic life of the country will
be established.
v Denmark is proportionately one of the • richest
corners of the earth, though its land is naturally
arid and its climate uninviting. The secret of its
wondrous thrift and stability is simply- the fact
that it is divided into many farms each of a few
acres, but intensely and intelligently cultivated.
Denmark has set itself to producing food, either in
the form of meat or dairy products or garden truck,
and so despite its smallness and its apparent disad
vantages, it is known the world around for its
prosperity. • ^
There is no limit to what similar purposes and
methods can accomplish in Georgia where the favors
of nature have been so prodigally bestowed. It is
evident, too, that our people and, indeed, those of
the nation at large, are awakening to these fertile
opportunities. In many counties, and especially
those of South Georgia, the trend is steadily toward
small farms and toward the raising of foodstuffs.
The South Georgia farmer who last year after
ploughing up his entire cotton acreage and replant
ing with potatoes, made a snug fortune on that one
crop was not an adventurer or a miracle worker,
but simply a man of common sense and energy.
What he .accomplished others can accomplish; and
as this truth is realized and put to test, the State
will develop more and more rapidly.
It is the truck farming possibilities that are
bringing us new settlers each season from the West.
A steady tide of desirable immigration is now flow
ing Georgia ward; and close behind it will come new
streams of capital and investment. Men with money
to lend are finding that they can place it more se-
, curely and. more profitably in Georgia and the South
than anywhere else in the Union, simply because
the natural resources of this section are more' abun
dant and more easily converted into wealth..
The truckers’ association of Tift county is said
to be the' outcome of efforts begun by the Tifton
Chamber of Commerce, which is one of the most
alert and progressive institutions of its kind in the
State. The example set by that Chamber of Com
merce should inspire others in every town and city
to a parallel endeavor. Our urban communities are
largely dependent for their growth upon the adja
cent country. A board of trade or chamber of com
merce can render no better service to its town than
to encourage all lines of agricultural development
and particularly the \deveIopment of truck farming.
Schedule “K.”
In its hearings on tariff schedules, preparatory
to downward revision at the extra session of the
new Congress, the House committee on Ways and
Means has reached the most troublous and perhaps
the most important item of the entire list-—Sched
ule K, which fixes import duties on wool and
woolen goods.
This is a subject that comes home to , every
family and every 1 individual in the United States;
for, the comfort ar.d well being of the people depend
upon wool in some form and the existing tariff
on this necessary life is an injustice, if not a posi
tive injury. ,
A wool hat valued at one dollar in a foreign
port is taxed seventy-eight-cents when it is brought
into the United States. Flannel underwear, valued
at twenty-seven dollars per dozen suits, is made to
pay an ad valorem tax of one hundred and six per
cent. A suit of woolen clothes that can be bought
for ten dollars in Europe must pay a duty of seven
dollars and a half before it can reach the American
consumer.
These are but instances of the general character
of the present, tariff on wool. Clearly it has been
designed to protect, or rather to patronize, a special
group of interests at the expense of the rank and
file of the people. It has been conservatively. esti
mated that the surplus prices which consumers are
thus made to pay amounted in the year 1912 to
nearly two hundred and four million dollars..
Little wonder that the cost of living is oppres
sively high when a tariff system like‘this is in force.
The Democratic majority in the House has twice
passed a wool revision bill reducing these excessive
duties,j, but both measures met the veto of a Repub
lican president. Now that the control of the Gov
ernment is soon to be Democratic throughout, the
country may expect substantial relief.
Not This!
Everyone of generous impulse, whether in the
North or South, joins in hoping that by some means
or other General Daniel E. Sickles may escape im
prisonment for his alleged shortage of funds as
chairman of the State Monuments Commission, of
New York. The misfortunes of old age are always
to be pitied.
But it should not and cannot be expected that the
fund of some twenty-four thousand dollars, which
General Sickles is asked to account for, should be
raised among the Confederate veterans, upon whose
ideals he has trampled, and who themselves have
the tfare means of subsistence. It was only a few
months ago, in the midst of., the presidential cam
paign, that General Sickles made such a bitter at
tack upon the South that Colonel Roosevelt, whose
candidacy he was supporting, had to call him to
silence. The General has not been among those
chivalrous foes who have seen the common glory of
the Gray and the Blue and who have striven to re
store the country’s common brotherhood. He has
been greatly honored by the Government; he has
held remunerative office under all parties and has
been more than liberally pensioned. To expect the
maimed old soldiers of the Confederacy to make sac
rifices for such a man is beyond the bounds of human
nature and the essential fitness of things.
