The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-09-14
China Against the World.

At the present time the powers are
working together. The concert, how
ever is preserved only by the momen-
tary peril When all tremble for the
safety of their ministers and mission
aries their mutual jealousies for the
, time give way. Should the threatened
persons be rescued, or should their
fate be definitely sealed, the operations
.. against China coud not continue long
| without involving the powers in mu-
tual hostilities. These rivalries will
make it exceedingly difficult to re-
store order in China by outside force.
AS a matter of fact, the Chinese are
not so inefficient and cowardly as SOL
| diers as is generally believed. Their
behavior during the japanese war was
fair test. At that time the Chinese
generals were paid for a certain quota
of men, whom they were supposed to
enroll. They consequently hired the
very riff raft of the streets, whom they
could get for the very lowest pay and
,, giving them the most documentary
drill, they led them against the
enemy. 1t is not such soldiers that the
European powers now have to oppose,
but an Infatuated multitude fighting
for their homes and their civilization,
which they believe endangered. 1t is
we'll known that the Chinese would
rather suffer death than submit to an
infringement of a custom which they
consider sacred: and they will stop
short at no cruelty and no treachery to
defend themselves against the threat
ened domination of the stranger. When
we remember what terror is produced
in settled community by few
dynamiters or tearers-up of rails, it
will be clear how little European forces
could accomplish if whole nation of
four hundred millions should deter
mine to resist outside influence at all
odds. The terrors of the TAPPING rev.
olution of forty years ago show with
what fury the Chinese will fight when
they became thoroughly excited
The only policy that seems compare
lively without danger at the present
time is for the powers to seize Peking
and to restore order in the northern
provinces before the confagration has
time to spread farther Then, by
strengthening the moderate party in
China, it might be still possible to
preserve the old forms and the unity
of the empire, and yet to give it a
government which would be open to
the influences of civilized nations.
Should the uprising spread and become
general throughout the Empire, it
would be fearful calamity for China
and for civilization. The total dis
solution of government and society
would lead to the most terrible suffer
ing and loss of life among the Chinese
themselves, who are full of factional
hatred and animosties. The woes of
anarchy and war would be charged to
the original meddling Of foreigners
and the seed of bitter hostility to the
west and its ideas would be sown
throughout China A pacific fusion
of Oriental and western civilization in
China would become impossible, and
even if the western powers should sue
coed in the gigantic task of pacifying
the raging forces, the smouldering
embers of resistance could not be ex-
tinguished. The most probable conse-
quences of failure Of the southern
viceroys to maintain order would be
either the relapse of China into abso-
lutte barbarism or the acquisition of
sovereignty over it by either of the
great Oriental powers, Russia or
Japan. 1t is mistake to believe that
the Chinese can be governed like the
Hindoos. They are of different fibre
they assimilate their rules and only
an Oriental power could exert per-
manent mastery over them. Paul S.
Reinsch, in September Forum.