Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-08-07

ed the country has been to foreigners ,
for. its advancement.
China is an exemplification Of the fate
that befalls a nation which sets itself
Sup against the progress of civilization.
Marching onward with irresistible
force. conquering, compelling, civiliza-
ton may be beneficent deity or Jug
gernaut, either taking along with it and
blessing those who accept it's teachings,
or.crushing those who seek to oppose it
beneath the cumulative weight of pro.
gressive centuries.
Claiming precedence through its an
tiquity as a nation, with dynastic
chronicles extending back nearly 5000
years, China has ever stood in the path
way of progress blocking the road and
refusing to stand aside. Viewed in the
light of history, there can be but one
fate in store for such a nation, for
against it are arrayed the combined
moral, if not physical. forces of the
world, and it must obey the mandate or
perish in an Intellectual struggle for SUI
premacy. The world will not tolerate
even negative assent to the universal
creed that He who is not with US is
against u.s." 1t demands an active par
tlclpation in affairs that make for the
ultimate best the universe can yield.
With the origin of her people shroud-
ed in the mists and mysteries of great
antiquity, China dwelt by herself for
thousands of years before the outsider
penetrated the barrier she had erected
around her empire At last the great
{ Mongol, Genghis Khan, preached the
walls and compelled the Chinese to
stand on the defensive About the mid
die of the thirteenth century grand
son of Genghis went to the aid of the
Chinese against the Tartars, and, find
ing Picking very much to his liking, re-
fused to go away after the latter had
been expelled.
This man was the famous Kublai
Khan, who crowded out the effete ma
tive Sung dynasty and brought it to an
end, establishing himself as emperor
of China about the year 1860, firmly fix
ing himself as such nine years later.
Kublai Khan may be called, perhaps.
the first foreigner who came to rescue
China from the depths of ignorance
into which she was plunged. She
did not want to be rescued, to be sure.
and the ciyilizing process went on much
against her will. Whether his coming
was for her welfare or not is open to
question, since it would seem that this
breach in the walls of exclusiveness
was but the precursor to her eventual
downfall and disintegration
Having brought with him some wise
men from Persia and having invited to
his capital that eminent traveller and
historian, Marco Polo, Kublai Khan set
himself to the task of reorganizing
Chinese affairs. He extended Chinese
territorial limits beyond Tonquin and
Cochin China and also extended the
limits of Chinese knowledge.
The astrologers and astronomers who
came with him erected tower for the
observation of the stars set up instru-
ments. which may be seen on the walls
OF Picking today, and taught the Chi
nesc much more than the rudiments of
science which they already possessed.
Kublai passed away in 1894 and his
dynasty in 1868, when revolution over
threw it, and then succeeded the
Mings. native rulers who reigned until
1914. During the nearly 300 years they
were in power the Mings did little for
China, but held their own Until the
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