Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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23, 1901. THE GAFFNEY LEDGER: APRIL United States. And, yet, seven years ago the first Iron shipment abroad was from Birmingham, Ala. AMERICA'S FINANCIAL INDE PENDENCE. Another feature of American Influ ence is our suddenly acquired financial independence. For years we have been borrowers, but during the two years past we have become lenders of money. Three of the largest European governments, England, Germany and Russia, have found it necessary to come to New York for important loans, thus showing that the center of the financial world has been transferred from Lombard to Wall street. It is folly for the political leaders of the South to close their eyes to the truth that the commercial expansion of the United States is a fact of constantly enlarging proportions, demanding changed governmental policies to meet new conditions In spite of higher wages, with labor- saving machinery, the superior skill and Intelligence of our operatives, un der a factory system better organized than any in the world, is giving us in dustrial ascendancy. It needs, how ever, to support it a broad statesman ship, not handicapped by sectional prejudices. We can differ about do mestic matters and divide upon party lines, but when it comes to utilizing national opportunities, North, South, East and West should unite in main taining the supremacy of the United States in the great struggle for the commerce of the world. THE SOUTH FREED FROM HER BONDAGE. The South must play an important part In our country’s future. For a third of a century she has been ham pered by a struggle for mere existence, forced to devote all of her energy and statesmanship to the maintenance of white supremacy. Thank God, this is permanent and assured beyond perad- venture of doubt. At last she has emerged from her forlorn and pros trate condilion; freed from her en thrallment, she can put herself in touch with the best thought of the age, and again exercise an influence in national life. I believe the time will come when the South will be the hope and salvation of this nation. Her marvelous growth in manufacturing enterprises, her development of natu ral resources, and her rapid advance in progressive thought and action, is | making her again the leading section , in this country. The center of manu facturing in the United States has ; been transferred from Fall River, j Mass., to Columbia, S. C. But if we J would make the most of our opportuni ties we must renounce sectional prej- i udices and support broad national pol- ( Icles, looking to the creation of foreign 1 markets, the expansion of trade and the upbuilding of a common country, j We must demand and have for the ' South a full share of the benefits as well os the burdens of national life. ! The South is vitally interested in the Asiatic markets. Her manufacturers are studying the needs of the people in an intelligent effort to turn out pro ducts suited to those markets. The administration is doing a great deal towards improving our commer-1 cial opportunities in the East, by showing some regard for the inalien able rights of China, while protecting the legitimate demands of foreign in- I terests. Dewey’s victory first estab lished American prestige along the Asiatic coast. It was then that 800,- 000,000 yellow, brown and black peo- ! pie learned respect for the United States and saluted us as a first-class power. The attitude of the United! States since in the field of diplomacy ; In China has given confidence and in- ' creased that respect. The United 1 States from the first took the lead, and even the war-like Emperor of Ger- ! many has had to yield to “Uncle Sam’s’’ friendly admonitions. We j now occupy the vantage ground, be- i cause on friendly terms, with all the powers. I make the assertion that the South has more to gain than any oth er section from the foreign policy now pursued by the administration, par ticularly when the isthmian canal is constructed, as it will be. I have read extracts from the speech of my amia ble and distinguished friend His Ex cellency, Minister Wu, recently made in Chicago It is replete with wisdom and good sense. We cannot hope and we should not wish to break down the civilization of China upon which is based a polity, society and religion the slow growth of 4,000 years. To do so Is to destroy the Empire in the at tempt to suddenly thrust upon her a Western civilization for which her people are not prepared. All we can hope to do is to vitalize this old civili zation with Western ideas, science and inventive genius, thus making it more potential in material achievements. This country has done well to use every effort by the benign influence of its political and commercial power to preserve the identity of the Empire and the integrity of Its civilization. I Under this policy, it is reasonable to | expect China to become the constant- ! ly expanding market for our products, and as gradually her Interior is fully developed by a network of railroads and all of her cities opened up to for eign commerce, the opportunities are almost without limit. The South now controls most of this trade, and with such development, in the near future, it should Increase ten-fold. We are no longer a purely agricul tural section, hut mining, manufactur ing and kindred interests have sprung into prominence and demand govern mental policies to protect and develop them. A statesmanship so partisan In its character as to adhere to old polit ical doctrines, either settled by the *r- bltrament of the sword or firmly fix d as governmental policies, cannot soh - the political and economic problems now confronting the Southern people. Such a statesmanship cannot properly in 4 erpret present economic movements, nor provide by aggressive and pro gressive thought for the radically changed conditions now confronting ua. MK. MMYTIIK'B HPPKCH. The Importance of the “Open Door” In (<hlne to (totton Mamifecturm-The Latter MhoaM Have Able Kepresentatlvts In the Kaet -KuNNla’a Competition. ■Mr. Hmythe said: The subject you have assigned me is most interesting and lm|»ortant and one that appeals ao every Interest in this country. I trust I will not miss the point of the toast like the fellow who leaned out of the open window of a rapidly moving train to kiss his, sweetheart good bye, but instead | kissed a cow at the next station. To me this subject has been a mat ter of thought, consideration and In vestigation, but sometimes It is diffi cult to give utterance to one’s opinion I or suggest what one believes to be a I remedy for existing evils. IMPORTANCE OF THE OPEN DOOR 1 In November. 