In  the  matter  of  transportation  facilities,  great  strides
have  already  been  made  in  China.  The  rapid  increase  in
the  railway  mileage  during  the  past  few  years,  and  the
number  of  railways  now  building,  or  projected  and  sanc-
tioned, show  that  progress,  in  this  direction  at  least,  is
fast  overcoming  the  opposition  of  the  more  conservative
element  of  the  population.  The  traveler  who  has  once
had  the  experience  of  making  in  twenty-four  hours,  and
with  comparative  comfort,  the  journey  which  in  other
days  has  taken  a  month  to  accomplish — a  month  of  weari-
ness and  hardship,  and  at  an  expense  twenty-fold  greater
than  that  of  the  railwav — will  never  again  be  hostile  to


2o8  CHINA   AND   THE   FAR  EAST

the  fire-wheel  wagon ;  and  his  experience  will  influence
the  opinion  of  his  friends  and  neighbors  who  have  not
yet  tried  it.  We  may  say  that  already,  except  amongst
people  making  their  living  by  the  old  methods  of  trans-
portation, hostility  to  railways  has  practically  disap-
peared ;  while  the  advantages  of  steamer  transportation
have  been  fully  appreciated  for  a  generation  past.  And
even  those  who  make  their  living  as  carters,  boatmen,
packmen  and  porters  are  finding  out  that,  though  their
field  of  operation  has  been  curtailed  and  they  are  now
coming  to  be  employed  more  in  transporting  goods  to  and
fro  between  the  shipping  points  on  the  railways  and  the
country  not  yet  reached  by  them,  the  great  increase  both
in  passenger  and  freight  traffic  which  has  followed  the
introduction  of  railways  has  given  the  old-style  trans-
portation equipment  as  much  employment  in  its  smaller
field  as  it  formerly  had  in  the  larger.  But  railways  and
steamers  are  not  enough.  For  the  feeding  of  these  good
roads  should  be  constructed  and  good  bridges  built,  mak-
ing possible  the  employment  of  larger  and  more  economi-
cal carts;  while  the  streams  and  canals  should  be  deep-
ened and  improved  to  facilitate  and  expedite  boat  traffic.
