The Evening Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1917-1920, 1919-04-25

vestments. He is interested in their
protection, and any possible disturber
of the peace of China would realize
that the disturbance of such a peace
would mean the disturbance of Amer
lean capital and hence the probable
interference of America to maintain
that peace.
An attack on the Pacific coast of the
United States would mean the cessa-
tion of the flow of gold to the East,
and China would be willing to take up
arms to guard the precious stream.
Such knowledge on the part of hos
tile power would be strong deter
rent.
Important as capital is to China,
its Importance is shared equally by
its natural consequent-commer
China could not use her vast resourc-
es of coal except as she barter them
for that which she does not posses.
China may raise enough food to sup
port her own population, but by rails
ing enough to export she can bring
back the advantageous commodities
of other nations Tea is largely a
product of the Orient; for tea the
world will give China some article
which she needs but cannot produce.
The day has come when no nation
is sufficient unto itself, and as Chin
ese ships cleave the waters of that
ocean whose pease she so heartily
wishes to insure, so does China wax
great in her influence and her voice
comes to have power over all the face
of the globe.
Her economic development cannot
come without great importations.
Money alone will not bring coal from
the depths of the earth; machinery
is required. America can furnish that
machinery. American reapers and
binders and harvesters will bring to
China crop so large that she will
have a surplus for export. American
manufactured articles, the incoming
commerce of China, will in turn stim-
ulate and produce an outgoing COM
merce.
As a result of the war and the
building of great merchant marine,
the United States now possesses one
fifth of the worlds shipping capacity.
That tonnage could be nowhere bet
ter used than in the service of China,
and through that, in the service of
peace.
The moving of raw material from
China to the Pacific coast of the
United States would bring to Cali
fornia and her sister states the
growth and prosperity that is right
fully theirs. Agricultural districts.
these states would grow into great
industrial centers which would rival
those of Americas eastern coast.
Chinese coal would be plentiful and
cheap. American brains and hearts
would realize the debt to China and
American consciences would remem-
Der it.
A nation can no longer be limited
by her own borders. The nation
must rise to meet the needs of her
own people, and no people today can
become powerful as a world influence
save as its interests, political and
commercial, stretch far beyond the
narrow confines of national bounda-
ries. A few centuries ago each ma
tion was self-sufficient. Within it
self it met and supplied all of its own
needs. A few centuries before that
each family was an independent econ
omic unit, but as man has progressed
from the family to the economic stage
of industry, so is he now in the rapid
transitional stage from national to
worldwide and democratic Industrial
ism.
The necessity of access to the sea
has been forcibly demonstrated in the
erection of new states as an outcome
of the war and in the very motive of
the German attempt at conquest.
China has her sea coast, but except
as she utilize it, it is valueless as
more than mere scenery. From her
ports and harbors must go ships to
carry to the world the best of China.
her silks. her coal. her produce and
workmanship of every sort. AS the