1899, in a letter to The Manufacturers’ Record, of Baltimore ! In reply to It’s inquiry, “Why does the cotton manufacturing industry of the Mouth need the trade with the Orient?’’ I was bold enough to prophecy as fol- lowa: “With the doors of China dosed against us to-morrow It would mean that every ootton mill In the Mouth, as well as the vaat number of employes in Southern cotton mills, would suffer untold harm, and it is therefore im portant that we see to It that those doors never close. It has been said China is a nation of incalculable j>os- sibilities, and this Is a time of Ameri can opportunities in the Pacific. Be fore France occupied or asserted sov ereignty over the Island of Madagas car, the United States enjoyed a large trade with that island, as the Pelzer Manufacturing Company was fully aware of. but since France lias con trolled that island we have been en tirely shut off and our business there lost.” The doors of China have been closed against us for eight or ten months, but while within the last month or six weeks they hae been partially ajar, the disastrous result has been apparent, and keenly felt by every community where there is a cotton mill, and there is one universal prayer going up from all interested, both directly and indi rectly, in the cotton mill industry, that a settlement of affairs in China will lie finally, quickly and peacefully adjusted, and the trade and commerce as it existed a year ago be rapidly re established. Your distinguished guest, the Chi nese minister, in a recent interview, has shown that he is thoroughly con versant with the trade conditions ex isting in China, and takes a friendly interest in the relations borne by the Southern cotton mills to that trade, and 1 quote from the interview as fol lows: “We have been accustomed to hear that China was very slow. But in this case many weeks and months are going by without any delay at tributable to China so far as I have heard, and yet without definite pros pects of bringing the negotiations to a dose. Tills unsettled condition is very injurious to China, but it also is an injury which affects the whole world. Take for Instance the cotton industry of the South. The shipments to China are very large, but they have been falling off owing to the unsettled condition of affairs, and the trade is seriously menaced. What we need and what the commercial world needs Is stability ami some definite understand ing of what conditions are to be.” OBSTACLES IN THE WAY OF CHI NESE TRADE. He is doubtless fully aware of the obstacles now existing preventing the full development of both the export and import trade in China. These ob stacles are clearly set forth in an ad dress from the American Association of Merchants in Shanghai, written a few weeks ago to the American minis ter in China. They point out that the import duties are excessive in the in terior provinces, especially after for eign goods have passed the seaport, and that these duties increase largely in proportion to the distance from the port of entry to inland markets, and that every province has this particu lar style of duty called "liken,” which increases the cost of foteign goods immensely and destroys largely the profits of the native merchants. “Liken” means a tax of one-tenth of 1 per cent, ad valorem. It has been the subject of dispute between the English and Chinese governments upon several occasions. In the treaty of ]X r >8 it was stipulated that British suhjec s should have the opfion of freeing their goods from all inland taxation by the payment of one-half the import and export duty, when a transit pass should issue. The import and export duties have been calculated on a basis of 5 per cent, ad valorem, making the transit pass duly per cent. It is to be hoped that the wide expe rience and wise council of men like Minister Wu and Secretary Hay will find a way that will give both China and the United States relief from these burdensome charges and obstacles to business. At the same time we must not depend too much upon government aid and support. The time is at hand when the American merchant and manufacturer should be directly rep resented In Chinese markets, and by representatives who are conversant wiih the Chinese language. RUSSIA A STRONG COMPETITOR. It is much to be feared, however, that Russia will be a stronger com petitor for the Chinese trade in the fu ture than she has in the past. The growth of the cotton mill industry in Russia has been steady, and now has assumed large proportions and the raising of cotton in Souihern Russia has also increased in a very marked degree. Russia will have great ad vantages in controlling the railroads to and in China, as recently stated by Mr. Jernigan in his letter on China af fairs published in your daily paper, and her influence in China’s affairs is to be dreaded. It is most fortunate that China has had :he nerve to refuse to sign the Manchurian treaty with Russia, and If she has been influenced in any way by this government towards taking that stand, it is most important that we render her every support that is nec essary to enable her to maintain that position. Our government should be strengthened in this determination by the advice and request of all the com mercial bodies of this country. We want, to be, and we need to be on more close commercial relations with the Chinese Empire. We do not want to see it dismantled or broken up, and President McKinley has shown a high onler of statesmanship in dealing with ihe China question since the beginning of the China troubles. OUR TRADE WITH CHINA IN CREASING. It has been a matter of great gratifi cation to all Americans, and particu larly to the Southern manufacturers, that the imports from America into China for a few years previous to the present disturbances in China, showed a large increase of American goods as compared with previous years. The importation of American sheetings and drills was nearly 100 per cent, more in the year 1899 than in 1898. As a large proportion of these goods were made in the Southern S ates it was especially gratifying to Southern mill men. We were confronted, however, with the question of cheaper price of English goods, and we were also com peting with the low freight of B0 cents per hundred pounds from Manchester, England, to Shanghai by way of the Suez Canal. 