which had for their avowed purpose the crippling of all rival shipping by laying a heavy tax upon the carrying-trade of foreigners. Though such measures are no longer considered advisable in the commercial world, their baleful effects are still felt in the political thought of the present time.

Nations now enter into friendly relations with each other because it is believed that both sides are benefited by such relations. Their transactions cannot be one-sided affairs, for the simple reason that it takes two to make a bargain. If one party is dissatisfied with the arrangement, the other party will not long have an opportunity to enjoy its benefits.

Confucius was once asked for a single word which might serve as a guiding principle through life. "Is not reciprocity such a word?" answered the great sage. "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." This is the "Golden Rule" which should govern the relations of man to man. It is the foundation of society. It lies at the bottom of every system of morality, and every system of law. If it holds good with respect to individuals, it ought to hold good with respect to nations, which are but large aggregations of individuals. Therefore, if permanent relations are to be established between two nations, reciprocity must be the key-note of every arrangement entered into between them.

Having recognized this great principle of international intercourse, how shall we apply it to the case of China and the United States in such a manner as to result in mutual helpfulness? Assuredly, the first thing to do is to take a general survey of the situation and see what are the needs of each country. Then we shall perceive clearly how each may help the other to a higher plane of material development and prosperity.

The United States now has its industrial machinery perfectly adjusted to the production of wealth on a scale of unprecedented magnitude. Of land, the first of the three agents of production enumerated by economists, the United States is fortunately blessed with an almost unlimited amount. Its territory stretches from ocean to ocean, and from the snows of the Arctic Circle to the broiling sun of

the tropics. Within these limits are found all the products of soil, forest and mine that are useful to man. With respect to labor, the second agent of production, the United States at first naturally suffered the disadvantage common to all new countries. But here the genius of the people came into play to relieve the situation. That necessity which is "the mother of invention" substituted the sewing-machine for women's fingers, the reaper for farmhands, the cotton-gin for slaves. The efficiency of labor was thereby multiplied, in many cases, a hundred-fold. The ingenious manner in which capital, the third agent of production, is put to a profitable use is equally characteristic of America. It is well known that there is an enormous amount of capital in the country seeking investment. Every one who has a little to invest wishes to obtain as large a return as possible. Since competition reduces profits, the formation of industrial combinations, commonly called trusts, is for the capitalist the logical solution of the difficulty. These enable the vast amount of capital in the country to secure the best results with the greatest economy. Whether they secure the greatest good to the greatest number" is another matter.

The development of the resources of the United States by the use of machinery and by the combination of capital has now reached a point which may be termed critical. The productive power of the country increases so much faster than its capacity for consumption that the demand of a population of 75,000,000 is no sooner felt than supplied. There is constant danger of over-production, with all its attendant consequences. Under these circumstances, it is imperative for the farmers and manufacturers of the United States to seek an outlet for their products and goods in foreign markets. But whither shall they turn?

At first sight, Europe presents perhaps. the most inviting field. Both blood and association point in this direction. But here the cottons of Lowell would have to compete with the fabrics of Manchester. The silk manufacturers of Paterson would stand small chance of supplanting the finished products of Lyons. The sugar of Louisiana would encounter a formidable rival in the beet-sugar of Germany. Eng

land could probably better afford to sell her coal and iron cheaper than Pennsylvania, and Russia could supply European markets with wheat and petroleum as well as could Ohio and Indiana. Competition would be keen and destructive.

Central and South America have as yet too sparse a population for the immense territory they cover to meet the conditions of a market for American goods. Some decades must elapse before American farmers and manufacturers can look to that quarter for relief.

But on the other side of the Pacific lies the vast empire of China, which in extent of territory and density of population exceeds the whole of Europe. To be more particular, the province of Szechuen can muster more able-bodied men than the German Empire. The province of Shantung can boast of as many native-born sons as France. Scatter all the inhabitants of Costa Rica or Nicaragua in Canton, and they would be completely lost in that city's surging throngs. Transport all the people of Chile into China and they would fill only a city of the first class. Further comparisons are needless. Suffice it to say that China has her teeming millions to feed and to clothe. Many of the supplies come from outside. The share furnished by the United States might be greatly increased. According to the statisties published by the United States gov. ernment, China in 1899 took American goods to the value of $14,437,422, of which amount $9,844,565 was paid for cotton goods. All the European countries combined bought only $1,484,363 worth of American cotton manufactures during the same period. The amount of similar purchases made by the Central American states was $739,259; by all the South American countries $2,713,967. It thus appears that China is the largest buyer of American cotton goods. British America comes next in the list with purchases amounting to $2,759,164. Cotton cloth has a wide range of uses in all parts of the Chinese Empire, and it is almost impossible for the supply to equal the demand.

