Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-02
MISS FOUNDATION SCHOOL CANTON CHINA
ON THE TRAIL OF THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY

they are talking about the news Of the
world True. they get events somewhat
mixed. One young man, to air his knoWl-
edge, spoke to missionary about the i'm
portance of the Panama canal and the
purchase Of Alaska by the United States.
K x
In supplying the example and much of
the incentive for the new education the
mission schools have played important
part. Now they called upon to fur
nish teachers for government institutions,
despite the disabilities which government
employ places upon Christians; and the
native teachers of mission schools are be-
ing tempted from them by offers of great
ly increased salaries, and it is to the credit
of the Christian purpose of the latter that
they remain constant to the schools and to
the work of the ministry. There is scarce
ly native pastor in all China who could
not better his worldly lot by taking other
employment. l have the impression, by the
way, that the mission boards. as rule, do
not pay their native helpers large enough
salaries: upon the natives all enduring
Christian work must ultimately depend
AS everybody knows. 1t was the mission.
aries who first introduced into China what
civiliza ton calls education. The mission
aries are the translators of the books of
western learning into Chinese. They made
possible the systematic study of Chinese
by foreigners and of English by Chinese.
Realizing that education must underle
accompany Christianity, they have from the
first steadily engaged in teaching. Now al
most every native church in the empire has
it's day school, and every mission its educa-
tional work. Often the schools had to be
recruited from the very outcaStS of the
streets; but the missionaries bravely per-
sisted, and now they have their reward in
seeing more students clamoring for admit
lance than they can accept, and among
them the children of the highest families in
the land. Many or most of the schools are
al all n rank higher
than the Chinese institutions. Beyond ques-
tion the mission schools are still leading
the educational work in China and the
shrewdest parents freely pay more to edu-
cate their children at mission schools. even
though they must accept Christian instruc-
ton also, than they would have to pay at
the new Chinese Institutions
TX
AS the reader OF these articles may have
noticed, long ago abandoned my intention
of describing the work Of individual mis-
sons, for the simple reason that it would
require a full newspaper page a week to do
SO. Travellers to the east may say that they
see no evidences Of mission work; my trou-
BILE is that l have seen too many. The
very magnitude of the missionary enter
prise has made 1t necessary for me merely
to summarize and give conclusions. Thus I
must dismiss in q few sentences great
educational institutions in China. any one
of which Is worthy of an article in itself.
Illustrative Of the immense service rendered
to this nation by American altruism, Ameri-
can capital and American brains.
Take, as the most conspicuous example,
St. Johns College, Shanghai, Of the Amer-
can Protestant Episcopal mission. This Is
the greatest educational institution in the
empire. Its students, numbering between
200 and 800, come from all parts of China,
and from families of wealth and official
1lr'c arttf toe oil
mission colleges, l believe, are accepted by
the government for official positions. Its
buildings, on the outskirts of Shanghai,
and it's corps of instructors, headed by Rev.
F. L, H. POtt, would do honor to any Amer
lean college. The work of this one institu-
ton Is alone sufficient answer to the crit
icsm that mission work In China Is futile
What have said of st. Johns College may
be said substantially, of Boone College and
Boone Medical School, Wuchang, likewise
Of the Protestant Episcopal mission
The Soochow University of the Southern
Methodist Church, Rev. DR.. D. L. Ander-
son, president, is another institution which
would elicit praise OF discriminating educa-
tional experts. the enthusiastic pride of
Americans and the admiration Of everybody
From the college annual. full OF the same
sort of thing that goes into such volumes
at home, to the splendidly equipped build
ing, 1t is a thorough going, progressive eff
fective institution Of learning. Elsewhere
1 have spoken of the imposing North China
Union College, built by the American board
at Tung Chow. and the Union College for
Women. at Picking, and the big Picking
university of the Methodist Episcopal
Church North, and the Union Medical COL
lege Picking. All of these are enterprises
great beyond the imagination of the aver
age American. who thinks of missions a
man preaching on the corner to a lot of
gaping heather. There are American edu-
Gators in Chna-I need cite only the veter-
an DR.. w. A. P. Martin of Peking-who
would be famous men at home; association