PART VI

The Manufacture of Mining Machinery

Most of the metal deposits of the earth are in small quantities and scattered far and wide in various places. Most of the mining enterprises resemble farming in that it is more profitable to work by individuals and small parties. As such is the case, most of the mining enterprises have to be worked out by private concerns. In order to accelerate the development of mining, more liberal laws should be adopted; education and information should be given freely by experts employed by the state; and encouragement and financial assistance should be given by the state and private banks. The part that the International Development Organization should take in general mining enterprises is to manufacture all kinds of mining tools and machinery, and to supply them to the miners at low cost, either on cash or on credit. By distributing tools and machinery to the surplus workers in China, the mining industry would be developed by leaps and bounds. And the more the mining industry is developed the more will be the demand for tools and machinery. Thus the profits for the manufacturing concerns would be limitless, so to speak. Of course, the factories should be started on a small scale and be extended gradually according to the ratio of the development of the mining industry. I suggest that the first factory of this kind should be established at Canton, the seaport of the southwestern mining region, where raw materials and skilled labor can be easily obtained. The other factories should be established in Hankow and the Great Northern Port afterwards.