The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-12-20
ns China Backward?

bread and potatoes your father sent me
are very nice, but why did he withhold
that pork of which you spoke and of
which l am so fond?" "Oh," said the
boy, "the hog didn't die"
And it is this very condition of
things in the far east. China is much
alive, and the great powers of Europe
who have for several centuries, done
about as they pleased with this quaint
people, demanding and collecting trib-
ute at will, today find this backward"
nation quite alive and destined to give
them the problem of their lives. Yes,
the great powers of Europe having
vital interests in that far distant land,
unless they would repeat to themselves
the Russian disaster, must expect not
only single great conflict, but many
with this delinquent people," Dur
ing the next fifty years am convinced
that these powers of Europe would like
we'll to shift the burdens of their self
imposed sponsibilities to the shoulders
of some other nation and, like a
woman who arose to testify at Sal
vation Army meeting and said:
81 once was very foolish and vain.
Worldly pleasures and especially the
fashions were my constant thought. l
was fond of silks, satins, jewelry, rib
bons and laces. But, my friends, when
l found they were dragging me down
to perdition, / gave them to my sister"
Indeed they will want some one to
their rescue. The jewel for which
they struggle is dragging them down
to perdiCion, or, as IN its accepted
world meaning, to protracted war.
This peculiar people have lived quiet
life of liberation for centuries, per
mitting the other people of the earth
to assume position which in a meas
ure transcends that which they occupy
The Chinese, unlike their descendants
to the West, are not warlike people
They have no colonization scheme in
mind, no islands nor "spheres of iQflu
ence" to entangle, no "Platt amend
ment" embellish to them a foreign
treaty. The great diplomatic game OF
chess is, that which Europe and Amer
lea are compelling these inoffensivs
people to learn, and by the rules which
govern, they are today obliged to move
The Chinese have not religion as W.
of the western world understand it
Instead of which they have sever
systems of philosophy, fitting the de
} mands of the varying intelligence O
} the people. None of these system
J possess any of the impurities of the so
called mysteries of Greek and Roman
supremacy of 1000 to $500 years ago
r but, on the contrary, teach degree o
: morality and correct living in no wis
: inferior to the doctrines of our owl
? vaunted West. But let us not discus
a nor moralize, eulogize or condemn. Cel
: tain it is that the precepts of thei
: philosophy have taught them not t
: meddle in the affairs of other people
:, Hence for countless centuries thl
J. peace-loving, contented people hav
@ enjoyed their seed time and harves
}. with no furtive glance, no covetou
s eye toward adjoining lands-or island
# of the sea. No other people in th
d world would tolerate the eencroacbment
# made on their territory, and the abuse
y which the Chinese have suffered at tt
hands of the respectable civilized nj
8, tions of Europe. The opium hab
3 was entirely unknown to these peop
d until the coming among them of re-
d resentatives of one of the great Chri
le tian nations of Europe. This e1
t. habit takes to untimely graves, in ii
lg Flowery Kingdom, no less than 2O0,O
ly of its people annually; and incapat
Of tates for useful industry millio
G., others.
ne Petty local wars have been fann
ID into real rebellions among these peoI
ly by the diplomatic bellows of Berli
r" London, Paris and st. PetersbuI
whereupon warships of these natio
On have made demonstrations, claimi
on a right to protect European interes
81 resulting in treaties granting terrific
* and new spheres of influence to vario
as governments. Decades and centnr
i'd of this sort of procedure have PAL