The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-10-06

With the intellectual keenness as 10
the value OF money which marks the
Asiatic, the Chinaman had likewise
thrift, silence, patience. he did not
Maggie over hours of labor. Work was
work until IL was done. He was aus
tere in his habits, severe in his dis
bursements, nor was rum permitted
to sweep him into the northernmost
pits of hell. Wealth brought no
yearning for luxury or show. He alb
sorbed, but gave no return. he was
an alien, not an assimilating element.
In time he would have dominated the
| business of the Pacific coast, as he does
| the business of Siam and southern
| Asia.
HAD TO LEGIsLATE AGAINST THE
CHINESE.
/ recall the Burlingame incident as
an illustration of what the Chinese
have done in commerce and industry.
| America was compelled to reverse the
Burlingame policy and protect her
labor against a people who, without
lessening the strength of their own
empire, could have poured into these
States a population larger than that
which now inhabits them. Success
in peace and war arise from the same
conditions. The winner in the field
OF labor is apt to be winner in the field
of strife. The elements which formed
an industrial invasion, against which,
with all OF our Wanted proves and
invincibility, we were compelled to
defend ourselves with coarse, truculent
legislation, are the elements which
made possible the overrunning of Asia
and the invasion of Europe. So that
in cheerily urging Japan into war,
and in pressing upon China policy
like that which dictates the arma-
ments of Germany and France, We
come within the admorition OF the
Chinese statesman to Burlingame
You complain that we go too slow.
You would soon complain that we go
too fast"
FACE TO FACE WITH A VAST PROBLEM.
We are, if we would but admit it,
face to face with vast problem. Sir
Harry Parkes, the famous British
Minister to China, said to me one day
in Picking that he had studied it for
forty-three years, and could not COM
prehend it. And Sir Harry Parkes
was a statesman of consummate intel
ligence. The late John Il. Delane,
editor of the London Times, and
among the foremost journalists of the
age, advised a young friend of mine,
connected with his paper and in
Ills CdICCI HI lhC
press, to study the East. The politics
Of the next generation, Mr.. Delane be-
lieved, would turn upon the Chinese
more than upon any other question.
These were wise men who looked out
upon the far horizon.
THE PRESENT STRUGGLE MAY RESULT
IN PEACE.
AS TO the outcome of the present
war, L have no idoa that the great
Powers will permit it to be fought to
a finish. A hurried peace will be inn
posed by Russia or Great Britain, as
soon as either combatant has won a
decisive victory. There will be
peace with "compensations'' to the
Intervening Powers in the way of land
or seaports. The pity of it is that
China and Japan are fighting under
the very eyes of the ravening eagles
who sit waiting in their eyrie, ready
to pounce upon one or the other as
their prey. 1t is miserable, unneces
sary business, if only one had the
heart to write about it (which have
mott, remembering so much that was
hopeful and full of promise in those
fair, beautiful lands, and seeing in this
war the wreck of much that was
hoped for by those who wished them
well.
Our own concern is in the fact that
within this war may be enclosed the
most serious question of the times. By
forcing China into the lists as an
armed nation we assume a meas ure-
less responsibility. China, as I have |
said, moves as the Observation-Disclosures
grinding, sure-undisturbed through
the ages, antedating the most ancient
of Western civilization, venerable
when Homer sang and before the
Roman empire was founded, and time |
as yet bringing no decay. But the |
glacier may have an impulse such as
China may receive from this war
with Japan. Therein lies the gravity
of the problem, which is worthy of |
study in the lights of Genghis Khan
and Timur. JOHN RUSSELL YOUNG.