Mr. P.
P. Whitham on the Influence of Railways s luncheon of the Mr. Paul Page Whitham, who has been in charge of the Yellow River Conservancy project, gave an address "Transportation and—Civilization'! with particular reference to China. Im his opening phrases, the speaker showed how in the days of the Han Dynasty, the facilities for transport China were much better than in Europe, but with the advent of the industrial r tion, and its consequent material—advance along all lines on the Continent
still, speaking. and Americ 1. China had stood The nieces of the country were tremendous and could be made to form' a wealthy nation with the introduction of modern methods of—transportation. Commerce could easily be quadrupled. He cited the instance of the. Peking-Mukden Railway Line, through which the population of Manchuria had increased by 10,000,000, mostly immigrants from Shensi, Chibli and Shaniung.
Although the people of the distant provinces were not affected by the Central Government, they were nevertheless thinking modern terms, even along gov-emmental lines. Material—advances were being made without the railroads, and mills of different. kinds depending upon the produce of the locality were being built. Were the ratio of steam roads, aided by. feeder electric lines, brought to anywhere
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.