1 had the impression that the English goods were heavily sized with other substances than cotton, which of course made the cost of pro duction much less. 1 spent the month of August in 1899 around Manchester, England, and Investigated the cotton mill conditions in that country. I was anxious to get Into a slasher room and Investigate their methods of sizing. I had le'ters that procured me admis sion Into a number of cot'on mills, but I could not find the way to the slasher rooms. Finally by dint of persever ance I succeeded, and secured the for- rmda used, and brought It with some samples of the China clay In different stages of preparation home with me. Tills clay Is a beautifully fine sub stance found on the coast of England, at Cornwall, and sold at a very small price per pound, and used by the ox- poiters of eotton goods in England very largely. It Is put through a chemical process, boiled with different adds, and adulterated with fats, and in two mills I was In, the sizing for the wnrp varied from 42 to 4B per cent. and as this day cost about a quarter of a cent per pound to get, you can easily see the saving in the cost of the English warp. Of course these goods when exposed to the washboard lose rapidly the benefit of this substance, and the cloth after the wash Is very different in appearance from what it was before. In the South we do not size our warps over 6 to G per cent. AMERICAN GOODS THE BEST. Now the Chinese are a most intelli gent and refined people, and are natu ral laundrymen, and so they appreciate the difference in the manufacture and the washing qualities of the American cloths, and this is the secret of the rapid growth in the imports of Ameri can goods, and this proves it pays to lie honest, and you cannot by painting rabbits on a bald man’s head make people imagine they are hairs. In India tiie conditions are different. The Mussulmans do not wash so fre quently and his clothes consist prin cipally of a strip of cloth around the middle. They buy this in lengths of fifteen to twenty yards and wrap it in folds around the body, and as it be comes soiled they simply cut off the outer fold and present a clean appear ance. In this way the advantages of honestly made goods are not appre ciated, and they are not willing to pay the difference in cost, consequently England still holds her control of the India trade. QUESTIONS CONSIDERED INDE PENDENT OF PARTY. Most of us here to-night have been brought up in the faith of the Demo cratic party, and to abhor as evil all ; measures suggested by the Republican ' party, but strange things have come ! to pass, and we have to acknowledge ; that the commercial and business in- j terests of this entire country had to I depend upon the Republican party for | the stability of our currency, and the ! maintenance of our commercial honor ; among other nations. It is the part, of l wisdom therefore to consider all eco- j nomic and other measures relating to ; our national policy strictly on their ■ merits, regardless of the political par- ! :y that brings them forward. Much ! has been written and said about our acquisition of the Philippine Islands, but it should not be forgotten that we 1 have a clearer title to them, and a better right to be there than our fore fathers had to the original thirteen ! States, and f expect we are there to ' stay. That war is happily about over, ! and it is order now for our export trade to inorease, and be extended by ' commercial relations with those peo ple. It is a fact that the business of i this country with Cuba and the Ha waiian Islands has increased during the last year, and an early settlement of the China troubles and the opening up of business relations with the Phil ippines will give an outlet that is needed for the greatest manufacturing country in the world. Cecil Rhodes .predicts that the United 8 ateMHWill in j time control Mexico and all South : America. Perhaps not, and perhaps ; not to be desired, but the United i States of the future will be a greater, richer, more powerful and more influ ential country than ever before. A BETTER MERCHANT MARINE FAVORED, AVe should heartily favor any meas ure that would tend to the upbuilding i and strengthening of our merchant j marine, and I would like to see the day when the United .States tlag will ! be as often seen on the high seas as it ; was flity years ago. The Hanna sub- i sidy bill, so called, now before Con- gress, is endorsed by the National As sociation of Manufacturers, and its ; enactment into law would be one step ! towards the re-establishing of our merchant marine. The Pelzer Com pany is a large shipper of export cot- ; tons, and to-day we are shipping five car-loads of sheetings and drills to China, and as usual with our trans continental shipments, these goods are j routed by the byers by the most di rect line to Canada, then by the Cana dian Pacific Railroad to Vancouver and by the British Mail Steamship i Line to China. It is perhaps not alto- | gether strange, under all the cireum- j stances, that while there are three | railroad lines in the United States ; across the continent, and with steam- sit ip lines from San Francisco, the Canadian Pacific Railroad and British mail steamship lines bag all the