The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-08-24

are OUT stepping stones 10 the vast trade
that is oon to open up in the Orient.
Passing over his cogent discussion of
matters pertaining to Cuba and Porto
Rico we come to his discussion of the
| eastern phase of recent events. On
this subject Judge Grosscup said in
part:
/ come now to what IL, in my judgment,
the most interesting and important object
OF our future foreign policy. l refer, OF
course, to the immediate future OF Asia.
1t is in that quarter that we will find a stu.
alton open to American enterprise, a com
merce waiting for American venture, and
eventually a people and institutions ready
for q graft from the tree of Anglo.Saxon
civil liberty. Outside Of those countries
that are already European dependencies, the
population Of Asia numbers already 100000
000 souls. They are, in many respects, not
only civilized, but highly civilized. They
are accustomed to government and social
order. These they inherit from more than
one hundred generations. They observe
the ceremonies and practice the precepts
of q religion that antedates the New Tes-
lament, and that stands, in many features,
upon an equal footing of dignity and hui
man usefulness. They are the possessors
OF arts that we have as yet only unsuccess-
fully attempted to copy, and of a literature
| ludb kObb JUN IL uuDIOhOh Culibhb w u DO
Rod beyond our Greek and Latin classics.
They are neither crude nor %barbarous, but,
in their own way, have q culture and de-
velopment both orderly and complete.
But, with all this, they have, up to the
present time, lived almost apart from man
kind. TIL breaking Of the seal upon their
ports is to US Of Europe and America the
discovery OF q new continent. In the ma
ture OF things great results must follow.
The discovery of unpeopled America broke
$50 AIA - N NA-, M n.ANna q
the opening Of Africa, peopled only by saw
ages, has stirred every corner OF European
enterprise. But here in the Far East,
swinging inward, are doors that will admit
US to one-half Of the desirable territory and
one.third of the population of the earth.
1t is a land without railroads, without
manufactures, without cities built on mod
ern lines, without fields cultivated by mod
ern implements. 1t bids for every charac-
ter of American enterprise. 1t lies under
the temperate zone, the only strip OF our
globe that insures health to men now alive,
and promises increasing vigor to men yet to
come. Looked at from every material point
Of view, the invitation rendered is one that
no enterprising people can afford to decline
The people, unlike the Indian or the Afri.
can savage, will be an aid, not a hindrance
to the new development. They are already
so advanced and Of such a type that they
are ready, not for the axe, but for the graft
of a higher mode Of living. Some one has
CQdraCJe1lZBu JUbln DIS u HldGlbI-d IlNbI COu
gealed, moving forward slowly, but also
| ceaselessly. The smile aptly describes
them. But in the progress of q glacier there
comes a place of breakup, a point at which
the rays of the overhanging sun, having
PLAYED thus far with imperceptible result
suddenly seems to cleave, like the fall of
huge blade, the icelocked current, and 10!
glistening precipice marks the end Of the
old and a swiftly running current the be
ginning Of a new order of things, as the riv
[ er flows on into the sea.
The breakup in the current OF Asiatic lf'
is at hand. 1t will not, in my judgment, b,
, first seen in any change Of religion, nor il
any revolution Of civil polity. The instinct
OF the former are too deep to melt away
perhaps in a century, and the habits of so
cial order too strongly imbedded to breal
up at the first innovation from the outsid,
world. The transformation will flow il
here, as it has elsewhere, on the rapid.
rising tide of its foreign commerce.. 1
= seems to be a law OF civilization that it la!
. siege to men through their physical wants
1t goes from the exterior inwardly. 1
l reaches the citadel Of politv and religion
q only after the old modes OF living bav'
= cspitulated. TIL people of China are al
ready beginning to compare their owl
, modes Of life with ours, and to reach on
for some of the physical aids that we ar,
, ready to offer. In time will come a chang
of clothing, OF houses, and methods of trans
portation, all that constitute the materia
side of human life. Ships laden with thes'
= from the western world are entering thei
y ports. Railroads will soon carry them il
, all directions throughout the interior. Tele
graphs will everywhere quicken their in
telligence as it quickens the means OF ex
changing thought. Rice, to some extent
will give way to bread, sandals to leathe
footwear, and the ancient dress to modern
I clothing. With arms of steel and a vision
searchful as the lightning, civilization will
eventually gather these people in, and fec
! and clothe and build them anew.
These are not dreams; they are the dawI
1 of the realities. They stand already proven
in the reports of our Consuls, in the stats
, tics of our shipping, and in the observation
! Of every intelligent traveller. That thu
breakup in Asia is at hand is known Il
) every observer who keeps his finger upor
t the commercial pulse. That it will com
in leaps and bounds is proven by the re
l cent history Of the neighboring empire o
l Japan. Indeed, there can be no more in
teresting study than a comparison OF these
two peoples. They are descended, it is be
| lieved, from he same original stock, an(
, have been moulded through centuries sub
l stantially in a like civil polity and religion
= What has happened in the case Of the on
will, in all likelihood, under similar condi
> lions, happen again in the case Of the other
Judge Grosscup here recalled the his
tory of Japan from 1854, when he;
principal ports were opened to the com
> merce of the world as the result O
. Commodore Perry's historic expedi
' ton. The transformation, slow at first
!. grew at length in geometrical ratio
From a hermit people the JAPANESE
. have, in fifty years, become a world
people. Her trade has grown like
thing of magic. In 1897 her foreign
' trade amounted to 5000, O0O, 1000. 4
' quarter of a century before Japan hat
no foreign trade. In 1891 her importa
tons were not quite $53, 0O0,0 900; 81,
years later, in 1897, they had reached
= Bill 900 900, consisting of breadstuffs
D provisions, iron, steel, leather, oil, etc
Can any one tell, queried Judge Gross