New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-06-15
THE CHINESE VIEW OF 1T
A RATHER STARTLING LOOK AT THIN
OTHER SIDE"

OTHER SIDE"
To the Editor of The Tribune.
SIR: Well, now that are all agreed upon N.
Chinese question-as we all are. war for wars
sake men. and peace at any price men, Little
Americans and Imperialist expansionists. Anglo
phobss and Anglophiles. all fully agreed that
the Boxers be exterminated; that the
Dowager Empress is a compound Of MessaIina
Bloody Mary and Catherine OF Russia, who must
be deposed II not put to death; that the Chinese
Government is wholly inefficient and corrupt
and must be radically shaken up by unlimited
outside Powers and in brief that men with pig
tails and bias cut eyes have rights that men
with short hair and straight cut eyes are bound
TO respect-now that all perfectly
agreed upon these things. from our own superior
and infallible point of view. suppose try for
moment 10 look at the subject from the point
Of view Of those very low born. unworthy and
altogether disgracefu1 people the Chinese them
selves. We may not be able to do II perfectly
Our initiative faculties not highly devel-
oped those Of the yellow folk whom we no
much contemn. But at least we may try
In the first place. we shall have TO consider the
Dowager Empress to be particularly patriotic
and astute sovereign. For patriotism Is love OF
country, and protection of 1T and its institutions
against foreign assaults. whether open OF ins!d-
ious There be doubt that Tsu Hsi loves
China, according to her lights and Is trying and
has for years been trying. at matter what
cost. to defend the empire against alien aggrss-
sion From her and her peoples point Of view
Industrial commercial, social and religious az
erosion is Just full Of menace as military
aggression. and is just as much TO be resisted
So she opposes it all consistently and persist
emily. Perhaps she has erred in 90 doing Per-
haps she has been blind to the best interests o..
China. Perhaps she has been foolish in resisting
an irresistible power. Perhaps II would have
been far better for her and for China il she had
let China be Americanized Europeanized or
Russianized. Those however were matters ro-
her and not for outsiders to Judge Neltb.r
America nor Europe. even Russia is fond
of having outsiders dictate it's domestic policy
And at worst. is 1T objectionable fault for a
patriot to make such mistakes through excess ~
patriotic zeal? Then many Of the worlds most
honored patriots were grievous sinners
We must also. We have said deem her
astute In craftsmanship. in spite Of irnputatons
of mistakes. For years she has been menaced
by foreign Powers, any one of them too strong
for her to withstand. She has played them the
one against the other, and so maintained bal
ance of rivalry between them as to prevent auy
of them from attacking her. In a Bismarck
or a Francis Joseph we consider that consun-
mate genius Why should esteem 1t less
highly when it is practised by an almond eyed
Monaghan? Again in the last desperate ex-
tremity, when alien aggression has become most
formidable and menacing and her tactful quies-
cence before it has aroused distrust and disaf-
lection among her own subjects and provoked a
revolt against her and the dynasty. what does
she do? With consummate skill she transforms
the anti-dynastic movement into anti-forefgn
movement. with herself it's rallying point
and rouses the popular enthusiasm Of the Chi
y-aTnio
has not been reused before In this generation.
In Louise of Prussia the world applauds and
reveres such tactics But in Tsu Hsi OF China?
OF course. the Chinese are heathens and all
that And they have acted very badly toward
missionaries and travellers and traders
But history Is by means silent the subject
of the imposition OF the opium trade and Of
legislation dictated from the Sand Lots and Of
the Rock Springs massacre. and OF a thousand
other abominable outrages inflicted upon those
benighted heather by civilized Christians. Per-
haps it was all for their good. Eels are much
more useful after they skinned than before,
but that fact seldom reconcies them TO the
skinning. The simple fact is that the Occi-
dental Powers-England. France, Russia and
the United States-have for many years been
treating China and the Chinese very badly-as
badly. from the Chinese point Of view. the
Chinese have treated the strangers who have.
un1nv1ted, lntruded themselves WITHIN tner
gates. We have heard some OF the most emf
nent and experienced American missionaries to
China, at the time of some OF the worst Chinese
anti-misson riots. declare that they did not
wonder bit at the conduct OF the Chinese and.
on the ground of the natural lex talionis. did
not greatly blame them.
We going on. however. 10 coerce China
into submission to ways. We all agreed
that it is our right and our duty to do We
cannot permit that vast empire to be shut
against us. There is too a prospect Of
profit in the development OF its resources and
in the sale of goods TO it's inhabitants. Why.
II China We're well supplied with railroads as
is the United States, it would have at least two
million miles We have simply got to go in and
build those roads and make 80 per cent divt-
dends their stock if it takes all the snokeless
powder in the world to do 1t. But what
wretched travesty upon sense and justice IL IL
to approve and urgently promote such a cam
paign against China. which is. should be. as
independent a sovereign State as there is in the
world. and at the same time cavil at the
suppression of insurrection and brigandage In
the Philippines. which by every principle OF IN
ternational law and natural morals are subject
to our sovereignty and 10 control which Is
legally and morally our duty well as our
right W f. J.
Brooklyn, June ID.
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