Wichita eagle., 1889-01-02
ap aaledcsaay l1ornine aauuary
CHINA AND ITS PROGRESS.
INTERESTING DESCRIPTIVE LECTURE
BY GEN. JAMES H. WILSON.

BY GEN. JAMES H. WILSON.
i The Social and Political Status OF the Co
4 lestial Empire-New Ideas from the West
Not Received with Cordiaiity-Autocracy
of Science.
4 Maj. Gen. James II. Wilson delivered
lecture before the American Geograph-
ical society, in Chickerfng hail. New
! York city, during the course of which
he said:
In China the family is the political
unit, and if one member goes astray the
whole family may become extinct if the
emperor pleases.i No man can bea gov
ernor in his own province, and no gov
ernor is allowed to surround himself
with officials who are his own relatives
Nepotism is unknown.
The great rivers of China flow east to
the Pacific, and the populations gather
/ in hedeltas in towns and villages. A
popularity of the great cities is that they
are surrounded with great brick walls,
with bitches, parapets and gates, and the
gates are regularly opened and closed
every morning, as they were 600 years
ago. The new capital Of Formosa has
such wall, after the manner of the
i middle ages. The crystalized labor of
Japan is seen ia these great walls of
cities, the great wall of the nation that
4 separates it from outlying provinces and
! the grand canal. They spend every year
large sums to keep the grand canal open.
t Yet it is inadequately supplied with re-
serve stores Of water.
1 He spoke of the civil service system Of
I China as a democratic institution, that
! gave every man a chance to advance
| equal to that of his neighbors. There is
2 no nobility, only the autocracy of sci
| ence. The last examination comprised
/ the competition of &c, 900 students of ma
!, ture age, of whom only thirty succeeded.
! The learning relates to Chinese history
/. and Jurisprudence and the philosophy of
! Confucius, but has nothing to do with
I modern sciences. There is college IN
China presided over by an American,
! DR.. w. A. P. Martin, but the govern
! ment is very slow to admit new ideas. 1t
only lately began to investigate electric
b ity. 1t is not bestlfor the native China
I man to know too much of modern sci
ence. .-.s ,-..--
( Gen. Wilson spoke of the successive
destruction of Chinese dynasties as
inseparable from the Chinese sys-
tenn. AS faI as it is practicable,
wherever there is Cinnamon in
office, there is Tartar to watch him.
The operation Of the censorship is inquis-
itoria1 and offensive The whole empire
is held In subsection by the army and the
censor. The present emperor is only II
years old. He is the nephew of the late
emperor; for the first time in many
years the direct male issue failed. For
some years the practical sway was held
by two women, the wife and sister of
the late emperor. But recently one of
them died, and the empress dowager was
left in practical supremacy.
She is never seen by foreigners. She
is a remarkable woman. She selects the
emperor's wives. and has begun by
choosing as his first wife her favorite
niece. The imperial clan occupies
place about a mile square, walled in, in
the middle of the city Of Pekin.
The high officials will not hold inter-
course with foreigners. No diplomat
has ever seen the empress dowager or the
emperor. Not even the great men of
China can approach the throne without
!, permission. and then they must be pros
tTate. There is no such thingas popular
education. The people have nothing to
Go with the. government. The govern
ment is absolutely isolated, and holds no
communication with the people Ideas
never reach the throne from the people
The fureigners are confined to a very
small part of the seaboard, except that
missionaries are allowed to go to the in
terror. The foreign merchant does not
deal with the Chinese merchant directly,
bat through servants improvements 60
on slowly Yet in the interior may be
found kerosene, cotton cloth, needles and
matches. $50
The TAPPING rebellion had its origin
with a disappointed student. The an.
tipathy of the rebels to foreigners led to
the establishment of the lever victo-
ricus" army, under the celebrated Capt
Ward, and the development of the hair
biained Burgevins, whose ambition even
scared to first shipping the rebels and
ttien taking. possession OF the empire.
The result was that after he had deserted
10 both sides several times the Chinese
lost him one night while crossing river
Gen. Wilson quoted one of the me-
MORALS recently sent to the emperor by
high Chinese official, written. accord |
ing to Chinese customs, on his deathbed,
advocating the building of railroads, /
mining, the construction of ships. coast !
defenses and other progressive things. !
That this and other similar memorials /
have reached the eyes of the emperor is /
known by the fact that many such me- !
MORALS have been printed in the Chinese
official paper, which has been published /
about 500 years, not daily, but every
now and then. But the ideas of the /
government progress slowly. The cen
sors are conservative and slow TO move /
and suspicious of foreigners although !
they have admitted that the foreigners |
are not necessarily enemies.
American watches and clocks are max |
ing rapid. progress in China. The only |
drawback is the fact that American
trade marks are counterfeited.
The Chinese students who began their /
course of study here, but who were re-
called by the censors, complain bitterly |
of their treatment, and despair of the /
progress of China while the present t
regime iasis. o~-. %
China has no floating capital. The
legal rate of interest is 81 per cent. The |
lowest rate on the most favorable loans !
is 25 per cent Every man is liable to
spohation. The imperial treasury is in
constant state of collapse. The en-
press follows her own -jud dgment, and
she is now engaged in a vain effort to
turn the bed of great river, and the
treasury is not equal to the task There
is one railroad fifty miles long in China
The present condition Of the country as