The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-09-01

prepared by the National Geographic
Society. Washington, /. c.
Canton, seat of government Of Sun
Vat Sen, president Of the South China
Republic" which recently fell TO sup
portcrs of the rival Picking govern
ment, Is the seed-bed in which the
first Western ideas sprOuted in China
ideas which some optimistic observ-
ers believe will continue to grow until
the country is as fully WeStcrnized as
Japan. There are now many centers
for the spread Of Western culture In
China but Canton will always retain
The interest that attaches to the point
IF entry. and probably for Il long time
{ will continue TO be the scene of
greatest progress.
1t was in 1917 that Canton began
its relations with the West. In that
year, just twenty-five years after
Columbus discovered America, the
Portuguese obtained permission TO
trade with the Cantonese. Later the
Dutch, the English, the French, and
finally, the Yankees sent their ships
anu lIbbtIN " llIt Guy. lhI al lily
il was the only city which the author
tiles of China permitted TO have inter
curse with 'the Western barbarianS.'
But the Canton door was not kept
open without Il heavy foot being thrust
I'm il from time to time. Chinese and
European commercial and governments
al practices and general customs We're
50 different that they inevitably
FLASHED when they first met. Such
heavy trading taxes were levied and
so many restrictions imposed at this
first treaty port that European traders
were almost ruined. On their part the
WesternerS introduced opium against
the wishes Of the Chinese officials. and
the general Observation-Disclosures led to
wars with England and France. AS
n result of the wars Canton was CStab-
lished more and more firmly as China's
open door.
Canton's priority was not alone In
trade. The first Roman Catholic mis-
si0naries to China settled in 1911 at
Macao, Il few miles down the river
JlDII NdIllbll, ullh tth s'diO ~ "
gan work in Canton itself. The city,
too, had one of the first Mohammedan
mosques to be established among the
Chinese; and there In 1907 the first
Protestant missionary to China settled.
1t has since become one Of the most
important missionary centers in the
country.
Contact with the Occident.
Slight racial differences seem to have
made the Cantonese, to begin with,
more alert than the Chinese Of other
regions; but they undoubtedly have
been quickened and made more pro-
gresslve by the constant stimulus Of
contact with Westerners during the
past 400 years. A spirit OF cOmpeti-
ton and emulation was awakened
among the merchants and men In pub
lie life which by degrees reflected it.
self in numerous ways in the life of
Canton. But above all things, the
Western visitors aroused the curiOsi-
~ Of the Cantonese, with the result
that they became the emigrants, par
excellence Of China. Thousands Of
them have ~sojourncd in the United
States and Canada, South America,
South Africa, Australia and Europe.
More important still, in recent years
young Chinese have been returning
from the United States and Europe
after a Western college training; and
81 considerable proportion Of them have
found their way to Canton. AS fixed
as are the ways Of China, these Chi
nose who have lived under Western
institutions or who have carefully stud
led Western ways, have not failed,
when they have returned to their ma
tive city, to modify conditions In some
wise. 1t Is not strange, then, that
from Canton has come on numerous
occasions pressure against conserva-
tive Picking for reform, and at times
revolution. Some sort Of breach be-
tween north and south China was in
evitable In recent years; and it was
equally inevitable that Canton, great
est city Of the South, should lead it.
Although throughout most Of the
400 years since the first contact with
Europeans, the leaven Of Western
ideas has been working in Canton,
ever as recently as three years ago
It had done little to lift the teeming
old city OF more than a million souls
from its thoroughly Chinese appear
ance aud customs. It's narrow alley
like streets, none too clean, hemmed
in by low houses and set off by great
black and gold and black and red signs,
were the streets OF any typical Chi
nese town. Through them battered