We are told that “if General Lee were living and
threatened with arrest every section of a loving na
tion would come tc the help of Marse Bob.” Such
a comparison, we submit, is sorely beside the mark;
for, the difference between the record and the char
acter of Robert E. Lee and Daniel E. Sickles is
immeasurable. The generous, sacrificial man who
refused all offers for money-making and self-profit
and who gave his latter years to human service as an
educator Is not to be compared with the one who
has thriven in politics and business.
We sincerely trust that General Sickles may find
a way ouf of his present difficulties, out that way,
we are sure, will not lead through “the ragged le
gions” of Confederate veterans.
A Sorely Needed Record.
Thoughtful citizens throughout Georgia will ap
prove the suggestion of the Atlanta Chamber of Com
merce that there be established a State bureau of
vital statistics for the purpose of keeping complete
and accurate records of births, deaths and marriages.
It is to be hoped that a bill to this effect will be in
troduced and passed at the next session of the Leg
islature; for, without such records, there are many
problems with which neither the State nor county
nor municipal government can intelligently deal.
Statistics furnish the basis and the starting point
of constructive movements. They summarize a peo
ple’s experience and present it in scientific form.
They are, indeed, the lamp by which our
feet must be guided in seeking release from divers
ills. We can never know how to proceed until we
know precisely where we stand; and how can we
properly approach social or civic or sanitary needs
' -until we learn clearly where the trouble lies?
If it is important to keep records of agriculture,
in order that from year to year the State may know
what to expect from its harvests anji may, in a
measure, avoid the errors of the past, how vastly
important it is to keep records of life and death!
Upon such records depends, very largely, the success
of campaigns for public health and for the better
ment of the State’s social and sanitary conditions. A
department of vital statistics could gather and com
pile other valuable data and in scores of different
ways render the public great service.
Georgia cannot affprd longer to lag in this essen
tial duty which progressive States throughout the
Union have recognized and are fast performing.
When winter does arrive it will have a hard time
being recognized.
A good way to respect people is not to be inti
mately acquainted with them.
Destroying Dangerous* Weapons.
Now that the droll custom of auctioning off the
pistols taken from brawlers, burglars, highwaymen
and other undesirable citizens has been abolished,
the police department can proceed with more con
sistency and doubtless, too, with more effect in its
campaign against # the carrying of concealed wea
pons.
One of the chief channels through which all man
ner of dangerous weapons have found their way to
those who should not have them, has been the police
auction sale where a revolver, a dirk or almost any
other instrument suited to the criminal fancy might
be bought for a trifle. By continuing such a prac
tice, the city was ignorantly fostering the violation
of its own laws. In effect, it was punishing one
group of offenders, and at the same time inviting
others to follow the same path.
Some time ago the county commissioners abol
ished this foolish custom, in so far as the county
police are‘concerned. It is gratifying tb know that
Council has followed the example and that hence
forth all weapons taken from prisoners will be
destroyed, so that they can never again find their
^•ay back into use.
The most astounding waste is the waste of life.
There is no reason, in science, why a man should
not live several hundred years and keep young. There
is' no proper comparison between
men and beasts. Men have iri-
telligence v und ought to be able to
control conditions to a great de
gree.
Besides this the # human body is
radically . different from the
• beast’s body, in that it is capable
of greater development; it might
be made something marvelous.
Remarkable results were at
tained in ancient Greece.
Eugenics is a new science.
Some are inclined to make light
of it. It is-, called impractical.
It is impractical. That is be
cause existing conditions are
wnolly wrong, and eugenics, be
ing right, naturally does not fit
them; for only those things are
practical which are adapted to existing conditions.
Ten centuries from now the world will, look back
with amazement upon this present day for many rea
sons, but for none more than that we negle.ct the one
science which has more to do with the conservation
of life than any other, to wit, eugenics.*'
That the production of human creatures should be
left to ignorance and caprice, that society should de
liberately close its eyes to the circumstances under
which human beings are brought into the world, that
no law or limit should be placed upon the diseased and
degenerate, and that the life of the race should be left
unguarded at its spring and fountain, and hence pol
luted by any wastrel, this is the wonder and shame of
an age that calls itself intelligent.