busl- ! ness. It is a fact, however, that from , mills in South Carolina goods for j China go first lo Canada, and thence j across the continent. If our steam- ; ship lines were also subsidized be- i tween San P’rancisco and China this I would not be the case. If it w r ere not ! for the advantages offered by the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company, advantages that are being offered by reason of the subsidizing of this line by the British government, the South ern cotton manufacturers could not compete in freight rates with the Pln- gllsh manufacturers who can ship from Manchester, England, to Shang hai, by the Suez Canal at the rate of 50 cants per hundred pounds. In our effort to develop trade with South America we are confronted with the double freights we have to pay in ship- t>fng goods, first to Liverpool and then hack across the Atlantic to South American ports. There are no s eam- shlp lines, of any moment, or that have regular sailings in existence be tween our ports and those of South America, whereas in Rio de Janeiro alone, there are twenty-eight lines of steamships running regularly from Great Britain and the continent. All of these lines are subsidized by for eign governments, and of course trade follows the flag. It has been suggested by one of our local papers that this could be over come by the Southern manufacturers chartering a steamer and sending a ship load of goods to South America. This Idea lacks practicability, simply because goods are not consigned to ex- t*ort dealers, but are shipped on orders, and from samples previously furnished and In smaller quantities. It would be a costly experiment to consign a ship load of manufactured goods to any foreign port. The day of barter ing with the natives Is past. IMPORTANCE OF THE CANAL. There is another matter that should be constantly agitated by Southern commercial bodies, and that is, the canal between the Pacific and AGantlc. This canal would make the Gulf of Mexico a second Mediterranean Sea in its number of vessels passing over its broad waters, and would be not only an inestimable advantage to the United States generally, but particu larly so to the Southern States. CLOUDS OF BUSINESS DEPRES SION BREAKING. The cotton manufacturing business, yarn and cloth, both North and South, has been experiencing a most severe '“St, but are not the present conditions the result* of bad trading, in bulling and buying cotton, and not altogether an evidence of bad trade? The South ern cotton mill man naturally desires eotton to rule high as it benefl's his neighbors and friends. His Influence In the local cotton market Is always felt and ids absence noted. This year change In the tone of the market since the Southern mills finished their purchases and withdrew has J»ef n marked. The end is not yet and we have, I fear, several months ahead of is of depressed busi ness conditions, but the clouds are breaking, and the outlook is brighter; we have touched the button round of the ladder, and things will soon come our way again, and before long we will remember this experience as a thing of the past, and will perhaps ask each other what the parrot asked the cler gyman. A man had a parrot that swore Infamously, and a friend told the owner the way to cure the parrot when profane was to throw water on it. The next day a clergyman came to dine with the owner of the parrot, and as soon as the parrot saw him lie commenced swearing furiously and tin- owner took a tumbler of water and threw it over him. The parrot shook himself and picked his feathers and then on looking around saw the cler gyman was not wet. and said; “Where in the hell were you during that hur ricane?” DR. DAKNKY'S ADDRESS. Significance of America's Relations With China Reciprocity the Watchword of Our Dealings With the People of the Orient. Dr. Dabney spoke as follows; The people of the South are a ehival- rie people; they love instinctively a brave, true man. I am sure, therefore, that we have the sympathy of every .thinking person in our section In the pleasure we have this evening in greet ing his exceller.ey the Chinese minister to the United States upon the occasion of his first visit to our Southland. Ever since the confusion in China, a year ago, our people have had a great ad miration for the noble man who through the whole distressing perio 1 never for a moment lost his faith in right or his hepe for peace, but laborel so wisely that, instead of making a breach between us, this terrible episode has warmed the hearts of all good men to support this ancient empire in her efforts to work out her own salvation independent of European interferem-c- As a result of the honest and faithful ministrations of your guest of the even ing, the bonds of interest and sympathy between the United States and China, which have united these countries since the earliest days, have been still better cemented. May our meeting to-night contribute something further to perfect our union with our great neighbor upon the ocean called Pacific, and may all our relations be forever those which that name implies. RECIPROCITY WITH CHINA. In an article published in The North American Review last July his excel lency has himself given us the rule which should govern our future inter course with his country. He tells us that when Confucius, the great teacher, was asked for a single word that might serve as a guiding principle through life, he gave his people the word “re ciprocity,” brotherhood. Upon this his excellency bases an admirable article upon "Mutual Helpfulness Between China and the United States.” We are here to-night to join hands with his excellency to accept this word as our motto. Hear this, you men of America: A son of Confucius comes to you, fol lowers of Jesus Christ, the teacher of the brotherhood, and proposes to make reciprocity the watchword of the rela tions between his people and ours. In obedience to the teachings of our great Master, we must accept the “Golden Rule” as the law not only of our inter course with China but of our relations with all peoples