48
railway has been completed between Shih-Chia Chuang and T'ai Yuan Fu. Now it is proposed to extend the Tao-k'ou-Ch'ing-Hau Road, in Honan, to P'ing-Yang, in Shan Si, where it is to connect with a line to be built from Taung in the north to J'u-Chour in the southwest. The government is anxious to develop the mineral resources of the province and has issued an edict reducing freight charges.
The construction of the Peking-Kalgan railway has been proctically completed. For the heavy grade above Nank'ou the company has ordered three American locomotives. Those now in use are of British make.
Consul General Williams emphasizes the importance of having American manufacturers represented in China by American agents. The Chinese themselves have made progress in the manufacture of railway materials, rolling stock, etc, For several years past rails have been supplied by the mills at Han Yang and the T'Ong-Shan shops, eighty miles northeast of Ttantsin, on the Peking-Mukuen Line.
Competition
The following report from the United States Consul Genera] William Martain, of Honkow, China, tells just what kind of competition the western world can expect when once the industrial machinery of the Far East is in full operation. Mr. Martain reports that the Japanese are underselling the Standard Oil Company. He calls attention to a striking illustration of the skill with which Japanese manufacturers imitate any marketable article. During 1907, to aid in the sale of kerosene among the masses of Chinese, the Standard Oil Company had manufactured in the United States a large quantity of small brass lamps to be distributed at or under cost.
These were shipped to their various agencies and ordered sold at retail for seventeen cents Mexican, which at the present price of silver amounts to about seven sents. For that sum the Chinese received a small brass hand lamp and glass chimney, as well as a wick, one-half inch wide. The lamp holds one-half pound of oil and will give a continuous light for fourteen hours.
The Japanese are filling the markets with an exact imitation of the Standard Oil lamp and selling them for less than the Standard Oil lamps under cost price. Yet the Japanese make a profit.
The Department of Commerce and Labor Consular
