The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-27
The CHINESE QUESTION
YALE PROFESSOR NAMES CAUSES
OF CHINESE DISTURBANCE.

Chinese Criticlses Attitude of Western
Nations.
Professor A. M. Wheeler in a lecture
last evening in College street hall de-
livered a scorching amaignment of the
politics of Christiandom in China. Pro
fessor Wheeler began his lecture with
a characterization of the Celestials. lie
said:
eve have to deal this evening with
people the most remarkable of whom
we have any record; a people which has
stood the best test politically know OF,
that of keeping together as a nation for
forty centuries, That people evolved at
an earlier period than has any other
nation a system of popular education
and maintained it in its entirety with
out the aid of either church or govern
ment 1t has evolved q perfect system
Of morals, a vast literature of which
we as yet known nothing, and an ETH
quette more formal and polite than that
of France. l can only touch upon the
numberless beneflcent and useful in
inventions, Of paper, printing, gun
powder and the mariners compas-and
of originating the kindergarten ana
the civil service In this latter connec-
ton let me say that China under its
imperial form of government has the
most democratic institution in the
world. Under an absolutely impartial
civil service and with every advantage
of education the meanest citizen
may rise to the head of the government
In art China may not be especially re-
marl1able, vet those who saw in the
Chicago fair the specimens of Chinese
decorative art went away convinced
that the pigtails knew more about art
than the pigeaters of that city. The
Chinese are honest. Their commercial
honesty has become a proved, and
throughout the empire no such thing as
a written contract Is known.
ut is against this people that cam
paisn of vituperation and Islander has
been carried on in connection with the
successive encroachments made by Eu
ropean nations. 1t is true that China
has her faults, and they are somewhat
glazing. The Chinese use opium. There
is no excuse for this habit, but it is GER
tain that the reports of it are grossly
exaggerated. China compares favor
ably in this respect with England, the
most drunken nation on earth, or with
France, the nation of absinthe drinkers.
The Christian nations, in the treaty Of
Pekin. had much tc do With the
spreading the vice throughout the en-
pire. The Chinaman CANDLES. But he
is modest; he never goes broke" and
never blows his brains out at the end
of q game after the western fashion
is the word which describes
the character, the religion, the cradle
teaching of the Chinese"
Professor Wheeler then attacked the
statement of Poultney Bigelow in
July magazine, to the effect that the
Chinese broke the treaty of Tien Tsin
before the ink was dry on the paper.
II make this assertion" said he, that
no treaty has ever been made with
China that may be called a treaty.
They were, properly speaking, capitu-
Iations. I recall that occasion when
rallyrand met the Prusslan and Rus
sian ambassadors, and his words, Gen
tlemen, we are here not to discuss. but
to sign That is the attitude which
the western powers have invariably
taken IL making treaties with China,
and that is why I say they are capitu-
atiOns. Nor is there one of these So
,alled treaties that has not been vio-
ated at the convenience of its maker"
Our relations with China from the
treaty to the Geary act were
hen taken up, and Professor Wheeler
lWelt at length upon the Chinese exclu-
sion laws, which had been passed 'aS
political measures, and in the total vio-
alton of the report of the commission
appointed to investigate their condition
yressive, honest people, whose fault
ay in their industry" He showed that !
he United States has been anything
tut just in it's treatment of the Chinese
md quoted literally from documents to |
support his point.
The principles that ought to govern |
he relations between Christian and |
states were next discuss |
ID, and here Professor Wheeler laid |
,are the fearful abuses which, as he |
aid, have grown up because interna- |
ional law does not apply in China It |
ppears in this that church and state |
re not yet separated in the dealings |
f nations with each other, and that,
therefore,, all manner of crime may be
'erpetrated with impunity against the
heathen," who are without the pale of
he law.
On the missionary side of the aues-
ion Professor Wheeler said: 1.-THE mis-
ionaries ought not to be blamed. AS
look at it, the missionaries are but
parts of a vast machine
Jhich is organized and directed by the
hurches at home. These churches are
esponsible for the missionary abuses,
nd it seems to me are violating the
octrine of Christ when He first sent
ut missionaries: And whatsoever shall
OF receive you, nor hear you, when |
GU depart hence, shake off the dust
rom under your feet for a testimony
gainst them How different this doc
line Of non-resistance to that employ
in China to-day, where the mission-f
ries must acquire property and invoke
rejection of their government instead
leaving the land that rejects them"
BRIDGEPORT PROP
ERTY.
Louis n, Bristol and Robert n Nor