Thus far there has been little shifting of the population from hamlets
and villages to centers of new industries--even in the more forward
areas quoted--but when this process begins new elements will enter into
the Chinese industrial problem.
As we hear of the New China, so is there a "new people," a people
emboldened by the examples of officials in certain areas to show a
friendliness towards progress and innovation. They were not friendly a
decade ago. It may, perhaps, be said that this "new people" were born
after the Boxer troubles, and in Szech'wan they have a large influence.
Cotton mills, silk filatures, flour and rice mills employing western
machinery, modern mining plants and other evidences of how China is
coming out of her shell, cause one to rejoice in improved conditions.
The animosity occasioned by these inventions that are being so gradually
and so surely introduced into every nook and cranny of East and North
China is very marked; but on close inspection, and after one has made a
study of the subject, one is inclined to feel that it is more or less
theoretical. So it is to be hoped it will be in Szech'wan and Far
Western China.
Readers may wonder at the differences of opinions expressed in the
course of these pages--a hundred pages on one may get a totally
different impression.
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