Bringers of Wealth But of Soldiers Too Fuom a Comnespoxpenr ies, in which an elderly Chit appeared last week, blocked the railway with their troop movements and I saw thous: ands of dollars of perishable cargo ruined before my eyes.
A Refuge in Shanghai "After an all-winter oveupation they moved north, after looting the city of everything worth carrying away. T took, stock a few days later and found I had nothing but my nnd left, and as my renters were sufferers as well as I, I could collect no rents. My first' thought was to drop everything and retire to Shanghai and live on the bounty of my prosperous fons, but once the army was out I took new cour~ age, brought in new capital from the' sale of holdings in smaller cities and began again.
"Twice in three years I had the same experiences again and saw the gains of my capital and brains de-youred by rowdy armies. After the Inst experience I sold out my real estate at a sacrifice and came to Shanghai to spend the remainder of my days. I took over one of the small banks that had been a failure and it developed sufficiently to make me independent.
"Since that time I have spent a great deal of time watching the steady growth of Shanghai's pope lation, There is never a month but what I meet some old acquaint ance who has followed my example, Seven out of every 10 have been ined by what the railways brought to them—the same devouring arm-The finest business men China are now living in Shanghai, some still in business, some living on their incomes and not a few in poverty.
All Make-Believe Last year I visited the city of which T spoke a few minutes ago and was tremendously impressed with its apparent growth, I felt for time that T had made a great mise take in not holding oura while longer, The shops had beautiful fronts and there were fine displays in the windows, but_an old banker friend took me' behind the scenes. 1 found him gambling with his ser= vants at a penny a throw and pressed my surprise that a man of his wealth and ability should be so engaged, but ho replied bitterly, What is the use of doing business any more? All T gain is eaten up by soldier demands, T have managed to live by converting all my money into farm lands and getting rents in grain—and then giving the, better part of that to the soldier He took mo to several shops and behind the front showcases were empty shelves. In the old days. he laid in stocks twice @ year making the Jong and laborious trips to Shanghai to buy, but once back he knew how to make his prices. These showy shops were operating om slim feapital and dared not invest. more {if they had it. They make frequent trips for goods and naturally prices are very high. If cleaned out 8 loot, they can start again, but not s0 the great. establishments whose existence gives stability to markets,"
"But are you not humiliated at having to live and conduct your Lusiness under this foreign-ruled city, where the evidence of foreign domination is before you every hour of the day?" his" grandson asked.
A Job for Experts "One subject at a time," Lao Goo remarked, "and we are talking about railroads,' I studied the subject a flong time and I found that the management of a railroad was a /highly technical task and in foreign countries the presidents of railroads often receive as much salary as the president of the United States, used my influence in getting the agreements signed, stipulating the central control was to be in foreign hands because T knew the folly of putting such a tremendous enterprise into the hands of mere tyros. Little by little this foreign control has lapsed and in the same proportion have our railways gone to pieces. The passenger or shipper the world over demands of service comfort, speed, safety and moderate cost." On my last few trips the first three items were dise
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.