New-York tribune., 1909-10-24

according TO a timetable promulgated by the
government For instance, it has been decided
that opium has deleterious effect upon the
people. The government is suppressing 1t by
curtailing the importation and growth ace7sli5r
to prescribed ratio each year, the whole trads
to be suppressed within a period of ten yea:i
from November 81 1906, the date of the edict
This programme has been carried out thus far.
Two viceroys have lost their official heads be-
cause their districts did not show a sufficient
reduction in the growth of the poppy.
1t will perhaps be only a few years befor1
every Chinese boy and girl will be obliged to ga
to school Efforts have been made by the mori
progressive vicerOys for the adoption of com,
pulsory education along the lines pursued in thu
United States. In the edict regarding the com-
ing establishment of a constitutional govern
ment the executive officials were directed "a
issue proclamatfons to their people to show an
enthusiastic desire for education" The opportu-
mites are being provided the old system Of ed
ucation being swept away by the imperial de-
cree of September g. 1905 which abolished the
old system of examination as a condition Of oh
tanning state employment. This was an appIi-
cation of the axe at the root of the tree for al
most from the dawn of the Christian era n
memory test has been the route to public honor
This indicates something of the measure of the
revolution which the new order represents
Numerous schools and colleges for young mon
and women have been started in the larger
places and many students have been sent abroad
to acquire Occidental culture In 1908 in Pek-
ing alone. there were 1873 schools for bows and
IL for girls, with ZOO male and 100 female
teachers, and 1868 pupils, of whom I'll were
girls. Buddhist temples are being turned into
schoos, and colleges have been opened in fifteen
provincial capitals. AT Pekng the government
Is establishing a university of the first rank
consisting of colleges of foreign languages. Chi
nese literature, science, commerce. law. medi-
cine, agriculture and engineering In other parts
| OF the empire are technical, normal, military
naval and cultural schools of the higher grades.
At Nanking the buildings for military college
providing a three years course are being erected
for the accommodation of 5000 students. The
list of these institutions is too great for indi-
vidual mention.
To complete the educational revolution there
| is movement among the students in the new
schools for the unifcation of the spoken Ian
guage, the abolition of the literary language IN
| all books except the classics and records of the
past, and the present system of mOnosyIabic
| characters An alphabet of sxty-two charac-
| ters has been devised and, in the country where
| everything seems to require an imperial edict,
the proposed "simplifed spelling" has received
| the sanction of the court.
| Public speech and the press are taking the ro-
| sitions which are required of them in country
governed by constitution, and the conserva-
tives and reactionaries are discovering that a
force has been aroused which it is wisdom not
! to oppose
That China is being prepared, also by i'm
perial direction. for constitutional form of
| government with universal suffrage is now no
news. The recent election of local assemblies
was one of the earlier steps in the programme
mapped out by the imperial government. 1t is
expected that the constitutional programme Will
be completed within eight years when the con-
sttution will be promulgated. Those who are
| able to read are urged to study constitutional
and international law, and those who have not
acquired the art of transIating the thousand
and one characters which conceal Chinese
| thoughts from the prying eyes of the rest of the
world are being melted to seek an education. in
order that at the earliest possible moment the
people may demonstrate to their gracious
rulers their 'wOrthiness of the great privileges
promised"
The keynote of the new spirit in China ap-
pears to be China for the Chinese"-a growing
feeling of national unity.