Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-07-01
Our Chinese Neighbors.
rEaosne La~renc. /. Ha,p.r's w.sslv.l

Eugene Laurence Ia Harper's Weekly.l
Chinese exclusveness-a Chinese policy-was once
| almost by-word; like many other Chinese produc-
tons and ideas far less hurtful It has been initiated
In America and Australia. Chinese driven from
San Francisco, and massacred in Washington Terri
tory. They suffering from unjust and illegal dis
ordinations under both the English and American
governments Chinese merchants Of high standing
complain that they have difficulty In entering Amer-
can Dors and that national prejudices place
unnatural limit upon the course Of trade. Their
protest Is well founded The civilized races Of the
West now practice the policy held peculiar to
China or Japan.
Yet the Chinese writers deny that in the earlier
period Of their history they opposed to free
intercourse with other nations. With the Arabs and
the Hindoos they long held an extensive trade. 1t
was only, they assert, when the Portuguese and the
Dutch visited their coast robbers and pirates that
the Imperial government closed its ports to the ships
Of the west The awless cruelty Of the first foreigners
who penetrated the Eastern certainly suf-
cient excuse for Chinese retaliation and contempt
But with the Arabs and the Hndoos II different.
The first account we have of China is that of an
Arab traveller in the ninth century. Ibn Wahab, or
whatever the travellers name, found the Chinese
in high state of civilization. Their cities were
splendid; their harbors crowded with ships Com
merce was active, the people prosperous They wore
rich coverings Of silk everyone learned to read aud
write, and schools abounded they drank the infusion
Of leaves called Tteha and lived in health and
Their Officials were chosen for their intelligence and
worth; their judges noted for their integrity.
thousand years ago the Chinese our traveller de-
scribes almost as the Chinese Of our own day. The
potter produced his porcelain, transparent as
glass. The farmer cultivated his mulberry trees, his
tea plant and his rice, The Chinese scholar filled
the countless schools The Chinese painters excelled
In that fine Technique that marks the painters Of
modern Paris. Poiiteness was national trait. The
bankrupt punished with extreme severity. The
sick poor aided from the public dispensary The
aged were ponsioned. The Chinese said the Arab,
are generally fine looking Of good height, fair com
plexOn, the ir hair backer than that Of any other
people. The women, he adds. wear it cured. Marco
Polo and all later travellers confirm the story of the
Mohsmmedap.
The early Chinese showed nothing of that hostility
to strangers that has marked their later p,licy. All
sects and creeds ourshed under the liberal emperors
Christians (chietly Nestorians) Jews, Mohammedans,
Buddhists, Confucians mingled together in the
Chinese cities. Good roads, canals and bridges
abounded. In Europe all savage waste when our
record begins. China the land of liberation and
philosophy poetry and art, when our ancestors were
rude harbarans. Capt. Gill in his recent travels,
ates that in the interior of the empire he found in
some districts generous welcome and happy and
prosperous people. The hostility to foreigners was
strongest the coast.
Seated on the opposite shores of the Pacific Amer
and China would seem natural friends and allies.
The immense empire, just awakening to the value of
Western progress, will afford the most extensive
market for American trade. American railroads,
steamers, and elegraphs should give life to its hun
dreds of millions of people. American farming i'm
plements ploughs, reapers, mowers - might be
spread its immense territory Its teas and silks
should be paid for with American goods. England
and Germany are already reaching forward toward
that extensive traffic which China offers in the future,
while we are driving it from The Chinese adopted
their exclusive policy only to shut out Western pirates
and robbers. They may be won by justice and con-
ciliation.