Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-09-23
CHINA LOOKS TO
BRIGHT FUTURE
GOVERNMENT IS DOMINATED BY
PRoeREssioNIsTs
Changes viii Proceed Slowly, but
Awakening Of the Natives
Seems Already TO Be
at Hand

PEKING, Sept. 22.--When one hears
that the Picking government has decided
to reform its constitution, making 1t more
in accordance with the occidental ideas
of the individuality or me brotherhood
of man, or that decree has been issued
prohibiting the traffic in opium, or that
an imperial edict is to revolutionize the
customs service, or that its archaic army
is to be placed on a modern footing, or
| even that European dress reform and
manners are being taught in Chinese So
cial classes, one should not lose sight OF
the dominant fact that these reforms.
DEGREES and edicts apply with varying
stringency and exactitude to over 400
100000 people, at different stages of civil
ization, occupying over 100000 square
miles of territory, and that the heteroge-
| neous nature Of this vast population
makes it for prolonged period unre-
sponsive to the very worthy intentions of
the central imperial government.
National Policy Evolved
With the defeat of Russia by Japan
there arose from a national instinct In
China the expression of national policy
China for the Chinese. This idea was
encouraged by the various treaties that
Japan made with European powers, which
practically guarantee the territorial and
political entity of China. A strong stimu-
lus to 1t has been the program adj
vanced by Chinese students who have
studied in Europe and America
They would have a constitution
promulgated at months notice, a
judicial code hot from the press, and
| Herewith the abolition of foreigners ex-
tra-territorial rights. They would have
China build her ow railways, open her
own mines and exclude all foreign in
fiuences. And their views have been SO
clamorous. their effect on the ignorant
ruling class so marked, that they now
undoubtedly dominate the existing sill
uation in no small degree.
Paradoxical as 1t may seem, they would
apply to everything occidental methods
the source of which they AFFECT to despise.
Contrasted with this program is that
of the conservative intellectuals, who be-
lieve in China for the Chinese, but who
are aware that the change cannot be
the work of year or even Of a decade.
The attempt year ago to remove Sir
Robert Hart from the position of inspec-
tor general of Chinese customs was
rather the scheme of group of manda-
rims to take selfish advantage of the
China for Chinese program than a de-
cision on the part of the government to
deprive itself of so valuable a foreign
official. 1t was premature Foreigner
bondholders objected to it, and the gov
eminent itself saw that it would be
step backward rather than forward. The
various contingencies of the affair con-
flrmed the imperial opinion that before
China could send away foreign servants
| it must so strengthen its own resources
as to defy foreign criticism and arm it.
| self against foreign attack. 1t must
strengthen the Chinese mind and
Physique. Educational reforms were intro
duced. The law courts were forced to
be more humane, and opium, that great
enemy of mind and body, was denounced
and removed from the reach of the
masses. All this has been done without
any pronounced desire for foreign re-
spect, but as foundation for future adj
vancement.
Physical Arm Is Strengthened
In the meantime China has also been
strengthening her physical arm. AS the
foreign invarers advanced toward Pekin
at the time of the Boxer outbreak, they
were met by rebels most of whom were
armed with bows and arrows, double
handled swords, oxhide bucklers and two
man jingals, and the men who bore these
arms wore ugly masks and gave forth
blood-curdling cries. Far different would
be the reception of the foreign DICTIONARIES
today. In the single province of Chi Lii
alone is a standing army of 10000 men
dressed in khaki. clean. well shod, and
with peaked caps shielding their eyes
from the sun. They carry Mannlicher or
Mauser rifles and know how to use them.
A similar army is being gradually created
in each of the other eighteen provinces
OF this vast imperial host which is rap
idly reaching the 1,000.000 mark, the
board of war in Pekin has nominally the
supreme military control, laying down
regulations which the viceroys and gov
ernors of the provinces carry out. AS a
matter of fact, however, each local ruler
does what seems right in his own eyes.
The recruiting, the purchasing OF weap-
ons. the payment of troops and the gen.
eral efficiency of the service all depend
ON the viceroy. And the viceroy Of to-
day, of whom Yuan OF Chi Ii is a type.
is imbued with the spirit of the policy OF
China for the Chinese-not today, or per-
haps tomorrow, but soon. The foreign
engineers who blasted a hole through the
great wall to make road for railway
were possibly unconscious of the fact thar
they were really erecting barriers for
their own ultimate exclusion Among
other things, the Chinese have learned
that ancient masonry is no defense
against a Krupp or a Creusot.
-
-t r-AH @s,,n 1870 --...-