everywhere; and may God grant to our government and to its people the grace to live up to it! What a glorious consummation it would be, if the newest and the oldest people should be the first to clasp hands in practical illustration of the brotherhood of nations! THE UNITED STATES CO-OPERAT ING WITH CHINA FOR PEACE. We congratulate his excellency, we congratulate ourselves, that China and the United States are now co-operating to secure permanent peace in the East. Let us seek to learn the significance ot! these remarkable relations between the most conservative, and the most pro gressive country in the world. It is a significant fact in the history of to day. What does it mean? The progress of the human race, through all the ages has been along two lines, the evolution of the Individ ual and the organization of society. The savage state was characterized by a low form of individualism with no social organization. The barbarian pos sessed a somewhat stronger individual ism and a very little organization. With the dawn of civilization the peo ples of the earth divided into two grent bodies, the Eastern developing along the line of social organization and th^ Western along the line of individual evolution. Egypt, Assyria, India and China sacrificed individualism to the organization and established a stable, but stagnant, society. Greece in the ancient world, and Germany, France, England and the United States in the modern, stood for the rights of the in dividual and sacrificed the organization In order to make the man strong and free. The ideal of the Western world was liberty and equality in the individ ual. The trend of the Eastern people was always towards organization, and that of the Western was always to wards individualism. Each group was working out the great problem of so cial evolution. Th" individual had first to be trained and developed before lie was fit to be a member of a perfect so ciety, and the organization had to be completed before the peoples could bi brought into it. Thus “through the ages one increasing purpose runs.” Both lines of development were neces sary and both were directed towards the same end, the perfection of man and of society. NO MAN LIVETH UNTO HIMSELF. If history, philosophy and religion teach us anything It is the solidarity of all mankind, that “no man llveth unto himself and no man dieth unto himself,’’ but that we are each "his brother’s keeper.” During the period of his individual development, men grew strong in wars and contests. Strife and carnage have been the characteristics of our Western civilization. America is the latest school of the individual, but even in America we are beginning to learn the necessity of co-operation. We were the rtist to apply Its principles upon a grand scale in government, in manufacturing, and in business; and, if I read the signs of the times aright, this co-operation in business is leading up to a better realization of the glo rious doctrine of the brotherhood of man. In spite of the selfishness of our society, In spite of the contentions of our life, we must believe that the lav. of Christ will prevail, and “For a’ that anti a’ that It’s coming yet, for a’ that That man to man, the world o’er. Shall brothers be, for a’ that." Through the ages of darkness, sorrow and strife, th« nations have marched on and on along these two ways, and are come at last into the light of day with the dawn of the twentieth cen tury. Everything prophesies the coming of a new' and a more glorious era. There Is a new civilization In Japan, and a new one In Ind'a. Chinn, led by such men ns her distinguished minister, Is open ing her doors to the modern life. Until a few years ago the Dark Continent was a mystery. It nlso has been opened up to the light, and, with a railroad from the Cape to Cairo, will soon be a - cesalble to all the agencies of civiliza tion. Trade and commerce, the railroad and the telegraph, are drawing the peo ples of the ea*th Into ever closer rela tions, which tender isolation, and there fore barbarism, Impossible forevermore. The progress of science, destroying su perstition, clears the way for trutit. The growth of freedom, removing the barriers of conservatism, prepares the way for advancing civilization—surely all these things indicate that the world lias entered upon a new era, an era of union and peace, in which the doctrine of brotherhood shall be exemplified a.-, never before. "Out of ine shadow of nigiit The world moves into light. It is daybreak everywhere.” THE OLDEST AND YOUNGEST I’EOPLE STANDING TOGETHER. China, at the head of the Eastern col umn, America at the head of the Western, the oldest people standing for organization and the youngest for indi vidual liberty. Behold them facing ea' h other on the Pacific Ocean! Separate! from the world by a wall of conserva tism and pride far more effectual than her thousand miles of brick, China has developed her organization until it i& about to break with its own weight. Isolated on a broad, rich continent, America has developed the individual ity of her people until she must now- find an outlet for their productive en ergies or they will destroy each other in pure wantonness of power. Each people is the best of its own class, tlia ripest fruit of its peculiar civilization. They meet now for the first time. How- critical, how pregnant this moment then for the future of the world! The great old dragon of the East confronts the young giant of the West. Will it be war or will it be peace? A war between China and the United States would be a world-wrecking calamity. We cannot think of it; it must be peace and peace forever. This then is the significance of the meeting of our nations on the Pacific, reflected as it is by this meeting around this board to-night. We thank you, thou son of the East, for giving us this key-note, Reciprocity. Let us. the sons of the West, take it up and proclaim il as the law of our future relations witn all the peoples of the world, “Thou shall love thy neighbor as thvself!” MAN MUST LIVE MORE FOR HiS BROTHER. It is not given to man to see far