The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-05-06
Universal Reform.

There are those who contend that the
world morally and politically as well as ply,
sicaly travels in a circle. that society is ever
returning to the selfsame state, that we reach
high degree of civilization and then relapse
into barbarism, condition from which we
slowly and painfully escape only to return
after The passage of many years. The pres
ent condition of affairs on the Pacific coast
lends much strength to this theory. There
is in San Francisco Young Mems Univer-
sal Reform Society, an organization very ad-
vanced in Its views,-but its method of ad
vancement is akin to that of the crab. It
has gone back two or three centuries and
adopted for its own the principles and prac.
tices Of the Middle Ages. Its manner of re-
forming an abuse is to kill all those who ur-
hold it, to burn down their habitations, de-
stroy their property, and stone their children
to death. 1t is like the people of the Middle
Ages too, in its regard for names. In those
times it was only necessary to call dark
complexioned man Moslem to justify put
ting him to death. In California the method
is to call Chinaman a Coolie and then MUIR
der him. The method fortunately, has no
limitations, and the plea of reform will, it is
hoped, be advanced by certain officers and
troops of the United States Army thereabout,
who will thereupon proceed to hunt out and
shoot down every member of the Society of
Universal Reform.
Doubtless there are many good grounds of
objection to the Chinese population of Cali
fornia; but the reason advanced for their ex-
termination by the ardent reformers of the
Pacific slope is not a valid one. In justfi-
cation of the destruction of the Chinese
quarter it is urged that it is practically i'm
possible to convert grown Chinaman to
Christianity. Still the Californian method of
missionary work is, to say the least, rather
antiquated, and the world at large has a pre-
judice against missionaries who are at the
same time murderers and incendiaries. In
the fourishing days of the Inquisition they
were held in some repute, but people now-a-
days will not view with complacency the
establishment of the Holy Office in the city
of San Francisco. A Christianity which has
for its chief commandment "Thou shalt KILL"
does not commend itself to the respect of the
world. Nor is great satisfaction given by the
statement that ''boy Chinaman may some
times be converted" In case he is reluctant
they stone him to death. In case he is will
ing they bring him up in the practice of muir
der and arson, and teach hin that
the most meritorious act he can perform is to
kill his heather father. We cannot be ex-
pected to greatly rejoice over proselytes like
these. Indeed to the unregenerate and un-
Californian mind there is nothing very hor-
rible in the refusal of the Chinaman to accep:
Christianity. 1t is true that the Christian
merchant sometimes does not hesitate to
become Buddhist or Mohammedan in
order to build up fourishing trade. Such
apostasy has not however been vigorously
applauded, and people wh1 are not possessed
with the fierce zeal of the Pacific mission
aries are even inclined to admire the heather
gentleman who refuses to abandon his re-
ligion in ofder to establish himself in trade.
Viewed from the standpoint of universal
reform" this admiration must however be all
wrong.
1t is perhaps our duty to turn about and
encourage this new "reform'' movement,
and as persecution of the believers in ad-
vanced ideas is acknowledged to be the surest
method of spreading those ideas, it will be
we'll to shoot and hang all the "reformers''
we can get at and thus advance the cause.
This view is commended to the authorities,
national, state, and municipal, now in San
Francisco.