A writer on the coal areas of the nation says:
A good geologist, Baron von Richthofen, has reported that he
has found a coal-field in the province of Hunau covering an
area of 21,700 square miles, which is nearly double the British
coal area of 12,000 square miles. In the province of Shansi,
the baron discovered nearly 30,000 square miles of coal, with
unrivaled facilities for mining. But all these vast coal-fields,
capable of supplying the whole world for some thousands of years
to come, are lying unworked.
If “the course of manufacturing supremacy of wealth and of
power” were directed by coal, then China, which possesses 33.3
times more of this directive force than Great Britain, and had
so early a start in life, should be the supreme summit of the
industrial world. If this solid hydrocarbon “raises up one
people and casts down another,” the Chinaman should be raised
thirty-three times and three-tenths higher than the Englishman;
if it “makes railways on land and paths on the sea,” the Chinese
railways should be 33.3 times longer than ours, and the tonnage
of their mercantile marine 33.3 times greater.
China is thus shown to be, potentially, the wealthiest coal-bearing
country in the world. Actually, she is one of the poorest. The
difference lies in her lack of utilization of that which is hers. So
many a man fails of the best results. He possesses untold wealth, but
he is morally and spiritually poverty-stricken because he fails to work
the moral and spiritual deposit.
(3369)