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All the trouble arises from the fact that these devils of Mandarins have taken charge of the business. Our two principal hardships are these :—
(a.) The total amount of the tax to be collected is not fixed. It was the same in the case of the "tsin-tieh" and "kuan-chou" taxes. True, we were told that the amount would be as small as possible, but that has not prevented its going up steadily ever since,
So it will be in the present case; the tax will be doubled each year, so that in thirty years' time a man who harvests 10 piculs will have to give up nine of them to those wolves and savage beasts. Truly these Mandarins and gentry are human only in appearance. Do not think I am exaggerating; the future will prove that I am right.
(b.) No limit of time has been named for the levy of the tax. If we bear in mind what has happened in the case of the "kuan-chou" and "li-kin" taxes--if we realize that these exactions are intended to satisfy the hunger of those whose stomachs can never be filled "-we must recognize that the levy of this tax will never be discontinued. You may rely on this: so long as the railway is not built they will demand from
money you, and when it is built they will keep on taking it from you for hundreds and thousands of
years.
2. Voluntary Subscriptions.—When the Government loan known as the "Chao- hsin "
was raised, Szechuan provided the Court with more than 1,000,000 iaels; but as a matter of fact, the Mandarins had collected over 5,000,000 taels. Any way was good enough for them to get the money; they would beat and imprison in the evening men whom they had invited to breakfast in the morning. No such case of public misfortune can be found in the history of our country, I have ascertained from statistics that in every Sub-Prefecture this loan caused the death of ten of the larger or middle class land-owners, who either committed suicide or died as the result of ill-treatinent-a thousand such deaths in the province. All large fortunes disappeared and trade ceased. As for the poor, I calculate that about a thousand died in every Sub- Prefecture, or 100,000 persons throughout the province. The loan cost us more than 5,000.000 taels and 100,000 lives. Now, thanks to the railway Company, Szechuan will soon be a desert.
"But," you may say, "it will not be such again," they will not "repeat the exac- tions which distinguished the 'Chao-hsin' loan." I tell you that the "Chao-hsin " was a fixed amount; this tax is unlimited, and the officials may squeeze as much as they choose. This is the sort of thing that is actually taking place. The Sub-Prefect of Chang-chou Hsien to increase the list of subscriptions in his district found no better means of obtaining his object than by imprisoning all objectors. Thus he was able to collect 100,000 taels. The Viceroy. delighted at such a result, has not failed to promote this virtuous official. Another Sub-Prefect who, on the other hand, declined to adopt coercive measures, only gathered in a trifling sum. Him the Viceroy degraded.
Have I then not good cause to say that the future looms gloomily before us; that the situation will soon be one of unparalleled misery, and that your families are destined to "come under the power of the dog!" Not content with crushing as under the burden of existing taxes they must needs--the wild beasts-find yet new means of taking the very flesh off our bones, And this is what will happen. When the 70,000,000 of the people of Szechuan have been exterminated, there will be no more railway than there was before. And why?
Firstly, because the capital will have disappeared. I have just received a letter from two of the leading gentry of Cheng-tu. They state that a sum of over 5,000,000 taels has been collected, but the official accounts show receipts only amounting to 1,434,450 taels. What has become of the difference? It has been used for the estab- lishment of the Chungking mint for military purposes, and no doubt on good cheer. On the day when the Company was inaugurated they spent on food and drinks alone more than 3,000 taels. What do you think of that? Already they have wasted six-seventhe of the capital and the railway is not begun. Whenever the day comes for beginning work in earnest they will find only one-tenth or one-twentieth of the money collected, and when the entire population of Szechuan has died of starvation, after having been bled of hundreds of millions of taels, they will still be short by many millions of the amount required to build the railway. As a matter of fact, they gave out that the 40 or 50 millions of taels would be enough to complete the line, but I estimate it will take 500 millions, and as the entire wealth of the province does not exceed 400 millions, they will always be 100 millions short, whatever they may do. Even when all the Szechuanese are dead, after disgorging their last cash, the line can never be built. These are not empty words, but figures amply confirmed by statistics.
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Secondly, because the Directors and staff of the Company are a worthless A Company is like a shop and its shareholders, being its owners, are entitled to direct its operations. But no such idea exists in the present case. Everyone does just as he pleases in the shop, the employés have a good time, and the real owners dare not say a word. The "wolves" and the "oxen take charge of the whole thing. And how can anyone expect good business in a shop which has all the appearance of a yaman? Go into any business house to make a purchase; they will offer you tea and salt. But go into this railway Company, and they will receive you with blows. In this delightful shop the Viceroy is owner, His assistants are Taotais, and they in turn have, as apprentices, eminent literary doctors and member of the academy.
Never has such a thing been seen, and again I ask you, how can any undertaking succeed under such conditions ? As long as this Company can go on collecting money from the people no railway will ever be built, because there is not a single honest man among them. And what then? The foreigners will step in and Szechuan will be wiped off the map.
If we want to be wiped out, well and good. But if not, let us not hesitate to put an end to this society of savages, and let us establish a new and purely commercial Company. The day when the shareholders become the real owners and directors of the concern (which they should always have been), when they can control the accounts their capital will no longer be wasted or stolen. It will be as safe in the handa of the new Company as in the people's own, and, recognizing this, subscribers will come forward gladly. And if the Directors are chosen in future by the shareholders, they will certainly elect honest men, for one does not choose rogues to handle one's
money.
But you will ask, how to attain this result? Shall we go straight to the Mandarins and say, "This Company which you claim to direct is our property; hand it back," or shall we suggest their co-operating with us? I reply, "Do you think that a thief will ever voluntarily hand back stolen property to its owner, or that rogues will co-operate with honest men? Let us follow the example of the Cantonese. They all agreed to decline to recognize the authority of the Viceroy in this matter. They did not subscribe, they did not pay, and from an official undertaking the Hankow-Canton line has become a commercial Company. We of Szechuan are just as much men as the Cantonese. Why cannot we do as they have done?
Make up your minds, then, firmly to buy no more shares, to pay no more to the railway tax. The present Company, deprived of means, will cease to exist, and ours will take its place.
Some of you may say, "And what if the officials decline to accept this arrange- ment and are obstinate? I would reply that if you all pull together you need not fear that the Mandarins will dare to seize all your property and kill you all. The Cantonese easily got the better of their officials, so will you. But if you are afraid, do not follow my advice. Let yourselves be destroyed piecemeal. The railway will not be built any the more. But if you desire to live, hold on fast and resist. Decline to carry out their will.
Therein lies your safety.
J. O. P. BLAND.
(Signed)