into the future, but standing upon the top most peaks of history, and looking down upon the hosts of men marching through the ages from the East and from the West, we realize that they have come to the meeting of the ways where the developed individuality must be embodied in the perfected nation ality. The time lias come when the American must give of his strength to his nation and must live more for his brother and no government will be tol erated except *t be for the benefit of the governed; and when, finally, out of these brotherhoods of men shall be formed a brotherhood of nations. This is the “One far-off divine event To which the whole creation moves.” This is the goal of all man’s ambi tions through all the ages, the estab lishment of a perfect society for the perfect man, the organization of the re deemed nations in the empire of the world. Since history be^an, this has been the dream of the peasant and the king, of the warrior and the prophet; it has been the song of all the poets and the prayer of all the priests; it was the ideal of all the law-givers, of Moses and of Solon; it was the hope of Confu cius and it will be the victory of Christ. FIRST STEP TOWARD A GRAND UNION. It was grossly prefigured in the Ro man Empire, when, in its frightful de velopment of physical force, it Hung forth its avenues toward the ends of the earth and nought to bind all peo ples together under the sceptre of the city on the Tiber; it was dimly con templated by Charlemagne when in splendid rashness he sought to re-es tablish the Western empire with better laws and a richer religion; it was the vision that fascinated Napoleon t, when, with a torch of fire, he sought to trace the boundaries of a new empire history the boundaries of a new empire of the sword. Surpassing all of these, as the eternal vault of heaven sur passes any little spot of earth we call a country, with its artificial boundaries, with its different languages, customs, laws and life; with its troubled people, its confused marts, and its divided churches—indefinitely surpassing all of these human plans, is the plan of Christ who would unite all men in lov ing brotherhood and so bring all na tions together in one family. May we not hope the union thus cemented be tween the United States and China, representing as they do the two great lines of historical development, may be the beginning, in the province of God, of the gathering together of all the na tions of the chi th in one great family - may be the first step towards the for mation of the United States of the world. NOTES. Minis er Wu spent the night at the Manufacturers’ Club and will leave for Washington to-day. His visit to this city was enjoyed by all persons who met him, and there is every reason to believe that he found his stay ip Char lotte pleasant. While here he was, of course, subjected to the closest scru tiny, but this never obtrusive or offensive Quite easily he commanded the respect and admiration that are accorded to great men. The minister's individuality would be felt anywhere. He is perhaps 55 or 60 years of age and is very energetic in his movements. He is rather dark, even for a Chinaman, and his face is peculiarly strong. His eyes are bright and most intelligent. He is never at a loss for a word, always knows what to do and the personal questioning that he is wont to Indulge in occasionally is not misunderstood or meant to be em barrassing. He impresses one as being a singularly kindly, sincere man. Among other places visited in this city Mr. Wu stopped at the school at the Atherton Mill yesterday. Miss Anna Carr, the principal, Invited him into the room where she was teaching an ad vanced class, and he and the rest of the party sat while the remarkably well- trained class sang “America” and “Dixie” and a song that Miss Carr ex plained had been translated from the Chinese. The minister was all attention and interest, and when the singing was finished he questioned Miss Carr ns to her methods and preference In teaching. Did she like to teach boys or girls, and which wore the most intelligent? After Miss Carr finally admitted, after argu ment. that she preferred to teach boys, Mr. Wu seemed perfectly satisfied and strode away with a smile on his face. Mr. Wu to « Young lately. Minister Wu knows how to outwit the women, as Is evident from what he said to a Charlotte young lady Thurs day afternoon at the reception. The fair one asked: “Mr. Wu, are all the men in China as nice as you are?" The shrewd gentleman answered: ”1 shall answer your question by asking one. Are ail the young women of Charlotte as sweet as you are?" At this juncture the curtain fell and the young lady passed on. THE ADVENTURES OF A DIVER. ONKOKTHKM WITUCARUODVNAHI I K A Ticklish Job Performed In the Hudson River—At Another Time He Caught Iu- quUltlve Kish While Helping a Crank to I.urate Hume Copper—A Walk on the Kaet Rlver'a lied. New York Sun. The diver's vocation descends in families much more generally than is tiie case with other callings. The son of an expert diver seldom looks omside of the home profession for his life work. In a certain family owning their own home in one of the slips by the East river there have been three generations to wear the rubber suit. There are hundreds of divers working with the big wrecking companies who are for eigners, Swedes and Norwegians, who embarked in the calling more or less thoughtlessly and with no particular ambitions regarding i-;. But the New York divers in business tor themselves are for the most part responsible citi zens liking the work for its own sake and proud of any reputation they may have gained in it. On days when the wind is very high or it is unusually cold these divers do not work, but put in their time cement ing patches on their suits or making up their accounts by the hospitable stove that is a feature of the front of fice. Then is the lime that they can be induced to unlock their store of expe riences and. afford glimpses of the everyday ordinary affairs in the diver's world. "I know the under-water tracks of the harbor and the river