The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-22
mission work and civilization.

I
last. called attention sharply to the worn
Of foreign missions and raised the IN
quiry whether the results justified the
cost in money and lives. That question IS
still under discussion. It must be admitted
( that Christian denominations in this coun-
try and Europe very generally
hold the opinion that mission
work should go on. and thar
what has been accomplished fully JUST
/ fes that view. The arguments they adj
/ vance are undoubtedly strong ones. One
/ OF them is that the missionaries are the
/ PIONEERS of civilization. and that they have
4 already accomplished wonders in better
1 ing the Intellectual and moral condi-
tions Of the peoples among whom they
labor.
Is II not a ques tion, however. whether
our civilization is better for the people
to whom we send missionaries than the
civilization they have. We are so well
satisfied with ourselves and with our prog
ress that we are apt to think that what
is good for US must be good for people
whom we regard as semi-barbarians anc
heathens. Indeed. It is doubtful if we
have ever asked ourselves seriously
whether we are doing the peoples Of
China, Japan and India a service by en-
deavoring to influence them to accept our
civilization.
This matter was strongly presented a
few days ago a; a meeting of the British
Association, by Prof. Flinders Petrie, the
eminent anthropologist and Psychologist,
as we learn by a New York Sun cable
gram. He condemned, almost without
reservation" says the report. "an at
tempts to spread civilization among the
inferior races of the world" According
to his view the civilization of any race Is
not system that can be changed at
will. In the course of his remarks he
said:
We may despotically force a bald
and senseless imitation of our WAYS on
another people, but we shall only destroy
their life without implanting any vitality
in its place. No change is legitimate or
beneficial to the real character of a peo-
pie except what flows from conviction ana
natural growth of mind, and if the impo-
sition OF foreign system is injurious
how miserable is the forcing of a system
unnatural and artificial that has been
known, a system developed i'm a cola coun-
try, amid one Of the hardest, least sympa-
thetc, most self-denying and calculating
of all the peoples Of the world. Such a
systPm' the product of such extreme con-
ditions, We attempt to force on the least
developed races and expect from them i'm
plicit subservience to our illogical law
and our inconsistent morality. The re-
SUIT Is death. We make a death house
and call IL civilization. Scarcely a single
race can bear the burden, and then we
talk complacently about the mysterious
decay of savages before white men.
There is food for much thought in the
foregoing. In this country we have not
succeeded in civilizing the Indians, but
we have pretty nearly succeeded in eN-
terminating them. Prof. Petrie says that
in England the impression is general that
reading, writing and arithmetic are ele-
ments of education. They are not so with
some races The Egyptian, who has these
things forced on him. becomes a half-wit-
ted creature incapable of taking care of
himself And reading, writing and arith-
metic do not seem to be absolutely neces-
sary TO an education among some races
THE exquisite art and noble architecture
of Mycenae. the undying song Of Homer,
the extensive trade of the bronze age, all
belonged to people who never read or
wrote"
In the matter of enforcing the laws
promptly, we do not seem to be even on
an equal footing with the Chinese. Our
dispatches stated a day or two ago that
already seven of those who were parties
to the massacre of the missionaries at
Kucheng have been executed
few years ago quite a number of Chi
nese were shot to death in cold blood in
Wyoming by lawless white men. We do
not remember that the murderers were
ever hung for their crimes.
The question whether our civilization is
better for inferior races than their own
is a question that cannot be separated
from the foreign mission question, in view
of the fact that the benefits of Christian
civilization is one of the reasons urged
in favor of such missions.