University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1914-06-11
Making Tomorrow's
=WORLD=
29.-AMERICA IN THE EAST
By WALTER WILLIAMS, LID
Dean Of the School Of journalism
UHfve,Sny of Missouri

pers in China with a circulation OF
hundreds of thousands. A generation
ago railways were opposed because
they would disturb the graves OF
our ancestors" Today the Great Wall
is broken down at Nankow Pass to
furnish place and material for a rail-
way station. The Occident worked
its way slowly from the age of steam
to the age of electricity. There are
no intervening years for the Orient.
An American engineer in Tokyo is
building, under contract, new
Buddhist temple to replace the old
one of bamboo and mud. The new
temple is of reinforced concrete wired
for electric lights.
The friendliness of the Far East
to America applying the word,
though with geographical inaccuracy,
to the United States alone-is admit
ted by natives of the eastern lands
and by the carpet-baggers from Eu-
rope. There are several causes for
this friendliness and numerous ways
in which it manifests itself. The veri-
est coolie on the streets of an interior
village knows that America does not
seek territory from any Eastern ma
tion. He looks with more kindness
upon Americans in consequence. From
America have come to Japan and
China, Corea, the Pacific Islands the
largest number of missionaries, teach
ers, doctors, the greatest number of |
philanthropic foundations. America |
has given of its best and asked moth |
ing but good will in return. The |
Using Hua College at Peking, founded
by the money paid the United States
as the Boxer indemnity, is an example
Of Americas desire to do disinterest-
ed service. The work of the American
Y. NJ. c. A., to which too high praise
cannot be given, has been most val
liable merely as an investment in the
promotion of international friendship.
Even in India the Y. NJ. c. A., direct
I'd almost entirely by American Sec
is winning for the United
States the good will of a continent
whose people dislike almost to hatred
)ur British cousins. AS for the talk
If war between Japan and the United
States, that is the veriest nonsense.
The japanese empire has too much
for America and too little
money of its own to provide a fight.
70 America the gates of Asia are lift
d up.
The friendship for Americans, the 1
hance for commerce, the opportunity I
or Christian service, has not been :
ully utilized by America in the East. 7
)ther nations, Great Britain, in Iarg- q
st measure, and Germany, in increas- @
1g degree, have trade that should C
ONE to America. More schools are \
eeded, more missionary and reform I
tory efforts, which American money n
light well supply. Much has been |,
one and with helpfulness every a
ood cause, but much more remains. Il
through the lifted gates only strag- "
lers,-traders, teachers, preachers, v
ropogandists, a heroic, self-sacrific- b
g band, but pitifully small in num- b
s--have entered, instead of mighty a
)st. a,
America is not taking advantage of e.
opportunity in the East because Ii
merica is ignorant of the East. We a:
nericans catalogue together all ORR n,
tals-Papanese, Chinese, Burmese, m
ist Indians, Javanese, Filipinos, W
are all one to us. Even es