test canal ever dug on earth, the Grand Canal of China, which was a
thousand miles long and some of which is in use to this day. They built
the Great Wall of China which was fifteen hundred miles in length and
which was a greater undertaking than the building of the Pyramids of
Egypt.

The Chinese were the first people to coin money in a mint; the first to
have a standard of weights and measures; the first to have a system of
marking time. They had a celestial globe, an observatory, and noted the
movements of heavenly bodies more than four thousand years ago. A
Chinaman was the first to distill and use intoxicating liquor and for
this he was dismissed from the public service by the ruler who said,
"This will cost someone a kingdom some day." They are industrious,
resourceful and skillful and should they become warriors and introduce
modern methods and instruments of warfare the world would be up against
the most frightful peril of all ages. Napoleon Bonaparte said of China,
"Yonder sleeps a mighty giant and when it awakens it will make the whole
world tremble."

The Chinese are one of the strongest races of people in existence. They
have only been conquered twice but in both cases they absorbed their
conquerors and made Chinese of them. Although old, out of date and slow,
they have principles in their civilization that will last as long as
time, and China will be a great nation long after some of the so-called
great nations now in existence are forgotten.

With the exception of Russia as it was before the world war, the
Chinese Empire is perhaps the largest the world has ever known. Its
population comprises one-fourth of the human race. If the single state
of Texas were as densely populated as at least one of the provinces of
China, there would be living in this one state more than two hundred
million people or nearly twice as many people as are now living in the
whole United States. The resources of this great country are almost
boundless. There is said to be coal enough in China to furnish the whole
world fuel for a thousand years. While in China I was told of one
mountain that has five veins of coal that can be seen without throwing a
shovelful of dirt. Some years ago the German government investigated the
iron resources of China and published the fact that they are the finest
in the world. This no doubt explains one reason why Germany was trying
to get a foothold in China.

But in agriculture the Chinese shine.