Chuk was not uncomfortable when he thus wore the crown. He ruled over his subject races of the West with all the assurance which Xerxes or Kublai Khan did. He could plot; he could bribe; he could threat; he could spend with a lavish hand. One time he would travel in state at home and abroad, and on another occasion incognito like a spy. He felt he was abler than any white man because he added the easier conscience of the Orient, which he called wisdom, to an ability equal to the white man’s, and a will just as imperious. He despised all religions as he said “conscience makes faint-hearts of us all.” He had no pity for his dupes or victims. He was a Cantonese Tippo Tib. I never know, when I am speaking to an American or Cuban Chinese, if he is not a slave of Chuk’s, remitting to his old father in Kwangtung province, who will in turn remit to Chuk or Chuk’s heirs, to pay off that $1,000 and usurious interest added. Chuk is a Cantonese example of the power which may come to a money lord who has decapitalized labor, which will never catch up with the principal. His profits on the real cost were 1,500 per cent. Not even a surveillance of communications could probe Chuk’s underground methods. Three insurmountable barriers interposed, the extent of the territory, the Chinese language, and the changing codes which he used. It would be as difficult as ferreting out a criminal in the Trastevere section of Rome, if for one reason alone, because the Trasteverans will not turn informers. Neither will the Chinese. Therefore, with espionage of communications and informing for bribes eliminated, a secret service on Chinese law breakers, as far as we are concerned, is as yet in many respects ineffective. IV FINANCE AND BUDGET IN CHINA With a reformed system of tax collection the following budget is quite feasible, and will, without any greater pressure on the individual than at present, lift China out of the slough of despond. REVENUE GOLD DOLLARS Land tax, 400,000,000 acres cultivated, at 50c a year $200,000,000 Salt monopoly 10,000,000 Maritime customs 50,000,000 Railway surplus, nationalized trunk lines 10,000,000 Fisheries, tobacco, samshu, mining, steamship, bank, incorporation, telegraph and other fees 50,000,000 Income tax 10,000,000 ------------ $330,000,000 EXPENDITURE Interest on foreign loans,--past, $200,000,000; and in prospect, $200,000,000; total, $400,000,000, at 4 per cent. $16,000,000 Civil service salaries, etc. 30,000,000