Ruskin truly said that the fundamental reform is
the reform of marriage. No man who loves hifc kind
and seeks to better humanity can proceed very far in
any reform movement without coming up against this
need of better and more intelligent production of hu
man beings. j
Because our forefathers gave no heed to this, but
left to blind instinct the most important of life’s
needs, our days are shortened. “The truth is,” says
Jeffries, “we die through our ancestors.” And we in
turn are cutting off the lives of our progeny.
When we think of the inherited weaknesses of our
blood, the unchecked flow of diseases through the hu
man stock, the amount of v unfit food -we eat, and the
irrational and unscientific modes of life, the wonder is
that any man lives to the age of twenty-one.
When shall we learn to appreciate the immeasura
ble gift..of life?*
The Potluck of the Poet
v
Savory joint, thy very sight
Lends an edge to appetite!
I confess I an* a glutton,
When the plat is youthful mutton,
Though my gastronomic eye
Leans at times to pigeon pie.
Anything tastes good to me,
Calipash or. calipee,
When the spirit of starvation
Gives me source for inspiration,
For a poet’s destiny
Is not easy to foresee.
And you can’t determine quite
What will be his appetite.
Fancy lends him, Heaven knows!
Some delusive machinery shows,
Which, though brilliant, are not real,
Mere pretenses for a meal.
So I think that I’ll be wise,
“Bring a steak and glass, of ale!”
Blind to how the future lies,
“Waiter,” prescient of vail,
LA TOUCHE HANCOCK in ttbe New York Sun.
Dramatic, But Ineffectual.
The rise of the young Turks at Constantinople
has for the moment somewhat becloudefl the Balkan
situation, but it is doubtful that their dramatic stroke
will have any permanent or far-reaching effect.
They have isprung forward, half idealists and half
politicians, with the avowed purpose of saving their
♦
nation from disgrace. It is more likely,- however,
\
that they will only hasten and intensify their coun
try’s fate.
Their ranks include many true patriots and many
men with brains and vigor for leadership, if they
but had the material with which to , work. But the
history of the young Turks within the past few
1 years has shown that their cause is hopeless. They
have attempted to force upon a people who for long
centuries have known nothing but despotism and
its attendant inertia a constitutional government
with the responsibilities of a citizenship more or less
free. The experiment has been a dismal failure.
It is not probable, therefore, that Turkey can be
made suddenly impervious to foes from without
wheu it is distraught and decadent within. The new
rulers may lash the populace into fury; they may
start a civil war and turn the capital into a riot,
hut the’y scarcely hope to organize a spiritless na
tion into effectual resistance.
When the Powers addressed their recent note to
the Porte, advising the cession of Adrianople, they
acted in concert and after a sober review of every
aspect of the Balkan situation. They will hardly
recede from that position; and the fact that anarchy
threatens Turkish affairs will serve only to strength
en their conviction that Turkey must come to terms.
Shade of Dick Whittington
How the kindly shade of Dick! Whittington must
be weeping, if he has heard, through some spirit
aerogram, the news from Berkeley, California!
The sages of Berkeley have concluded that cats
are purveyors of many dread diseases, particularly
smallpox; and, so, their edict has gone forth, more
relentless than Herod’s, that all cats, whether they
be delicate tabbies or buccaneering Toms, must die.
Realizing that their campaign to he effective, must
be pressed with ninefold sternness and vigor, since
nature was unusually generous iu allotting the lives
of cats, the police have set about their task with
some misgiving. The cats have taken on a certain
uncanny importance, as though they were so many
witches that could slip lithely from skin to skin and
return to haunt the pillows of their foes. The Berke
ley authorities can doubtless defend their course
with much learned argument and, if they succeed in
making the town thoroughly catless they will have
won for it a rare distinction.
But there are many hearts that will go out to the
fated grimalkins of Berkeley. The cat, to be sure,
has never played a very heroic role, save in such
rare instances as Puss in Boots; it is a selfish sort
of creature and often an arrant rogue. Yet with
all its faulty, the cat holds a snug place in our hu
man associations; even its selfishness and roguish
ness make it akin to mankind.
On a winter’s evening a cat stretched or
crouched on the rug gives a room its finishing touch
of coziness and imparts to any one who will study
it a sense of^p-anquil meditation.
^ ~ ■■
OUAJTRY -
OME TDPuS
CfWOCTED BT iTUS. V! HJrTLTD/l
MEDDLING WITH COTTON PRICES.
