The times., 1897-12-26
The Chinese lesson

The Chinese Empire in its original in
tegrity occupied much the same geogra phical
relations to Eastern Asia that the Uniterl
States does to North. America. With fine
resources. fertile soil and varied climate,
| and populated by naturally Intelligent
and industrious people the Chinese thought
they were acting the part of wisdom IN
shutting themselves in frou the world
and going il alone.
| In his farewell address Confucius had
| warned them against ,ontangling foreign
| allie noes, and an early enueror, who lived
| in Canton, had taught them the art OF
| non-iiitercourse by means Of prohibitivc
| tariff. Sc they shut the door and vent
| in to cultivate the arts OF peace and pro-
| genfti reness. 1t suited their rulers to
| suppress the military spirit formerly strong
| among them, and 80, barring some oc2a
sionaI internal distur hances, they soon
forgot how to make war. In our own
time they have been armed only with the
same spears and bows that they use i
| Centuries before the Christian era.
The fun effect upon nation OF such a
| history and conditions did not appear until
| after the war with Japan. Ii had been
believed throughout the civilized world
| that, with a potential military force Of
millions and with ability to lose as ma y
men as circumstances might require. if
| China should adopt modern arms and
l S-
| ern Hemisphere. 1t was supposed that
she had made some advance in those re
| spects A vast amount Of treasure vas
| spent frcm time to time for ships, guns,
| seems to have been stolen. The breaking
| out of Y ar with little Japan found China
| totally unpreparei with anything but the
raw material Of an rmy: millions of men,
| but no arms ready for them, or time or
talent 20 teach them how TO use arms il
| they had been at hand
It used TO he n fayorite saying all over
China: -Oh, We are safe enoughi We don't
want 10 90 abroad to fight and, on our
own ground, we can raise voIunt eerS
enough to whip all the rest of the world!'
The mist AXE concealed in this gospel
was realized when the japanese landed,
ana Just srrr ted across the country witt
a small force and would have subjugated
ii but Cor tie interference OF Europe.
The civilized powers then saw the point,
that a natior Ike China, become submissive
and lavish through long era of peace
and the low scale of life incident to over
population. cannot lee considered as pos
sibIe military power. and can be whipped
by a small expeditionary force properly
organized, differed and supplied with al
the latest Improvements in death-dealing
tools
China had a sort of a Monroe doctrine
in her policy of exclusion, but Europe re
fused to acknowledge it, being not obliged
TO, because of the military weakness of
the proporent Remarks, alleged to have
been made by the German emperor, tend
to indicate that the same view and action
might be adopted and tax IN with relation
to this G. .untry.
The PARTITION of China is the logical re-
suit OF its peace policy, its failure TO provide
ITSELF with the means of defense, and its
Grass idjoey in believing that moral con
sideTatiuns would keep the struggling
and hungry nations of Europe from grab
binc what the natives could not pro
tect.
The lessen is a serious one to us. We
have a vast population long unused to
war. Does it not occur to the average
intelligent citizen that we ought to econo-
mize ON public buildings and the improve
ourselves for the inevitable?