The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-06

Ills subject was The Awakening o China" Gen. Stewart L. Woodfort formerly Minister of the United StateI at the Court of Spain. presided at thu meeting and introduced Minister Wu who spoke as follows:
 The mere mentioning of this sub Ject--'The Awakening of China'--is suf ncient to make my countrymen thrill with pleasure and flush with pride China, the country which made tn, dying missionary, the famous Xavier exclaim fin 1852. O Rock. Rock wher wilt thou open?' ia at last. indeed opened, and changes are taking place in that hoary Empire. which bid fail to constitute the miracle of the Twen' tieth Century.
 China has been dubbed The Sick Man of the Far East,' The Sleeping Lion.' The Totteripz Empire; and oth. CT names more of less Picturesque and complimentary have beeff bestowed up on her. With some people 1t is the conviction that China has only a his torical interest. that her glory Is of the past,--tiat the Ie6bard may change its spots. but China remains forever In her ruts. the same yesterday. today and tomorrow.
 But while this gloomy picture of the State of affairs might have been partly true of China Of a few decades ago. 1t Is no longer true now. The Sick Man Is rapidly convalescing, the Sleeping Lion is awake, and the hoary and tottering Empire has had new blood injected into her system. China is moving, and she is moving with a rapidity dificult for one who has not personally witnessed the wonderful changes to understand and realize.
 "over twenty years ago. Marquis Tserg the then Chinses Minister to the Court of St. James, contributed an article to The Quarterly Review in which he eloquently and periodically demonstrated the fact that China was not in a moribund state. but that she had been only reposing fin the arms Of Morpheus The loud and importun- ate knocking of her doors by the for eisn powers, whose entrance could not be resisted, had rudely shaken her. and to prove her awakening. the noble Marquis mentioned several important measures of reform which were beinR undertaken. and he then proceeded to outline the course China should pur- sue after her awakening. I am proud to say that all he recommended and more has since been adopted by the Government with beneficial effects, In passing, let me add that not long after his return to China, Marquis Tsens died, and through his death the pro- gress of China was retarded by sev. eral years. for he was one of very few scions of our noble families in those days who grasped the situation and who could on account of their position and influence direct the policy of the Government in the right direction. T must say, however. that nearly all the points he enumerated and em- phasised in his article were material and they embodied the fruits rather than the seeds of western civilization The recommendations were not aimed at the root of things, and while they would invest the nation with an ap. pearance of strength and prosperity the metamorphosis thus effected would be only superficial and transient
 Moving Like m Avalanche. Nearly forty years ago. Wen Hsiang who was Minister of the Tsungli "a. men (the Foreign Office), in reply tc person who was complaining of the slowness with which China was nov. ing, said that once she began to move sine would do so with the rapiditS and momentum of an avalanche; and today we are witnessing the rea1iza- ton of his words. There are many forces. some of which have been work, ing quietly but none the less effective. ly, for years. to which this awakening may be ascribed, but want of time doeI not permit me to mention more than few, nor to dwell on them at great length.
 First and foremost, Is the spreaC of educatiOn--and by this I mean tht diffusion of general knowledge. knowl | edge of men and of affairs of thu world. It is a far cry from the tim, when high officials in Picking. to wh on the wonderful performance of tn, Morse telegraph apparatus was showi and explained, expressed simply thei opinion that China got along withou 1t for four thousand years; to the pres ent day when every official residence and department In Picking Is connected by the telephone and every provincia yamen. or administrative ofice. is sup l piled with the telegraph service.
 Repeated defeats at the hands o | the foreign powers soon convinced ou | people of the futility of matching bow | and arrows against modern guns an, explosives while our wooden junk | went down before the onslaught o armored cruisers and battleships lik wheat before the Scythe, The inabil | ity of our former so-called moderi army and navy to encounter those O | other nations demonstrated to us clear | ly that modern weapons of war with | out the properly trained men to han l dle them and without scientific leader to direct and control are of no nor value than bows and arrows and wood en tunks.
 For several years there was lou
 and threatening talk of doing violenc | to the integrity of the empire. and on
 work actually appeared under the om
 inous and unfortunate title of "Th l Breaking ID of China" No sooner al
 books and newspapers containing dis
 cusslons of this subject appear tha
 they were translated into onr Ian
 guage, and the wild rumors of impend
 Ing violence filled the minds of tn
 people with indignation and alarm, Inn
 polling them, one may say. at the poin | of the bayonet to devise ways an
 means whereby national danger migh
 be averted Proofs and incidents wer
 not lacking to warn our people that a 1 were not brothers within the four sea
 students poured into foreign cour
 tries by the hundreds. and particular
 those that went to Japan devoted
 large part of their time to the edith
 of magazines and the translation
 books, a veritable flood of literatul l thus pouring back to their fatherlan
 and reaching every nook and corner
 the empire. Some of this literatur
 flowing from the pens of young me
 flushed with the new learning an
 burning with patriotism, was natural
 somewhat violent in tone and mao
 sensational reading, but it produced |
 effect on our people. who needed some
 thing unusual to wake them out
 their lethargy.
 Service of Missionaries.
 Nor must omit to mention the SCI
 vices of the missionary body. particl
 larly the American branch of 1t. whoi
 indefatigable efforts in the esta blisl
 ment of educational institutions and