The Oskaloosa herald., 1904-04-14
THE YELLOW PERIL.

'"The yellow peril is a bogie which
has terrorized timid statesmen for
the last half-century, and which has
been the stock property of Russia
ever since she began ner policy of
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and aggression in the
Far East" says A. Maurice Low in
the April-June Forum. "Asia, Europe
and America lived in daily dread OF
the yellow peril-in mortal terror that
the yellow man of the Far East was
to be to the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries what the Gotns and Huns
were to the fifth, and submerge Eu-
rope and that another Attila would
arise and, for the wrongs inflicted
upon his people, scourge Christendom
with sword and flame.
when Japan made war on China,
for moment the world stood aghast,
fearing that the floodgates of the vel
low dam were at last to be opened
and that the yellow race was to show
it's power when aroused. China, with
her millions, was to subjugate Japan;
on those millions Japan could make
no more impression than a wave in
impotent fury lashing a sea-girt rock.
The war was fought, and the yellow
peril was found to be of no more sub
stantial reality than the baseless fab
ric of dream. China, instead of be-
ing powerful, was powerless; Japan,
instead of posing as the champion of
the yellow race against the white,
displayed the moderation or wisdom
and the commercial acumen of the
most modern and highly civilized OF
all white people When China lay in
her grasp and when the Liao-Tung
Peninsula, with it's stronghold, Port
Arthur, rightly belonged to her by
the fruits of victory, Japan only de-
manded absolute equality and free
dom of trade for the whole world
not any special privileges for herself,
such privileges as Russia and Ger
many nave since asserted, but the
right for all nations to compete on
level terms.
"It is as absurd to talk of the sol
idarity of Japanese, Chinese, and all
the Asiatic races as it is to imagine a
social amalgamation of whites and
browns and blacks. China may be
brought to modern conditions under
the political tutelage Of Japan, and,
thanks of all the world and will nave
immeasurably advanced the cause OF
civilization: but beyond that Japan
can not 60. Russia, with her short
sighted policy, the same policy that
she pursues in fler domestic affairs,
does not appear to comprehend that
the yellow peril is a menace to the
world only so long as there are mil
lions of human beings sunk in the
very lowest depths of barbarism, to
whom life means nothing, and VINO
are simply a chemical mass, capable
of being fired or fused whenever the
right element is brought into con-
junction. - t'i 5&1
"A Boxer uprising is always possi-
Bile in China. Rebellion and revolu.
ton are dangers never to be over
looked The remedy for this is civ
ilization. If the Chinese through Jap
anese or other influences can be lift
ed in the scale. instead, of threatening
civilization they may become a factor
in the general advancement of the
world. Russia's peril is the discon-
tent and the ignorance of her people.
If her people were enlightened, If
they were better educated, if they
were as intelligent, in short, as the
masses of the people of the United
States. the Russian government to-
day would no more fear rebellion and
revolution -at home than the United
States had cause to fear it when six
years ago she went to war with
Spain"