Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1904-04-15
The Yellow Peril.
IA. Maurice Low in the April-Junc
Forum


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 her policy of acknowledgement and
aggression i'm the Far East. 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 Goths and Huns were to the
fifth and submerge Europe, and that
another Attia would arise and. for the
wrongs inflicted upon his people scourge
Chrstendom with sword and flame.
When Japan made war on China, for a
moment the world stood aghast, fearing
that the floodgates of the yellow dam
were at last 10 be opened and that the
yellow race was to show its power when
aroused. China, with her millions. was
to subjugatc Japan; on those millions Jap
an 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
substantial reality than the baseless fab
ric Of dream. China. instead of being
powerful, was pOwerless, Japan instead
Of posing as the champion of the yellow
race against the white, displayed the mod
GRAFTON of 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 Lao
Tung Peninsular. with its stronghold,
Port Arthur. rightly belonged to her
by the fruits Of victory, Japan only de-
manied absolute equality and freedom of
trade for the whole world-not any special
privileges for herself, such privileges as
Russia and Germany have since asserted.
but the right for all nations to compete
on level terms.
1t is as absurd to talk of the solidarity
g I.N. Ia IL, n
races as IT is to Imagine a social amalga-
nation of whites and browns and blacks
China may be brought to modern con-
diuons under the political tutelage Of
Japan, and, If SO, Japan will have earned
the thanks of all the world and will have
immeasuraby advanced the cause Of civ
ilization; but beyond that Japan cannot
go Russia. with her short sighted pol
icy, the same policy that she pursues in
her domestic affairs. does not appear to
comprehend that the yellow peril is a
menace to the world only so long as
there are millions of human beings sunk
in the very lowest depths Of barbarism to
whom life means nothing. and who are
simply a chemical mass, capable Of be-
ing fired or fused whenever the right ele-
ment is brought into conjunction.
y Boxer uprising is always possible i'm
China. Rebellion and revolution are
dangers never to he overlooked The rem
ely for this is civilization. If the Chinese
through japanese or other influences can
be lifted IN the scale. instead OF threat
eniug civilization they may become fac
tor i'm the general advancement Of the
world. Russia'S peril is the discomfort
and the ignorante Of her people. If her
people We're enlightened. it. they We're bet
ter educated if they WERE as intelligent, in
short. as the masses of the people of the
United states. the Russian government
today would no moro fear rebellion and