Waxhaw, N. C., Jan. 21, 1913.
Dear Mrs. Felton:
For several years 1 have been reading and im
mensely enjoying your up-to»-date comments on real
live topics in your department of The Semi-Weekly
Journal.
I am sure the country would be greatly blessed if
it had more such fi lends as yourself to throw out sug
gestions carrying the weight that yours have.
I have just finished reading your comments on the
“fool meddlers' who are trying to punish those who
would make or let the producer of cotton get a some
what decent price for the staple. It seems that it is
the opinion of some court or other that to cause ;aw
cotton to bring a fair price is an awful crime. While
to so depress the price as to put the poor -tillers of the
soil on the verge of starvation is (I reckon) good busi
ness.
Several years ago cotton was so low that it was
hardly worth picking, getting down as low as 3 1-2
and 4 cents. The farmers were dumbfounded and de
moralized, a great many of the farms looking like the
proverbial 30 cents. Did we hear anything about
those who were responsible for these conditions being
prosecuted? Not as I can rerqember.
Why, then, should it be criminal to boost the price
if it was not criminal to depress it?
Certainly the boosting brings benefits to those most
needing help. But, then, it hits the pets. Ah! there’s
the trouble.
No wonder we have almost got a state of anarchy.
No wonder the rank and file are losing respect for the
established order of things. Such an established or
der is undeserving of the respect of a liberty loving
people, and the only hope of relief is through the ob
jections being presented by those, like yourself, who
see the awfulness of such tomfoolery and are crying
out; against it. /
May you live maiiy more years to wield your pen
and influence in behalf of better conditions and a
cleaner administration of the nation’s affairs. Admir
ingly, . S. S. DUNLAP.
• * •
FRAUDS IN ELECTIONS.
One of Georgia’s most populous counties is humil
iated by insistent reports as to election frauds last
summer. The grand jury has returned several indict
ments and the belief is general that excessive parti
sanship has caused election frauds, and that some can
didates profited thereby.
I have *no interest in this business save my love ot
country, but such election frauds hurt the good name
of any community and injure the state not only in
reputation*but in its progress and attractiveness.
I have always heard it said that a man who would
lie would steal, and election frauds are made up both
of lying and stealing. It Is a very unmanly game to
play at, and betokens a low grade of civic morals.
In years gone by the state of Georgia had many
experiences of this class, and the city of Savannah, as
well as Augusta, were well marked places for fraudu
lent elections. These things were exploited in various
newspapers, but the dominant party had no shame, and
cloaked these loud smelling frauds under the name o*
party expediency. Scores of men went, into office by
these frauds who should never have been returned as
elected. The state was saddled with representatives
and judges who had no right to the positions. It is
often said that nothing goes under that did not first
come over, and this canker of wrongdoing will event
ually rot its way out to exposure and retribution.
A cheat at the ballot box is as heinous as thievery
in a bank. The man who is cheated at the ballot box
has been robbed of his right, and the offender merits
punishment. As I said before, election frauds debase
character. The man who helps to rob another of his
vote is no better than a thief and no more to be re
spected.
By common consent, men select managers to hold
elections and these managers swear to hold them fair
ly, and the man who can afford to cheat his neighbor
of his vote is on?y a villain wearing the cloak of re
spectability. It is a criminal act.
• • •
MISS HELEN GOULD’S MARRIAGE.
Because Miss Gould has been so generous and has
been for a long time a millionairess many times over
the public feels interested in the matchmaking. She
is forty-four years old and has been a thrifty manager
of her estate, as well as a generous philanthropist.
I suppose her business cares are many, and if she
Had no superior reason in this instance she will be
greatly assisted in having a clear-headed business man
to assist and relieve her of her many business cares.
Unlike her younger sister, she did not crave a for
eign title, much to her credit, and it is understood that
her husband has made his own way in the world “com
ing up from the ranks.”
If they are congenial, and I hope they will be, she will
be greatly better satisfied, because the bachelor wom
an is oftentimes the solitary in families.
I presume that Mrs. Grover Cleveland has the safiie
purpose and feeling in her mind. When her children
marry and leave her she would be also a “solitary.”
Both of these ladies are in the prime of matured
life, and able to judge as to their domestic Interests
for the future. If they are mistaken there is nobody
else to suffer for the mistakes, but the prospect is
very good, as I see their conditions in life, to provide
a very home for themselves, and as neither of the la
dies are marrying for money, their chances are the
more favorable.
