The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-14
LOWER CLASS CHINESE.
They Are Deep in Poverty and
DenseIy Ignorant.
From the shanghai Mercury.


From the Shanghai Mercury.
When a certain United States SEN
ator objected to an appointment made
by President Lincoln, saying that the
man chosen was "such a common
man." Lincoln is said to have replied
II think the Lord likes common men;
He made so many of them" There is
no gainsaying the fact that the COM
moners form the great mass OF every
nation, and Mencius has we'll said that
the common people are the root OF
the state" The condition of country,
the degree of it's civilization and the
value of it's institutions are all to be
Judged by the condition of the masses
of the people BY their material well
fare, their education and their moral
culture we must measure the progress
of the nation. When Minister WI and
others point to the antiquity of Chi
nese civilization and the great teach
ers which it has produced in the past
as evidences of the enlightened condi-
ton of the Chinese race they may
captivate their hearers, but their rea-
soning is specious and misleading.
Greece could show many of the arts
of civilization centuries before the
Christian era, and could point with
pride to the intellectual attachments
of her philosophers and the skill of
her artists, yet the masses OF the peo-
pie in ancient Greece were Ignorant
Slaves. advanced but little beyond the
stage of barbarism in their manner of
life or their moral sentiments. And
Greece and Grecian civilization per-
ished before the advance of Rome, with
it's stronger political organization.
Poor People of the Land.
To Judge properly the social and in
dustrial condition of the Chinese to-
day, therefore, we must look at the
| character and condition of her peas
antry and her artisans, who form the
great mass of her people. If a. chain
| is no stronger than its weakest link,
what shall we say of one in which the
| greater part is constructed of untem-
I pered and badly wrought links, with
| only here and there one that is sub
stantial and shapely? Such is Chi
nese society.
| 1t is true that China as a nation
passed the boundary between barbar-
| ism and civilization many centuries
| ago. yet her governments have always
been weak and readily overturned. and
her territory easily depoiled by the
| conqueror. because the benefits of her
civilization have been confined to the
| few Her chief strength has been de-
rived from two sources-the, absence
OF any barriers to the rise of able men
| from the midst of the masses to share
| in her literary and political honors
| and the modicum of industrial and
| commercial freedom wrested from her
rulers by the organizations of her ar
tisans and merchants. These favora-
| BILE features have done much to pre-
serve the loyalty of the Chinese people
in the past to any de facto government
that may have been able to seize the
throne, even. though that government
may have been a very corrupt one.
but they have never been sufficient to
prevent the repeated conquest of the
| government by Mongol and Manchu
tribesmen. or it's defeat by mere hand
| fuls of western. men from over the
seas. There is so little patriotism in
China for the very good reason that
the government does so little for the
leopIe to awaken in their breasts any
loyal affection.
PatriarchnI Constitution.
The people retain much of their
primitive organization. The patriarch
| al constitution of clan and the ex-
istence of the village head men and
elders preserve in the hands of the
people much authority over their prop
erty, and considerable control of To-
cal affairs. BY the assistance of these
institutions and the power of combna-
ton in their industrial and commercial
guilds they have compelled the gov
eminent to yield them certain privi-
leges. and have tenaciously resisted
every attempt to curtail them when
once obtained. But circumstances
have never been such as to enable them
to extort from their rules such precious
Liberties as were obtained by the free
cities of Germany in the thirteenth
century, or the boroughs of England
in their long contest with the crown.
So long as these privileges are re-
spected, however. they will endure
much disagreement, though not
without protest. The possession of
| property is one of the strongest incen-
tives to loyalty to any existing order.
| But when we consider the condition of
the vast majority of the Chinese peo-
pie we see that even this restraint
upon rebellion is wanting. for the
amount of property per capita is so
times of political disturbance is prac-
tically insignificant.
Here we touch upon the chief source
of China's weakness, the poverty of
the masses, or the unequal distribution
of her wealth. There have not been
wanting in any age or country those
| who have preached the benefits of pow
erty and the wickedness of wealth. But
poverty of itself is no blessing. 1t may
have been blessing to this or that
individual that he was born poor, pro-
vided the means of improving his con-
| dition have not been taken away. His
poverty may prove such a stimulus as
! will lead TO the development of a
strong character, but this strength of
character comes only with the pursuit
and successful attainment of better