Up to the year 1898 cotton goods and kerosene were the only articles imported from the United States in large enough quantities to have a value of over

$1,000,000. But I noticed in the statistics published by the United States government for the year 1899 that manufactures of iron and steel have also passed that mark. This is due to the fact that China has now begun in real earnest the work of building railroads. The demand for construction materials is great. The value of locomotives imported in 1899 from the United States was $732,212.

Besides the articles mentioned, there are many others of American origin which do not figure in the customs returns as such. These find their way into China through adjacent countries, especially Hong-Kong. At least threefourths of the imports of Hong-Kong, notably wheat, flour, and canned goods, are destined for consumption in the Chinese mainland.

Such is the present condition of trade between the United States and China. That trade can be greatly extended. Let the products of American farms, mills, and workshops once catch the Chinese fancy, and America need look no farther for a market. The present popularity of American kerosene illustrates the readiness of the Chinese to accept any article that fills a long-felt want. They have recognized in kerosene a cheap and good illuminant, much superior to their own nut-oil, and it has consequently found its way into distant and outlying parts of the empire where the very name of America is unknown. Stores in the interior now send their agents to the treaty. ports for it. In the same way, foreignmade candles, because cheaper than those of home make, are selling easily in China. I would suggest that American farmers and manufacturers might find it to their advantage to study the wants and habits of the Chinese and the conditions of trade in China.

Thus we see that China can give the United States a much needed market. What, on the other hand, can the United States do for China? Let us consider China's stock of the three requisites for the production of wealth-land, labor, and capital.

The Chinese Empire embraces a continuous territory which stretches over sixty degrees of longitude and thirty-four degrees of latitude. Nature has endowed this

dustrious, intelligent, and orderly. They can work under conditions that would kill a man of a less hardy race, in heat that would suit a salamander or in cold that would please a polar bear, sustaining their energies through long hours of unremitting toil with only a few bowls of rice.

But have the Chinese sufficient capital to carry on their industrial operations? They are a nation of shopkeepers. What capital they have is usually invested in small business ventures. It is their instinet to avoid large enterprises. Thus the capital in the country, though undoubtedly large, may be likened to a pile of sand on the beach. It has great extent, but is so utterly lacking in cohesion that out of it no lofty structure can be built. Be fore China can be really on the high road to prosperity, it must find means of fully utilizing every economic advantage that it has. Modern methods are its greatest need. Here is America's opportunity.

The Yankee is never seen to better advantage than when experimenting with a new idea on a colossal scale. To direct vast or novel enterprises is a perfectly new experience to the Chinaman. Give him a junk and he will with ease ride out the fiercest typhoon that ever lashed the seas. But give him an ocean leviathan of the present day, with its complicated engines, dynamos, compasses, and other modern appliances for navigating a ship, and he will be truly "all at sea” in knowing how to handle it, even in a dead calm.

Of all public works, China has most pressing need of railroads. Only a few years ago it would have been difficult to convince one man in ten of the immediate necessity for the introduction of railroads into all the provinces of the empire. Today at least nine out of every ten believe that railroads ought to be built as fast as possible. This complete change of pub lic opinion within so short a time shows perhaps better than anything else how fast China is getting into the swing of the world's forward movement. There are at present only about 400 miles of railroad open to traffic throughout the whole country, and all the lines building and projected foot up to 5,000 or 6,000 miles more. China proper covers about as many square miles as the States east of the Mississippi. Those States, with a

population of 50,000,000, require 100,000 miles of railroad to do their business. China, with a population eight times as large, would naturally be supposed to need at least about an equal mileage of roads for her purposes. It would not be strange if the activity in railroad construction in the United States soon after the Civil War should find a parallel in China in coming years.

The building of railroads in China does not partake of the speculative character which attended the building of some of the American roads. There are no wild regions to be opened up for settlement, no new towns to be built along the route. Here is a case of the railroad following the population, and not that of the population following the railroad. A road built through populous cities and famous marts has not long to wait for traffic. It would pay from the beginning.