Miss Gould has a lot of nephews and nieces besides
her sister and several brothers, but there is an evident
desire to set up a h.Qme where she can always feel as
if it was a fully equipped home for her advancing
years.
I believe everybody wishes her well and would be
delighted to' know that her domestic happiness was as
sured.
John Bull is having his trouble with women, all
right.
One' must hand it to the wrestling cleverness of
Turkey.
In the matter of Wall street, it is a case of the
lamb turning.
A Batch of Smiles
Visiting his home town after many years of ab
sence, a gentleman met Sam, the village fool.
“Hello, Sam!'’ he said. “Glad to
see you. What are you doing now?
Still pumping the church organ?”
“Yessir, I’m still pumping the or
gan. An’ say, Charlie, I’m gettin’
to be a pretty fine pumper. The
other day they had a. big organist
over fropi New Haven and I pumped
a piece he couldn’t play.”—Every
body’s.
Sandy McNab was up to town for the horse show,
for a good judge of horseflesh was our braw laddie.
After a tiring day he engaged a
room at a neighboring hotel, and,
tumbling into bed, almost at, once
sank into a deep and profound slum
ber.
Next scene. Twelve o’clock. Sandy ^ H
bolt upright in bed, listening care- '
fully to violent knockings at his bed
room door.
“What’s that?” he at length demanded.
“It’s me!” called back an agitated voice. “Man
alive, get up, for Heaven’s sake; the hotel’s on fire!”
“Is it that?” came in level tones from Sandy. “All
reet; dinna fash yersel'. But, mind ye, if I do get up,
I’ll no pay for the bed!”—London Answer^
The news that the Six Power group, sometimes
called the Sextuple group, has agreed to give the re
public of China a preliminary loan of $125,000,000 Indi
cates the passing of the pres- •
ent financial crisis, more
threatening than even political
dangers, and signalizes the be
ginning of sane, stable banking
practices by the Chinese gov
ernment. This, together with
the fact that the foreign bank
ers will loan another $176,000,-
000 within the next five years,
greatly encourages true friend3
of China, even when it is well
known that the Chinese • were
bitterly opposed to the terms
of the group, and finally ac
cepted the situation because
there was absolutely no other
sensible course open to them.
...
rfreat Britain, Germany,
Prance, the United States, Rus
sia and Japan compose the Six
Power group. The first loan of $125,000,000 is ap
portioned among the six powers as follows: Great
Britain, $20,000,000; the United States, $25,000,000; 1
Prance, $20,000,000; Germany, $15,000,000; Japan, $10,«
000,000, and Russia, $10,000,000. The remaining $25,-
000,000 wifi go to C. Birch Crisp & Co., London bank
ers, who for a time considered floating th entire loan
on their own independent account The most power
ful banking interests of these countries make up the
group, and they have had the firm and constant back
ing of their respective governments. The prelimi
nary agreement just signed ends the strained relations
tha,t have existed between the provisional repubic of
China and the Sextuple group since March 14, 1912.
This was due to bait faith i n individual cases and to,
widespread misunderstanding on the part of the Chi
nese people, the last named being excusable whgn their
peculiar point of view is taken into consideration. The
new republic will get 6 per cent below the sale price
of the $125,000,000 bond issue which the international
bankers are to float in its behalf. In addition, the for
eign powers will formally agree not to press for the
present their claims for damages caused by the re
cent revolution, amounting to several millions, as Rus
sia’s claim alone is $525,000. , On the other hand, Chi
na consents at last to foreign supervision of her fi
nances by Herr Romp, the Dutch banker selected by
the group. The understanding comes none too soon,
for without foreign aid of the proper sort there would
have been no Chinese republic In the long run.
• • •
It was this question of foreign control which
caused the split and not usurious demands by the for
eign bankers. The story of the loan tangle in China
is an interesting one. So is a recital of t*he events
which led the American bankers to break into the Far
Eastern financial game, ultimately pulling the state
department in after them. The result so far has been
the material advancement of American interests and a
stronger grip on the Chinese situation by the United
States government. Critics have called this “dollar
diplomacy” and a violation of century-old standards,
but friends of the administration hold with Lowell
that “Time makes ancient good uncouth; new occa
sions teach new duties.”
