The leader., 1900-08-08
"Thc Real Chinese Peril"

Mr.. William Clarke, well known
and Jealous worker in the cause of in
ternational arbitration and peace, TN
der the above heading. wisely and
truly sets forth the peril to which the
working masses will be subjected
in the event of the Opening up" of
China, peril, however, which affords
no concern or anxiety to the CONNER
cial capitalists who are clamoring for
war:
Yes. it is a peril. but not the kind
of peril dreamed of by the silly people
who are urging on our Government to
active Intervention in China. 1t is a
and America if China should, as the
phrase is, be opened up to a sudden
innovation of Western life. | will
state the problem as it will. in that
event, most certainly present itself
to the bewildered gaze of the Western
world.
The one real motive of the attack
being made by the Powers on China is
i'll word, markets The missionaries
afford a useful preteXt, but to suppose
that our cosmopolitan capitalists, who
stood calmly by to see a HUNDRED
thousand Armenians butchered, care
one farthing for all the missionaries
on the planet is to take leave of our
senses. 1t is Mammon, the least
erected spirit that fell from heaven,
which is directing the operations OF
the powers
Now, the Chinese will never furnish
the markets which our Western fancy
conceives 1t is thought that because
China is a great and rich country
with vast stores of minerals, that there
fore she will be a great consumer OF
goods as England or America is. Nc
delusion can be greater. You may
destroy the Pekiu Government, but
you cannot destroy the beliefs and
life habits of four thousand years.
The dull-witted Saxon might know
this from his own experience, but he
has not sufficient imagination to real
ize that the basis and governing prin-
ciples of Chinese life are different
from his own.
"Our civilization is based on polit-
4,
comfort, which impels US to spend our
lives in manufacturing commodities,
and then surrounding ourselves with
them. Chinese civilization is based
on a certain kind of moral culture
which expresses itself in extreme sim
plicity of life and a demand for a very
few commodities. We measure the
progress of what We call civilization
by increase of material wants. The
Chinese, on the other hand, admire
and practice that kind of life
which is mainly passive and demands
China will never make that enormous
effective demand on Western prOduc-
ers which is ignorantly supposed. The
demand will be in the men that RIP
resented 10y the concession mongers,
who want to build instantly railways
and telegraph lines to tap the sources
of Chinese mineral wealth. 1t will not
be a genuine demand from the Chi
nese themselves.
But, while China will not buy ship
loads of goods or fill the factories Of
Europe and America with orders, she
will certainly become within a meas
urable time a formidable rival of in
dust rial Western civilization. Once
opened up, the industrial revolution
in China will race like Il flame. She
has more coal than any other country,
her wealth in iron and other minerals
is incalculable, Mills will be built
every where by Western capitalists,
who will only be too delighted to
throw off the yoke of the trade union
anu u'iilLC INC IdIitHU lluuSlly Vi
millions of Chinese who never get
drunk, who never go on a strike, who
can learn almost any trade in a week,
and who live on little and a shilling
a day. How are our Western working
men going to meet such competition?
The answer is clear they cannot meet
him; and, therefore, if China is opened
up under capitalist auspices, our
working people must face the risk of
being dragged downward to the Chi
nese economic level.
"And this with ornaments increas-
ing and taxation rising everywhere! Is
this not serious peril which CAPT
talist strategy is bringing, for its own
advantage, on the Western world?"