Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-07-07

EANCASfER. PA. July Z, 1880.
(,hina,s I,hreaf.

China threatens to retaliate. Minister
Tsui may revise and modify the language
Of hie interview and his talk may veer
and change after the fashion Of diplo-
mats, but the threat he has made Will
remain a prominent factor In the
Chinese problems of the future. He
makes the very sharp and strong pcint
that Americans are taking money home
from China Just asChinamen take money
from the United States. He does not
deny that American enterprises In the
celestial empire are worth all that China
pays for them, and he is too liberal and
Intelligent man to begrudge the wealth
that is being gathered by foreigners
who are awakening and develop
ing his wonderful country. He
only reminds Americans that Chinese
cheap labor has not been an un-
compensated evil, for it has stimu-
lated the development Of the Pacific
slope by making possible enterprises
that would have been impossible or long
delayed without 1t. He says, in effect,
I" If you will not let Us work for you we
will not let you develop our country"
From his point Of view this will be very
bad for us and will hurt them little, a.
English, French and Germans arc only
tao eager to do the developing. In fact,
this very eagerness Of other nations, and
fear of their habits of conquest and an
nexation, have given Americans the ad-
vantage in China, and will make the
Chinese much less ready to Danish our
capital and enterprise than they diplo-
matically pretend to be. We can afford
TO receive the Chinese threat calmly If
not with complacency, because our
capital In China, or to be invested there,
can be very well applied in the develop
ment Of our own great country, and we
have fully determined to get along with.
out Chinese labor after due consideration
Of all the arguments that the minister
martials In its favor. The sevsring of
all commercial relations with China
would undoubtedly be o heavy blow,
but hardly more unpleasant for us than
for China. In 1850 our imports from
that empire were valued ut SIS, 1884, III
and ourHxports to China in tho same
year were only So, ,03i. We seem to
furnish the Chinese with very little
besides money and brains and we have
use for both at home. As for the break
ing Of the treaty, that seems to be what
treaties are made for. They are inhexi-
BILE and awkward devices which give
way before changed conditions and can
not be expected to last for all time any
better than other things Of human man
ufacture. As solemn covenants they
should not he violated without duo
notice that we can no longer agree 10
objectionable provisions, but China
seems to have had liberal warning OF
that kind.
Her wrath Is a little surprising be.
cause II has been SO slow in developing,
and because the first Chinese advices
after the passage of the exclusion act
intimated that the government was
pleased to be assisted in it's efforts to keep
Cinnamon at home. She is proverbially
slow, but stubborn in diplomacy, and
there Is little danger of any sudden act
Of retaliation, SO that we may have
plenty of time to get out Of the way OF
the blow, If the Chinese government de.
cidss to retaliate.