I • • »
American financial operations on a really national
scale began with China in the summer of 1908, when
Tang Shao Ki, then governor of Manchuria, agreed to
a loan of $20,000,000 from American financiers This
money was to found a great bank which was to back
the Chinese government in developing the tremendous
natural resources of Manchuria. Just prior to this in"
May, congress had authorized the return of America's
share of the Boxer indemnity. Tang Shao Yi was des
ignated special envoy to convey to Washington China s
hearty appreciation of this generosity, but what he
was really sent over here for was the floating of the
$20,000,000 Manchurian loan. Mr. Tang is a gradu
ate of an American college. By the tim e Mr Tang
reached Washington the $20,000,000 American loan had
grown in his mind to a $300,000,000 International loan
proposition. He proposed to Elihu Root, then secre
tary of state, that the United States lead the world
Into this loan, to he expended in the commercial, cur
rency and administrative reform of China. The mat
ter was referred to J, Pierpont Morgan and others.
It might have gone through but for the dismissal by
the prints regent soon thereafter of Yuan S!)ih K’al,
now president of China, and the country’s only strong
man at that time. Being a lieutenant of Yuan, Tang
Shao Ki went out of office with him.
» • •
The United States was a party with China to the
commercial treaty of 1903, providing for American
assistance in the abolition of the likin (an obnoxious
and haphazard internal system of taxation) and re-
vision of the customs and currency reform. In re
turn, China promised that Americans would be per
mitted to put up one-half of the capital in the Can-
phudean of the Hankow-Szechuan railway line, the
bther party being Great Britain. But in May, 1909,
the American interests discovered that British, French
and German capitalists were on the eve of concluding
a nice little arrangement by which they would build
the Hukuang Railways, consisting of a trunk line
north from Hankow, “the Chicago of China,” into
ozecuuan province, and another south from Hankow
to Canton. The Americans then made three strategic-
moves. First. They stood upon their rights in the
contmercial treaty of 1903. Second. They brought
forward the now famous proposal for the neutraliza
tion of railroads in Manchulia, which Japan and Rus
sia rejected, and which the world laughed at for
awhile, a very little while. Third. They concluded a
purely American loan with China of $40,000,000 to be
devoted to currency reform. The American bankers
were thereupon invited to share i n the construction
of the Hukuang railways and to participate thereafter
in the combination which the other three nationals had
formed in 1909 for the flotation of Chinese loans. No
vember, 1910, saw the entrance of America Into the
arrangement, which was thereafter referred to as the
Four Power group.
During the late revolution both Manchus and rev
olutionists were refused financial aid by the Four
Power group, as their governments were anxious .to
preserve strict neutrality. On February 2*. 1912,
however, by which time it had been settled that a
republican form of government would be tried with
Yuan Shih K’at as provisional president, Tang Shao
Yi held a conference in Pekin with the bankers. He
asked for a loan of $300,000,000, offering official reve
nues as security, the loan to be in five annual pay
ments of $60,000,000 each. He also asked for some
money to meet the crisis at Nanking, and on the fol
lowing day $1,200,000 was advanced at Shanghai for
the Nanking authorities. Another $600,000 was given
Pekin officials on March 9, the day before Yuan Shih
K'ai was inaugurated. On the same day the group
signed the agreement to see China through its diffi
culties, even to paying Chinese loan interest coupon
charges, and in turn the Chinese government promised
the group an option on the big loan, providing the
terms were as 'good as could be obtairied elsewhere.
* * *
The next day, when Yuan Shih K'ai became presi
dent, Tang bhao Yi was made premier. H e had a-
ready induced the group to advance $1,800,000 and
knew that they were preparing to take care of the en
tire $300,000,000 project at his instigation. Yet at
the same time he was secretly negotiating a $5,000,-
000 loan from a Belgian syndicate. And five days
after the agreement with the Four Power group had
been signed he closed with the Belgians, get the $5,-
000,000, promised an option on further loans, and of
fered as security ^he earnings of the Pekin-Kalgan
railroad, notwithetanding the fact that the earnings
of the same railroad were pledged in 1908 as security
for the Anglo-French loan of that year. The Belgians
did not pay terms as high as the group offered, but
they waived the; foreign audit and supervision pro
viso which the group insisted. Tang then hurried to
Nanking and induced the quasi-legal advisory council
to approve the Belgian loan. It has been generally be.
lieved that he djid not inform that body of his dealings
with the group!