The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-08-23
A FORECAST OF HISTORY
CONTINUED From Page -

and though In the face Of Europe under
arms it may seem perilous to count up
on any dying out of the military spirit.
every year seems to increase the pre-
eminence Of the industrial over essen
TALLY martial nations The Chinese
would be less dangerous than they are
II they were as warlike as the Turks
in the sixteenth and seventeenth GEN.
turtles, because. In that case, they
would waste their reproductive forces
in arms. The danger to Europe, and
for the higher races everywhere, If the
black and yellow belt encroaches upon
the earth, will not be the risk that st.
Petersburg or London may be made
tributary to Picking, but that the ex-
pansion of Englishmen and Russians
and other like nations will be arrested.
and the character of the peop.e pro-
foundry modified, as they have to adapt
themselves to stationary condition OF
society. Beyond this there is the more
subtle danger that, While the lower
races are raising themselves to the ma
terial level of the higher, the higher
may be assimilating to the moral and
mental depression of the lower
FORCED INTO CIVILIZATION.
Neither does it seem possible to i'm
agine that the great inert force of Chi
ma will not some day be organized, and
rendered mobile and capable of mil
tary aggression. Almost the most Sc
cluded of the nations in early times,
China was barred from q career of coa-
quest by the mountains Of Thibet, the
desert of Cobb, and the SHOWS of ST.
| IBERIA. She was swept over by Tartar
cOnquerorS, and the repeated attempts
of her people to trade or colonize in the
Malay Archipelago were met with re-
Strictive measures, or foiled by massa-
ores. Gradually her policy became one
Of ia6 in tyy ha fvfn To
centrate all the energy of her people
upon her own soil, and was as Wiling
to let the labOrer depart as to welcome
| the merchant Her great resources
went to feed the luxury of Court and
the greed of officials. We have COM
PEELED her to come into the fellowship
of nations. She has adopted steamers,
the European artillery and army or
ganizations; she has accepted the teie-
graph; she is about to introduce rail-
ways, and she has credit enough to
carry out the changes she needs with
foreign capital. On three sides of her
lie countries that she may easily seize
over which she has some old claim, and
in the climate OF which her people can
live. Flexible as the Jews, they can
thrive on the mountain plateaux OF
Thibet, and under the suns of Singa-
pore; more versatile than the Jews
they are excellent laborers, and not
without merit as soldiers and sailors;
| While they have a capacity for trade
which no other nation of the east pos
sesses. They do not need even the acct
dent of man Of genius to develop their
magnificent future. Ordinary states
manship, adopting the improvements OF
Europe without offending the customs
and prejudices of the people, may make
them a state which no power in Europe
will dare to disregard; with an army
which could marcn by fixed stages
across Asia: and a fleet which could
hold its own against any of the strong.
est of the European powers could at.
ford to keep permanently In Chinese
waters
A RACE OF LOWER AIMS.
IF, however, China were organized
as she is likely to be; IL her flag fioatel
on every sea, and her naval officers Wis
tied every great port as honoreC
guests; If her army was an important
factor in the peace of the word, anC
her diplomats respected in conse
quence; il her commerce was world
wide; If her literature was achieving
success of esteem for style ant
thought. 1t is inconceivable that thes'
influences would not tell upon tn,
character and conduct of mankind.
is not assumed that this effect woult
necessarily be all evil. The Chipamal
might, for instance, be an example o
| patient TOLL and this, with certain
reasonable limitations, is to be admir-
ed. What, however, seems probab is
that as the Chinese race forces itsel
into position of equality with it
neighbors, the spectacle of lives cor
sumed in labor, lives rewarded by moth
ing but the supply of animal wants
would cease to be considered repulsiv
, and humiliating. European socialism
aims at distributing labor and wealth
) SO that every man may have leisur
and the opportunity Of becoming bette
than he is. The practical socialism o
} the east has never aimed at more thai
, the satisfaction of material needs. TIL
question is, whether, when the tw
, forces are measured one against tn
, other, that which has the lowest aim
,, is not bound to starve the other on
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