New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-01-20
BY Herbert Fitch
Nora. yQpU7l,

should they put their surplus
savings into American securities
real estate and new homo enter
prises?
In ordinary times, before the war
this question would have been one
for each individual to decide fo1
himself, as no great economic prin-
ciples were involved. Now we
have first to think Of the nations in
terest and, second, Of our own.
Here in the Orient one cannot
easily follow the changing senti-
ment at home. Detailed news is
many weeks old before it reaches
U.s. From perusal Of the popular
periodicals which seem to have so
much weight with mercantile inter-
ests In the States and with their
representatives in the Far East,
should think that a great propa-
ganda, or campaign Of education, is
already under way, with the object
Of creating a favorable atmosphere
for the marketing Of Far Eastern
securities in America at some future
time. China, in particular, appears
to have been highly hand-painted as
a green field for exploitation. In
cidentally, l might say that one Of
the best magazines Of the Orient,
one comparable in a way with our
"Atlantic Monthly" or Century,"
has lately referred to many Of the
recent articles about China and
Japan as "rare rubbish"
China-A Stimulus
To the Imagination
China is name to conjure with.
Any man with trusty Year Book
in front Of him can write romance
about it from any desirable angle.
The reader can be made to think
that China is either an economic
heaven or hell. With four hundred
or four hundred and fifty millions of
people, more or less, what latent
energy there is, if it could only be
directed according to modern stand
ards Of efficiency! What a field for
advanced taxationl What possibili-
ties for the white man! Think of
the natural resources! The story
that has stuck longest in my mind is
that of the sacred mountain filled
with gold which the Chinese would
not permit the white man to open
UP because they did not understand
how any one could be SO sacrilegious
as to dig into holy mountain in
order to get mere metal. I heard
this story when was a boy. l then
knew that China lay directly under
meath my feet, on the other side of
the earth, and that queer people
lived there-hardly human, because
SO unlike us!
To-day, if China could be worked
scientifically, as Europe and
America have been worked since the
French Revolution, what vast boards
of new wealth might be added to the
diminishing stores of the Aryan
races! What boon it would be to
the Chinese themselves, who, as
white men have been telling each
other for years, require benevolent
Western civilization for their own
good as well as for ours.
In 1853, through Commodore
Matthew Perry, we forced our ideas
upon Japan "for her own good"
Now that she has pried her way un-
aided into the ranks of the great
nations, some of us, particularly if
we happen to manufacture things
which Japan can duplicate at much
lower costs, have pretended to grave
Tears OF what the Germans have
named the yellow Peril" These
Fears have been definitely assuaged
by recent exchanges of official
notes. To-day the Nippon people.
whom we choose to call "yellow."
and ourselves, somewhat tanned
whom we modestly term "white,"
are diplomatic brothers. We shall
hkely remain as such until the IRE
sistlble impulse which is constantly
Growing the fecund Japanese from
their restricted islands to the ends
OF the earth shall force them once
again into clash with the frontiers
OF resisting humanity. Then we
nay think Of them as devils. But
whatever we or they may think.
they will not be able to prevent
themselves from being impelled
along the paths of former great
migrations. think they will
spread to tho northwest, along the
line Of least resistance.
Japan geographically is not un-
like Great Britain, and her people
are not less prolific than were the
Anglo-Saxons Of hundred or five
hundred years ago.
China is all right-as China!