Chinese officials, who at once discerned in it a convenient check upon demands in other directions. After a nmnber of consultations it was decided that a petition for a concession to build a railway from Canton to Hankow be asked in behalf of an American corporation. Under any other circumstances it is probable that this concession would have been stubbornly opposed on general principles by influential Chinese officials at Peking and throughout the empire, as well as by other foreign interests desiring a similar grant; but coming when it did it was almost welcome to the Peking authorities as an offset to pressing demands in other quarters, while any competitive opposition it might have ordinarily encountered was practically estopped by the fear of raising new antagonism to other desires. So, after various vicissitudes and considerable delay, an agreement giving an American corporation the right to build and operate a railway between Canton and Hankow was signed in 1898.
To enter exhaustively into the history of this concession would be deeply illustrative of certain methods of so-called high finance, which are being just now persistently thrust upon public attention, and which may be passed over in the search for broader issues. I am inclined to think that it was originally conceived and promoted as a legitimate business enterprise. But as time passed it was destined to assume many shapes. The original promoters, after they had secured their concession, failed to raise the money to go ahead with it. Enough money was raised to
