The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-05-11
NOTED MISSIONARY TALKS ABOUT CHINA Commercial Club Listens to
 Young J. Allen AN INFORMING ADDRESS Political and Commercial Matters Ex. plalned and Discussed-Hsh Trib-
 ute Paid to the Business
 Integrity of Chinese.

delivered a lecture yesterday afternoon at 43O o'clock at the Commercial club. The rooms were we'll filled with club members and ladies.
 The large audience listened with the closet attention to Dr. Aliens speech, which was a lucid ana comprehensive ex- position of conditions past and present in that vast, populous and comparatively little known territory. the Chinese em- pire occupying as it does one and one half times more of the earths surface than the United States, and possessing prodigious potentalities politically and commercially. Geogra phically our antipode it has also come to be our commercial antipode, by reason of events explained by Dr. Allen.
 The Lecture.
 Dr. Allen said in part:
 'I esteem it a great pleasure as well as privilege to address the Commercial club of Birmingham and as my time is very limited, shall be as brief as may be.
 "I suppose all are familiar with the geography of China. It is due west-broad- side with us. It forms the western shore of the Pacific ocean. Its climate and pro- auctions are about the same as this countrys. It extends about as far south as Cuba and as far north as New York The whole of China is larger than that, but this that I describe is China proper. The climate is about the same In the north as our northern states, and in the south 1t Is the same as in the southern part of this country.
 Tn the south of China the productions are rice; in the central part, rice, wheat and silk; in the north, wheat, millet and corn. As to minerals. the country abounds in them: Lead in the western part of China: gold and coal in the north copper in the southeast. And these products have never been touched. They are known to exist in abundance. Baron Richtofen, the late German consul at Pumpelly, an expert on minerals, investigated and found enough coal to suffice the world for 2000 years at the present rate of con sumption.
 Referring to the government and the people: The government is a despotisT, an autocracy Confucianism, the classic literature and religion of China, has ar- rested civilization; 1t has simply smother ed and suppressed the people and institu- tions, so that for 2000 years China has hardly developed at all It's classics, it's superstitions and all indicate the reasons for 1t. The Tartars have arisen and sup pressed in China any disposition toward progress. Conditions now seem to be In a transitional period. One hundred and twen- ty-students were sent over to this country in one year to study in our colleges. These men are leaders now in young China. We have been making books and circulating them so that now d different opinion obtains as to foreigners.
 Young Leaders.
 "Chlna is today under the leadership of young men who have been abroad. They are at the front and are making headway against superstition. The boy colt against American goods started at Shanghai. The men who started this movement are men of probity, of consid- erable capital and they do g. great busi- ness.
 Shanghai is great city. There are 5OO,000 people living in the foreign sec ton. Shanghai is not an ordinary city; it's a city of refuge. During all the wars and hostilities those who sought refuge there brought their families, constructed handsome homes and are generally rich So that the business dealings you have with China, the central part of it, are through Shanghai. Shanghai and the British possession, Hong Kong. are the commercial centers of China.
 "The boycott came about from the fact that the Chinese government does not protect it's people. As an editor I have published many articles urging the gov ernment to protect their people. If they go abroad and meet with hard treatment there is no government to take up their grievance.
 "The merchants going to Borneo and other trading points are sources of wealth to China. The Chinese are great trading people, they are great developing people, Where they go they develop. These peo- pie come to America; they were invited
  sion. certain class called Coolies were kept out by this treaty. The merchant may come but the banker must not. The student may come. but the doctor may not come. The students and people of the better classes were invited to the ex- position in St. Louis. Other countries had invited them before. The Chinese gov ernment accepted the invitation and pro- mulgated a decree to that effect The cus- tom house aided in every way those who were coming. They complain now at their treatment They were not Coolies, but the best classes. students and men of gentle birth. They wished to see the country. They went back mad because they said they were not treated with proper consideration or respect. In Shanghai all foreigners live under their own flag and Chinese cannot touch him; they cannot arrest him.
 Keen Resentment.
 "All Chinese who live there enjoy the greatest freedom. They have lecture hall where questions of political nature are freely discussed. So when this boy colt question came, men and women who felt the stigma resulting from their treat ment in this country. expressed the keen est resentment. nobleman and his daughter, although they had letters from our representative at London. MT. Choate, were arrested and held in custody They were freed by the president, and the man who arrested them was discharged. But when this man returned to Shanghai he told of his treatment. Together with his testimony in the mixed courts and the feeling of others who suffered the great est indignities at the hands of inspectors t. tl,ts country if nrodiced a terribIe