The age-herald., 1900-07-20
THE PLAIN PEOPLE OF CHINA

From the Speaker.
 The Chinese empire includes one-twelfth of the land surface of the world, and one fourth of the worlds population. The Chi nese possess a very ancient and remark able civilization, and a highly organized system of education and government, now falling into decay under the malign in- fiuence of the alien Manchu dynasty, and the people are distinguished by their great industry and a remarkable aptitude for trade. Although, in consequence of the enormous density of the population, the vile misgovernment, and the neglect of the natural resources of the country, the majority of the people are too poor to purchase more than the absolute neces- saries of existence, there nevertheless does exist very large wealthy class who appreciate luxuries and are willing to pay for them when they can procure them; the considerable sale of foreign scents, phonographs, music boxes, ornamental clocks, expensive foreign stuffs and so on, may be mentioned as proof of this
 My own observations extended over very considerable area for more than a year, have convinced me that the middle class Chinese, the very backbone of the nation, are most empha tically in favor of progress on western lines, but powerless in face of official conservatism and oppres- sion. They welcomed the emperor's' at- tempts at reform, previous to his deposi- tion, with the greatest enthusiasm, but were unable to prevent the triumph of the reactionaries and the murder of the re- formers by the empress dowager. The officials who fatten upon China, and whose occupation would be gone were a purer system of government initiated, are too powerful and too numerous to allow any chance of success to a movement of this kind unless aided from without, and not only were the reformers not assisted by the British minister at Pekin, but they were positively discouraged by him, to the unutterable disgust of those who had the true interests of China and Great Britain at heart.
 The wonderful progress made in recent years by similar race, the Japanese is matter of common knowledge and is due entirely to the fact that their rulers were sufficiently enlightened to adopt foreign methods and teachings as the only means of saving their country from the aggres- sion of the Western powers. A similar re- form from within is impossible in China, as the fate of the recent reform movement has shown, because of the utter ignorance dishonesty and lack of patriotism of the officials; but it must and will come from without. The force of circumstances is such that the nations cannot, however much as they may wish it, leave China to her fate, and the Chinese government which Lord Salisbury insisted upon treat ing as going concern" is falling to pieces before our very eyes.
 When the outside interference which is now inevitable shall have removed or modified the existing bars to trade China will leave Japan far behind from the fn- dustrial standpoint. The Chinese are as remarkable for their commercial morally as the Japanese are for the opposite; they are more solid, better balanced, take loag- CT views, and are, in short, more mer- chants and less pedlers than the same class in Japan, and the natural resources of their immense country are such Japan cannot hope to compete with, poor as she is in mineral wealth and subject to the most disastrous natural convulsions.