t men should
work. As a measure of the possibilities of the Orient, consider what has
been done in the western world within half a century, where the population
is much less than one-half of that of the far East. Over four hundred
thousand miles of railroad have been constructed, together with a vast,
almost incalculable system of telegraphs, to say nothing of the great
cities and common roads, or the enormous mass of productive machinery,
which has even outrun the increase of population.

In round numbers, some forty thousand millions in capital have been
absorbed in railroads alone. Add the amount absorbed in telegraphs,
telephones, steamships, and electric plants, and a thousand and one
appliances of civilization, and the total is beyond comprehension. And all
these things have yet to be created and adopted in the Oriental countries.
How rapidly the development may go on there, and what an enormous mass of
capital will be absorbed, is clearly indicated by what has been done in a
very few recent years. And so far we have left Africa entirely out of the
account, a country with a vast population and richly dowered with natural
resources and with a capacity for rapid development.

Possibly the Orientals will not suddenly become progressive to the degree
here anticipated, though Russia's eastern march has fairly rivalled our
western march; and it must be borne in mind that to develop the appliances
of western civilization we had all the experiments to make, all the crude
preliminary work to do in creating the system, which the Orient will
receive from us in its present perfected form, and be able to go on
without any mistakes, and thus enable them to adopt within a very brief
time that which we gave the labors of several generations to discover,
develop, and apply.

How enormous, then, will be their absorption of western capital and gold.

Is it still maintained that the Orientals lack the capacity for such
development? Then look at their achievements in every country to which
they have emigrated, and especially in this. Their progress here in the
industrial arts, even while they were but a handful, was so rapid that the
government was called on to restrict them. Even now the papers contain
alarming statements to the effect that Japan is invading our markets with
those specialties in the making of which we, but a little while ago,
considered ourselves superior to all the rest of the world. And no tariff
is high enough