about here as well as I know the city streets,” said the .conservative East river diver one day. "I have trudged up the bed of the East river more than once, and only lately went hunting for some car wheels that had tumbled off a freight- boat. They were thought to have been lost somewhere between Thirty-fourth street and the Battery and the whole distance had to be gone over. "The wheels were valuable. There were thirty of them to be hunted up and it wasn’t a light job. The cablea in the river hang seven, eight and ten feet from the botton. The diver might walk under them but for the life-line. 1 climbed over every cable on the route and my man holding the signal rope in the boat that w r ent along with me had to use great care. I located the wheels, but when I got home T was sore in every joint. “This is a great business for locating cranks,” he added after a while. “Vis ionary, ilighty-mlnded people are .al ways hitting on some scheme by which the treasures of the deep are to be turned into their hands. 1 went hunt ing once for Lake Erie copper in four teen fathoms of water. My employer was a private party, an inventor much interested in the subject of lost car goes. lie came on to New York to en gage me purposely because T had a reputation for doing very thorough work. “He said that there was good proof that 350 tons of copper had gone down in a certain boat in Lake Erie thirty- five years ago and that he had invented an instrument guaranteed to point out the exact spot where the copper could be found. My part was to go dowm to the bottom at the place indicated, nail the copper wfith my spear and send up enough of it to the boat to be used as a sample. He offered fair pay, and said he had gone over the records so often and so thoroughly that he was satis fied there could be no mistake as to the location which his needle w'ould show’ us. ‘ Well he chartered a fine boat and we went out to a place on the lake about ten or twelve miles from the town of Erie and fished around persistently for three whole days at the point where the treasure was supposed to be. But no sort of wreckage could I find, no trace of either boat or copper. Each time that I expressed myself as being certain there was no cargo to be found, my employer would say that the instru ment had given a new tracing and we must move the boat in a certain direc tion and try again. His faith was something that would not be downed. At la<#t, realizing that there was no copper, but that I had to stay below 'he surface in order to satisfy my man I took to fishing. “Fish show great curiosity about a diver. They swim round close as if Tying to make him out by getting new points of view. That time there were numerous striped bass Interested in me It was as though they were fascinated, or else were trying to charm me. I amused myself by waiting until they were on a level with my head-gear, s.aring me straight in the eyes, and then spiking them with the spear I was to have hit the copper wi h. I got seven or eight of the beauties and tied them on the haullng-up rope, and when I appeared on top with that fine catch the boat hands shouted ’Hurrah!' The inven or himself ate some of the fish when they come to the table, but they and they alone represented my re ward for the mining trip. “Tills lost-cargo fiend had risked ail he was worth in getting out his inven tion and in hiring and equipping the boat. It was his expectation to realize enough on the copper deal to make up for all expenses. Later he showed me how cleverly the Instrument could lo cate a couple of nickles flung out hap hazard in a vacant Jot, but he agree 1 that .is a locater of copper sunk in fourteen fathoms of water for thirty years the invention was a disappoint ment.” The valuable diver is one who has learned the principles of stone masonry and building before he took up diving. He ir hired to examine the abutments of bridges and sea walls and look into the underpinnings of waterside s ruct- ures and decide whether they need re pairing. He is educated and alive to the value of new inventions and reads the engineering journals for new devel opments. The other sort of diver does merely the drudgery of the trade. He is put to piling up rocks or doing the plain work already mapped out for him, where blasting has been done or deep foundations are to be laid. He is really an under-water workman of a similar caliber to the hod carrier and coal heaver ashore, except that his move ments are more difficult because of Ills dress. The superior diver will work at depths anywhere from seventy to nine ty feet, whereas those less proflclen will not go below thirty-five feet. “The best paying undeitakings now adays such as the raising of a grea liner or the removing of some conspic uous obstruction, all go to the organ ized companies,” said the exi>ert diver. “The big wrecking houses have cut a good deal Into the business of the Indi vidual divers, but still there Is much work that demands care and tact, and a man of known ability always keeps busy. ‘ Only la e|y my son and I had a Job that it took considerable caution to execute. A lighter with dynamite aboard had been abandoned and sunk in the Hudson river. The authorities wanted the s:uff done away with. Two separate companies of divers had In vestigated the matter and declined to undertake the removal before we took hold. The dynamite was In 196 fifty- pound packages stowed in with a eai- go of coal bound for the State capital. There were several dozen boxes of gun powder aboard also, a peculiar mixture that warranted a man’s feeling when he tackled the game that it wasn’t ex actly worth the candle. “It is not known what became of the lighter's captain and men, but it seems they must have been sharpers smug gling the dynamite under the head of coal so as to evade the laws regarding explosives. Probably when they got wind that the authorities were on to their game they sunk the lighter as the best way out of the scrape. They would have got several years in prison if caught. “We hauled up the dynamite and dried it in short order without any fu neral ceremony on the left bank of the North river on a slip of land there owned by the government. We only made use of sutficient of the coal cargo to run our boats at the time; the res* is on the bottom yet. Some day we 11 make a river man happy by giving him directions where he can get some fuel for no.hing. The raising of that dyna- mite, a lth°ugh it sounds easy enough to tell of wasn’t an undertaking that we wouid want to tackle every day.” u, / .