The age-herald., 1901-04-19
FAIR PLAY IS DEMANDED
 FOR PEOPLE OF CHINA

Kiao Chiao resolved to teach the peonle a lesson. and burned the two offending villages. This made matters worse. fo. many entirely innocent people were among the sufferers It was predicted by many foreigners at the time, that bitter harvest would come from that crime. And 1t did come. for nothing is more certain than that the course of Germany in Shan tung was the immediate cause of the Boxer uprising.
 The manner in which various foreign governments have parceled out China into "spheres of influence" among them selves should always be included in the catalogue of offenses committed against the Chinese people. A great part of the Empire has been thus divided without the slightest regard to the wishes of It's government. Last year Russia and Eng land made such division matter of treaty negotiation between themselves It was agreed and declared that Manchuria should be the "sphere of inf1uence' of the former and the Yank-tse valley the sphere of the latter. In the foreign press the great central region, the richest part of the country Is spoken of as if England had some real claim to 1t and the great southern provinces of Kwang Tung, Kwang Hsi and Yunnan are written of as if they were in some way mortgaged to France. Japan also has her share n the province of Fokien and Italy wanted hers in the province of Chekang. There Is hardly a place on the whole east coast
 of China which Is not said to be in the sphere of some power or other except the one which owns it.
 For the last two years China has been
 subjected to a series of insults any one of which would have driven western
 country to war. She was justified in sup posing that the powers meditated parti- ton; she was criminal only in the meth-
 ods which she employed to prevent 1t. .s
 There Is one lessen pertinent to the present negotiations which these out rages by foreign countries should teach us. They failed in accomplishing their purpose because they were unjust, and, cruelty severe. It has been a cardinal doctrin with many in the west that the east respected nothing but fear, and
 would yield to nothing but violence. It was held, therefore, that in dealing with Orientals the object should be, by sheer severity to terrify. to crush them into submission. This method has failed in China. Germany tried 1t with a ven-
 geance, and her failure has been the most conspicuous of all; the result. in- stead of peace, was the Boxer fury.
 What is needed now is not punitive ex- petitions, oppressive indemnities and wholesale slaughter. These methods in- volve innocent and guilty alike in com
 mon ruin. We have had too much share ourselves in creating the past to resort to such brutaiities as these. What we want is security for the future. and. to get that, we must put aside all thoughts of violence. The guilty should be punish- ed if they can be caught, but the whole empire should not be kept in confusion till they are caught. There should be in- demnities, but not so heavy as to crush the myriads of people, the vast majority of the Chinese, who have had no part or lot in the uprising Let the indemnity be sufficient to make good actual loss, that will be heavy enough to be borne. In word, healing is far more in place than retaliation. There should be justice, but 1t should be tempered with large quan- tity of mercy Righteousness and con- sideration will do more to secure our
 safety in the future than heavy indemni-
 ties, the raging of forts. the prohibition of the import of arms. or any other
 measures which would remind the Chinese people perpetually of the injus- tice of foreigners and their own intoler- able humiliation M