Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-09-28

tions by small free bands OF mobile
enemy has had the most serious in
fuence on the campaign. Even a
feeble body, ambushed, becomes i'm
mensely dangerous and annoying.
In discussing the Chinese situation
NJ. De Bloch speaks OF it as " a foolish
thing" You 60 far away, and at in
definite cos take something which
you find has no value for you. China
has comparatively no value for US.
For Great Britain there is certain
gain, but it is not worth all it is going
to cost. Your trade with the 400,-
OOO, 900 people of China is small part
of your whole trade, and, even then, q
quarter of it consists of opium, and
more of rice--a trade which does not
benefit the English people. do not
believe there will be any rapid growth
of that trade. The whole annual inn
ports OF China do not amount to two
shillings per head of her inhabitants,
the insignifcance OF which you may
gauge by the fact that German i'm
ports are by comparison sixty times as
great. The chief part of Chinese inn
ports consist OF cotton, opium, rice
and petroleum. If you exclude opium,
which cannot be properly said to yield
a European profit, 1 do not believe
that the whole profit on Chinese i'm
ports (reckoning profits at from 5 to
10 per cent? exceeds e33,00O,OOO-
much less than 42,0OO,OO0 "a year.
If that be so, the cost of increased Eu-
ropean armaments in the far east, to
say nothing of the destruction of war
fare, has eaten up all the profit of Chi
nese trade over and over again.
at may be said that it is not the
present trade but the future possibili-
ties of China which excite the greedy
anxiety of the outside world. Very
little reflection will show that this is
mirage. The very character of Chi
nese social organization and Chinese
ideas-which no amount of railway
and telegraph extension can rapidly or
radically change-is against it. Ev-
erything there is of the simplest char
acter; the many needs on which in
ternational trade thrives simply do
not exist. Of course, the resources OF
the country will be developed; but let
US fully understand what this means.
China is rich in coal and iron and
other minerals. Labor is so cheap
only tenth of what it costs in Eu-
rope or in America-that they will be
able to produce everything there and
send it to the markets OF Europe at a
price with which you cannot compete.
If China could become a ground for
colonization by the teeming peoples of
Europe there might be some excuse
for a territorial policy. But that is
quite out of the question. China is
already 90 thickly populated that only
the extraordinary skill and industry of
the people enable them to exist at ALL"
In summing up and enunciating his
conclusions, NJ. De Bloch says:
ain the first place, if we want to
prevent repetition of this outbreak,
We must put stop to the policy of
territorial expansion and military ter
r0rism and return to q reliance upon
pacific commercial intercourse. If
differences arise, the means Of settling
them is already being established at
The Hague. You need not fear that
Russia will have any unfair advantage /;
for many years to come her hands
will be full with her own tasks and ef-
fective competition with other powers
will be out of the question. As to the
present crisis, punishment of offenses
against international law should be
clearly distinguished from political
and territorial action in China by the
other powers. have suggested the
dangers from territorial policy.
But the other powers might give no.
tice to the Chinese government, and,
as far as possible, to the Chinese peo.
pie, that until order was restored in
the Empire and proved malefactors
punished, the outer world would hold
no communication with them-would
regard them as outside the comfy of
nations and the benefits of interna-
tional law. But to punish a whole
people by military expedition would
be no security for justice, and certain
ly no security for future peace, and
that is the chief thing. For if the
patriotic movement which has begun
be not appeased, when the race strug-
gle takes wider dimensions you will
have the gravest complications in In
dia, Tonquin and throughout Asia.
In 1880 the Russian ambassador in
Teheran was murdered, with forty
men, and the embassy was burned
amid horrible atrocities. The En-
peror Nicholas said: 1T is not ma
ton that has done this and while a
number of men were afterward cap
tured and executed and an indemnity
was exacted, no general revenge was
taken. So it might be in China to-
day, and so it should be all the more
that China will be an infinitely more
difficult and dangerous problem to at
tack in any other way"
OCTOBER & will be jubilee day at Spo-
kane for the Democrats. They will
hold a grand revival there on that date.