The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-06-08
TRANSFORMATION
OF The ORIENT
Psychological Opportunity Of
Missionaries Is at Hand.
AMERICAN IDEAS GAIN HOLD

Asiatics Breaking Away From Shack
les of Ignorance and Superstition.
Much More Progress In the Far East
Than Generally Supposed, Says Y.
Nj. c. A. Student Secretary.
1.-THE people of the orient are hungry
for new truth, especially western Or
American truth" This is the conclu- /
sion of DR.. w. d. Weatherford, the /
well known southern Y. NJ. G. A. stu .
dent secretary, who recently returned
from trip around the world studying
the influence of Christian missions.
DR.. Weatherford, in a recent address
at Hampton institute, described some
of the Chinese and japanese economic
conditions, which show, he said, the
need of the influence of Christian mis-
sionaries.
That English and American ideas
are eagerly sought by the orientals is
shown by some of the street signs
printed in English. A few follow:
English Taught Up to the Letter
c." "Hairdressing Cafe-Men Properly
Barbecued' Behind these absurd
signs there is, in the opinion of DR.
Weatherford, the tragedy of a people
eager to work their way out of the
bondage of ignorance and superstition.
In the Imperial university of To
kyo there are over $4,000 volumes.
OF this number some 100000 are
printed in English. On the shelves of
the leading japanese bookshops are
| the latest German and English books
| on civics, economics, sociology and
| philosophy. Tho new truth is eagerly
learned and quickly applied.
Progress In the Far East.
DR.. Weatherford said frankly that
/ the far east was not half as slow as
he thought he would find it. He de
| scribed very wildly his railroad jour
ney through Manchuria on a first class
/ Japanese train. which was made up OF
| Pullman compartment cars. n good din
ing car and great American locomo-
| tive. Travelling on schedule time Mt
the rate of forty miles an hour was
made possible in the far east through
the introduction of American high
grade products.
He described. too, one of the great
cotton mills in Kobe, Japan, in which
| 1000 operatives work. The company
operating this mill and eight other
similar mills. is capitalized at some So
100000 in gold. 1t furnishes free meals
for its working people schools for the
children of the mill operatives and
/ Ho4 g, oil %
This social service idea was brought
TO Kobe by the general manager of the
cotton mill who had seen y. NJ c. 4
secretaries at work ministering to the
soldiers in the Manchurian trenches
Cheap Labor In Japan.
DR.. Weatherford says that great
masses throughout the far east are
living far below the line of efficiency
There are millions of people in China
who have not enough to eat because of
the prevailing economic conditions.
At Nagasaki DR.. Veatherford saw
Japanese women handling baskets OF
coal for sixteen or seventeen hours,
with very few intermssions, for some
10 cents a day. In the match factories
of Japan a woman who is able to paste
10000 labels a day on boxes receives
10 cents for twelve hours of labor.
The Japanese year book shows that
there are twenty-six skilled and semi
skilled professions paying individuals
from 81 cents day down to Az cents
a day. In China men who act as com
mon carriers receive 371a cents day,
and out of this amount pay almost
one-half for the privilege of engaging
in this laborious occupation.