The first railroad in China was built for the transportation of coal from the Kaiping mines to the port of Taku. The line, though in an out-of-the-way corner of the empire, proved so profitable from the very start that it was soon extended to Tientsin and Peking in one direction, and to Shanhaikwan, the eastern terminus of the Great Wall, in the other. Not long ago it was thought advisable to build a branch beyond Shanhaikwan to the treatyport of Newchwang. The era of railroad building in China may be said to have just dawned. China desires nothing better than to have Americans lend a hand in this great work.

It gave me great pleasure two years ago to obtain for an American company a concession to build a railroad between Hankow, the great distributing centre of central China, and Canton, the great distributing centre of south China. The line is to connect with the Lu-Han line on the north and with the Kowloon line on the south, and throughout its whole length of more than 900 miles will run through opulent cities, fertile valleys, and cultivated plains. The construction of such a line by Americans through the heart of China cannot fail to bring the people of the two countries into closer relations.

Besides railroads, there are other public works which China must undertake sooner or later. Among them are river

and harbor improvements, city water supplies, street lighting, and street railways. Owing to the traditional friendship between the two countries, our people are well disposed towards Americans. They are willing to follow their lead in these new enterprises, where they might spurn the assistance of other people with whom they have been on less friendly terms in the past.

Such being the economic interdependence of China and the United States, what policy should each country pursue towards the other in order to gain the greatest good from that relationship? In my judgment, true reciprocity is impossible unless each country has perfect confidence in the other, and displays on all occasions a desire for fair-play and honest dealing.

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Now, reciprocity demands the open door." China long ago adopted that policy in her foreign intercourse. She has treaty relations with all the European powers, together with the United States, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Japan, and Korea. All these are equally "favored nations" in every sense of the term. The Swede and the Dane enjoy the same rights, privileges, immunities, and exemptions, with respect to commerce, navigation, travel, and residence throughout the length and breadth of the empire as are accorded to the Russian or the Englishman. Any favor that may be granted to Japan, for instance, at once inures to the benefit of the United States. Indeed, China, in her treatment of strangers within her gates, has in a great many respects gone even beyond what is required of international usage. According to the usual practice of nations, no country is expected to accord to foreigners rights which are not enjoyed by its own subjects or citizens. But China has been so long accustomed to indemnify foreigners who have fallen victims to mob violence that she is looked upon in a sense as an insurer of the lives and property of all foreigners residing within her borders. To such an extent is this idea current among foreigners in China that some years ago an American missionary in the province of Shantung, who happened to have some articles stolen from his house in the night, estimated his loss at $60, and actually sent the bill

through the American minister at Peking to the Foreign Office for payment. The Chinese tariff also favors foreigners resident in China much more than it does the Chinese themselves. Most articles imported for the use of foreigners are on the free-list. Such is the treatment which Americans, in common with the subjects and citizens of other foreign powers receive in China.

Justice would seem to demand equal consideration for the Chinese on the part of the United States. China does not ask for special favors. All she wants is enjoyment of the same privileges accorded other nationalities. Instead, she is singled out for discrimination and made the subject of hostile legislation. Her door is wide open to the people of the United States, but their door is slammed in the face of her people. I am not so biased as to advocate any policy that might be detrimental to the best interests of the people of the United States. If they think it desirable to keep out the objec tionable class of Chinese, by all means let them do so. Let them make their immigration laws as strict as possible, but let them be applicable to all foreigners. Would it not be fairer to exclude the illiterate and degenerate classes of all nations rather than to make an arbitrary ruling against the Chinese alone? Would it not be wiser to set up some specifie test of fitness, such as ability to read intelligently the American Constitution? That would give the Chinese a chance along with the rest of the world, and yet effectually restrict their immigration. Such a law would be practically prohibitory as far as all except the best-educated Chinese are concerned, for the reason that the written language of the Chinese is so entirely different from the spoken tongue that few of the immigrants would be able to read with intelligence such a work as the American Constitution. Nevertheless, a law of that kind would be just in spirit and could not rouse resentment in the Chinese breast.

Since the law and the treaty forbid the coming of Chinese laborers, I must do all I can to restrict their immigration. I should, however, like to call attention to the fact that the Chinese Exclusion Act, as enforced, scarcely accomplishes