Tu formulating a sound judgment upon the celebrated Into Sheng Kung-pao, we need not condemn him or praise him outright so far his personal conduct is concerned. Nevertheless, every intelligent reader, well-versed in Chinese history, will admit that ho is the foremost farsighted pioneer who materialized establishment of numens indastrial, mining and other constructive enterprises on a giguvic scale at ani age when indust:¢ was almes! entirely unknown to Chinn Tt is interesting to sketch several of his arnest remarkable undectakiags a:11 Juerative enterprises chat are worthy of worldwide applace and universal' commendation.
First and foremost in importane? re lis industrial interes number of phases, camely, navigation, post, railway, telegraph, bank ing, iron and coal: ainiag and ete., Nercedays, the Chino:0 people enjoy the comfort and convenience of communication and travelling: the government reaps annually stu; dous sums of profit from Post Office and Railways. All owe greatly their favours to this reputed, wonderful, constructive genius. Tt is "itis educational interest realized in the form of colleges and universities that produce thousands of learned scholars and skilled technical exports, It: is his industrial enterprises that directly furnish employment and indieetly give bread and butter to millions and millions of the poor who would otherwise have been starved to death. Imagine what a great menace it would be to. society if the proletariat which eonstitute the majority of the Chinese population were left idle as a correlative consequence of unemployment! The rich and the poor would suffer alike and the nation would be in an abominable state of commotion and unrest! Viewed in this category, aside from being the foremost, pioneer industrial leader, the Into "Sheng Kung-pao is a great! social saviour.
is not exaggeration, then, to say that Chinese as a' collective people receive the blessings of peace and order, prosperity and happiness: from the late Sheng Kung-pao. Needless to say, he expended abundance of brain power, fathomless volume of energy and innumerable ities of wealth in the reali-his lofty visions and uplifting interests. In the erection of the Great Bridge of the Yellow River and the Excavation of the Kwang Wu Hills, the Belgian engineers narrate that the local off. cials and the gentry, deeply imbued with superstitious beliefs in geomancy, made stubborn opposition to the proposal and offered numerous obstructions to the work and that the late Sheng Kung-pao alone, p sistently upheld his views, overcome feountiess number of difficulties and finally brought about the completion of the two. well-known pieces of work. Such zealous,—contructive spirit and persistent, untiring effort not only unique in China, but al rare in the Buropean countries.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.