* rar ‘‘ 5father in this notable fami- ly of divers was an expert in underwa- tei affairs at Dublin port long before he emigrated to New York and loop up the business here. He educated his son to succeed him in his business. The al-i fln L t ? i 1 vin B llres s and helmet aie kept as heirlooms and the grand- ™ h . as a j so a Picture of the diving , s n which his father, then a small boy, used to be taken down to see the wonders of the deep. COTTON MILLS IN t»IK SOUTH. North (arollua'N Uheiiunu-nai Strides In This Industry. V\ m. E. Curtis’ Washington Corres pondence in Chicago Record-Herald Next week the National Cotton Man- ufacturors- Association will hold its an nual meeting at Charlotte, N. C., which suggests that many people will be amazed at the enormous increase in the industry in that section. Twenty years ago, by the census of 1880, there were ISO small cotton mills’ south of the Potomac and Ohio rivers with a total of 890 spindles. The census of 190J will show nearly 800 mills with more -nnnm 4,000 000 s P in dlcs and at least oOO.OOO spindles more to be added wllli- in the next few months in mills now under construction. The most rapid in crease in the history of cotton manu facture in the South is now going on. In forly ' ei g ht new mills with ^63,6(6 new' spindles and 5 000 « 0 ^f:.J er>resPnting an Investment of $3,860,000 were put in operation last yeat. They are all of the latest type both in constiuction and equipment,’ and many of them are run by electric- ity. During the previous year Georgia built thirty-eight new mills with 278 - 000 spindles and 4,710 looms, which represented an equal amount of capi tal. More than 75 per cent, of the stock in the Georgia mills is owned by local capitalists. North Carolina stands next to Geor gia in progress, and on the line of the Southern Railway alone are to-day no less than 123 cotton mills representing a capital of $14,227,950 and consumftib 340-,132 baljs of cotton every year. ^ Few' people realize what this means to the South, not only in giving em ployment to the people, but in the sav ing of transportation charges, commis sion and other items that go to make up the profits of the middlemen and the export and import merchants who handle the raw product. This year the cotton crop is said to be worth $500,000,- 000 as it comes from the gin. By turning it into plain sheetings its value is doubled, and in raising the grade of the manufactured product to a little bet ter quality the value doubles again, and amounts to $2,000,000,000. Nor are cotton mills the only manu facturing concerns that you see now adays in the South. During the last few years the development has been very rapid in all lines of manufacture to consume the raw materials found on the ground. On the Southern Railway, within four States, 1,062 manufactur ing concerns have sprung up within the last ten years. Sixteen are woolen mills, ninety-six are saw mills, ninety-nine flour mills, fifty-two grist mills, fifty- eight are furniture factories, forty-nine are tobacco factories. The furniture in dustry is one of the most important of the new developments in the South. Thirty-nine new factories opened up last year in what is called the Plei- mont section, where there is an un limited supply of hard wood suitab'e for cabinet-making, plenty of low- priced labor, fuel and liberal labor laws. During the last twenty years the rail way mileage of the South has doubled 19,170 miles of track; in 1890 there were 49,627. In 1880 the South produced 373,- 301 tons of pig iron; in 1900 the total surpassed 3,000,000. YOUNG MKN’M Ml’POK I UNITIES. Tli<*y Mru H8 Good Now tt* f.v»r In 1 hit Country** History. Louisville Courier-Journal. It Is an interesting circumstance that the State of Nebraska, which in past years, with Kansas, produced the greatest crop of “calamity howlers,” is now giving effective demonstration of the increase of wealth and the opportu nities that are offered for poor and un known young men to rise in the world. Two or three years of good crops have relieved the farmers from debt and supplied such an abundance of money that there is no longer any complaint of the small per capita. The latest movement in politics has been along the same lines, and consists in the ele vation of two men to the United States Senate whose careers have been in their way as remarkable as those of Andrew Carnegie and the other steel millionaires. C. H. Dietrich and J. H. Willard, the new Senators, have risen from the low est ranks. Mr. Dietrich is the son of a German shoemaker, and at the age of nine began to earn his own living. He finished his school life three years later, and afterwards worked on ;he farm, as clerk in a country store, then as blacksmith and as a wood chopper. He got a start at last, and opened a store In Hastings. Net)., soiling goods by day and doing his ow n delivery with a wheelbarrow at night. Mr. Willard also began as a farm hand, then work ed in a country store, and finally got into a bank, or which he is now one of the owners. Both men have made for tunes, and now in mature life have !he op|K*rtunity for useful public survive. The experience of these two bea>*H out Mr. Uarrfegie’s remark that the young man has as good an opportunity to win In *he world as any one ever did. It is not the opportunity, however, but the man, that determines success In illfe. Tills has been true from the b ‘gin ning of time, and It will always he true In spite of what Socialists say. Ml’NMKT. God’s record of the passing day, Painted with master hand. Such beauty! where we thought it gray, But now, we understand -LEIGH RICHMOND MINER.