The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-07-21

great powers. If positive assurances
from the great powers can be secured
to the effect that the partition of China
will not be attempted peace will pre-
vail again and business will proceed as
usual. 1 repeat here, what have said
elsewhere, that every riot in China en-
phasizes the necessity of our holding
the Philippines In the present crisis
in China we have been able to send in
a few days troops from Manila to join
in the protection of Americans.
1t may be disagreeable to the admin
iStratiOn to engage in what may prove
a war of some agnitude-but we can
not abandon our fellow citizens who
are in China under the stipulatiOnS of
the treaties. Standardization must give
way to common sense. If a government
does not protect its people, what does
it do except collect taxes? We have
never taken any portion of China for
be now maintained. While military
cooperation cannot, probably, be
avoided, it should be understood that
our troops are in China for the sole
purpose of protecting our people have
not space to forecast the questions that
may come up when China is quieted.
FOREIGN RESIDENTS IN PEKIN.
A residence under the shadow of the
Imperial city was thought to be the
safest place in the empire. In the sum-
mer nearly all the foreign residents
scattered in the country, and passed
several months, ten, fifteen or twenty
miles from the capital, or at the water
ing-place called Peitaho, with not the
least fear, or dread of attack. For
nearly forty years no attack came The
women and children roamed unattend-
ed all over the country. There were
picnics in the old temples, on the hills
and beside the streams, and idle sum-
mer life went on on the borders of the
great plain in which dwelt one hun
dred millions of people. My family and
1 spent twelve summers at the Ameri-
can temple twelve miles from Pelxin.
The doors were rarely locked. No pre-
cautions were taken. We lived with the
denizens of the temple, and the country
people. We bought their vegetables,
eggs, chickens. ducks, fruits, meats, and
all that they had to sell. When there
was sickness in the nefghborhood we
did what we could to alleviate it. Many
a dose of quinine was administered by
us. Unattended except by single
mafoo, we rode every day for miles
through the villages and fields. We
exercised some charity among the poor,
and we distributed boxes of American
seeds among the farmers Everybody
knew us, and not once did we receive
the slightest insult or injury. Perhaps
1 ought to mention taht the Russian
minister, who was sojourning at my
temple while his legation was being
built was robbed of some money, but
it was strongly suspected that the thief
was one of his own servants.
1t is all changed now. These people are
perhaps millions, are banded together
with the fixed purpose to drive out the
foreigners. 1t seems also to be sure that
the actual government has Joined with the
rioters to accomplish the same end. 1t is
an uprisal of the dark-skinned man
against the white man 1t is scarcely
worth while to inquire who is to blame.
| 1 could myself, from my own knowledge,
| point out various cases in which rank in
/ Justice has been done to the Chinaman, as
| it has been done to the African and the
| Indian, but in this emergency there is no
| place for recriminatiOn. We are con-
| fronted with the most dangerous condi-
/ ton of things that ever existed in the
| far east. Self-preservation becomes the
supreme duty of the hour. On the result
not only the wealth which has been ac-
| cumulated slowly for. nearly century is
dependent, but also the lives of many
white men and women are in danger.
| Banks, railroads. steamboats,, mills, mer-
| chandise, the myriad stores of trade, hang
| on the issue. and these are as nothing
/ compared with the fruition of gigantic