Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-02-07
Saturday, February 7, 1914.
That "Cpen Door"

That "open Door"
s'What good does an open door do us
If We never use. it?"-Hon. William
j.: Calhoun, former American minis
ter to China.
Most people will answer: Not
much." And that is Mr.. Calhoun's
answer
The other night. in New York City,
calhoun split lance in friendly de-
bate with Secretary Of State William
Jennings Bryan. Unfortunately, the
premier in the cabinet of President
Woodrow Wilson was not present
when the eX-diplomat got upon his
feet to express a few thoughts sus-
gested ebv the speech Mr.. Bryan had
delivered before hurrying away to re-
turn to his official desk in Washing
ton It was a great pity. The great
est living idealist might have learned
that, after all, even the loftiest ideals
are hardly worth pinch Of snuff or
salt unless backed UP by plain, every
day, practical acton.
We have all heard so much about
the open Door" in China that some
people seem to think it is sort of
county pike, toll-less toll-gate where
a TALL thin gentleman with spinach
on his chin, star spangled, stove
III cfr y1ta
Icons covering his long legs, sits on
an upturned case and whittles wood
while a huge army of American drum
mers files by to assist in the modern
ization Of China--a strange land '.peo-
Piled by giants and dwarfs"- by pop.
ularizing the use of the pillow-sham,
patent patato-peeler and modern
plumbing. Uncle Sam is there, by
Heck, guardian of the open Door"
seeing TO it that the road is kept clear
and well oiled for the man with the
motor-busl We ought to know all
about the "Open Door Into China"
Didn't we create it and talk it around
the world? We did.
And then, Mr.. Calhoun tells us. we
Just let it remain open! We haven't
bothered to use it. Why?
The "Open Door Into China" leads
into the fairest land of commercial
promise ever known in the whole his
tory of the earth. 1t is the gateway
into a new nation of 400.0o0,000 fellow
republicans. all more than friendly to
US, grateful to us because the men
who won the republic gained their
democratic doctrines within our shores.
1t is the gateway into land where
an epochal transformation is being
compressed within the brief space of
a few years. The Chinese are pre-
senting to the outside world free
fields of profitable endeavor which re-
manned battened under matches
through succeeding centuries of re-
actionary Imperialism. There are
up, department stores branching. out,
all sorts of big and little changes TAX
ing place over night; and where, oh
where. is Uncle Samuel, the creator,
sponsor, guardian of the open Door,"
He is sitting on his favorite case in
the corner store, whiting wood and
talking about 1t, or listening to the
eloquent, altruistic. idealisms of the
greatest idealist in all the history of
ideals.
Mr. Bryan. fervid, honest, intense-
ly religious, sincere to a fault, may
recall the warning uttered by st.
Paul: Faith without good works
prohteth not r
What good docs an open door do
US If we never use it?" Why don't
we use it?
The other nations are scrambling
through. jostling each other in their
eagerness to gain advantage. The
other nations have no real sympathy
with our republican brother, Cathay.
They have constantly sought, and
still seek, to partition China. as they
have partitioned the rest of Asia, as
they have parceled off and tagged
down Africa, as they have swallowed
whole or piece-meal, their lesser
neighbors In Europe and Asia. China,
wise and gifted with a long memory,
ripe In sage erudition when the blind
bard Of Chios wrote the Trojans
truth: I'VE fear the Greeks, tho bear
ing gifts, suspects, and has good
reason to suspect these sudden
friends" whose fair words and fine
cloaks may conceal the very latest
models in Trojan horses.