New-York tribune., 1900-07-07
AMERICAN BUSINESS N CHINA.

What business has America in China: That
is question which is asked in these days Gen
orally il is asked in "A carping and mischief
making spirit. by those whose highest Ideal of
public duty is to put the Administration into
Il hole and who to gain that end would not
heSitatc to compromise the most serious inter
ests of the Nation Sometimes however, it is
asked in entire good faith. In either case the
answer is not difficult to- give.
The United States has business everywhere
in the world. tie same business that every
other civilized nation has Its business is to
maintain diplomatic relations with other ma
tionS. and to engage in commercial and social
intercourse with them Wherever the envOys of
any Power may go, its envoys are entitled to go.
Wherever the traders OF any land may seek Il
market, It's traders have right to seek n mar
ket. And wherever its ENJOYS and traders and
citizens of any calling go, it Is its business to
protect them in life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. If any country denies such rights,
it by that fact declares itself the enemy of the
United States. If any country forcihly violates
such rights, it challenges the United States to
Il forcihle vindicatiOn of them. Such vindiCation
is the present business of the United States in
China.
There is Il lot of sneerinG al the missionaries,
ana of blaming them for the whole trouble.
and of saying they are getting little than
they deserve; all Of which is monStrously un-
truthful and unjust. 1t is perfectly well known
that this anti-fOregn uprising is not directed
especially or chiefly against the missionaries,
but equally against the foreign diplomats and
merchants The attack upon the legations at
peking as savage as that upon any mis-
sonary station, and so would be the attack
upon the foreign commercial houses Of Shang-
hai aud Canton il the revolutonists We're able
to make ii. Does any one venture to say that
had business to have a Minister at
Picking? And that Americans have no business
to engage in trade with China? Or are we to
say that. having sent Minister thithcr. and
having settled many merchants there. we are
to abandon them To their fate and let Il per
tidious Government deliver them into the hands
of a murderous mob with impunity:
The opening of Japan" may prohtably he
recalled to mind That vigorous act was per
formed in order TO teach Japan that she must
treat other nations with a decent degree of
hospitality, and must observe the common laws
Of international amity It was supposed that
China had learned the same lessons long ago.
If not. it is tl" legitimate business Of this coun-
try To teach them to her. The United States did
not seek territorial acquisitions in Japan. 1t
simply gave Japan to understand that Ameri-
cans going thithcr must he we'll treated, as
elsewhere in the world 1t seeks no annexa-
tonS in China But it insists that its Minister
to China shall he treated rs becomes the repre-
sentative of Il sovereign State. and that its
citizens who are settled in China shall he Sc
cure In life and limb and property. That is
Americas business in China, and we think II is
both Legitimate and urgent