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/ 1 ^ . 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 Twelve months 75c Six Months 40c Three months 25c 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. Agents wanted at every postoffiee. Liberal com mission allowed. Outfit free. Writ - * R. R. BRAD LEY, Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are J. A. Bryan, R. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim brough and C. T. Yates. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above named traveling repre sentatives. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. Th’e label used for addressing your paper shows' the time your subscription expires. By renewing at least two weeks before the date on this label, you insure regular service. In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention your old, as well as your new address. If on a route please give the route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with back numbers! Remittances should be sent by postal order or registered mail. Address all orders and notices for this de partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, 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!