Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-01-05

WASHINGTON, Jan. with IN
dia harassing the British govern
rient by means of it's non-co-opera-
ton movement, with Egypt in tur-
moil,, with the negroes forming a
world association under Marcus Gar
vey, with III Jewish Zionist move
n.ent we'll under way, and with the
Chinese patiently, but stubbornW
asserting their right to be let alone,
inviting all the other nations of the
earth to go out the open door anu
close it after them, this seems truly
to be an epoch of self-assertion on
the part of oppressed peoples.
The dominant nations absorbed IN
their own debts and wars, seens
hardly aware of the widespread and
spontaneous character of this move
ment toward self-assertion on the
part of the peoples, who have worn
yCkes for centuries. Servitude, ex-
ploitation. personal and national
prejudice, contempt, these peoples
have all known some or all of these
expressions. Barring the Hebrews
who are a case unique, they have all
been known as inferioS or subjected
races.
Now all of them. but especially
the Indians and Chinese, are show
ing signs of a growing inchoate
strength. They lack organization,
unified purpose, and they probably
will lack these things for genera
tions yet. But it is in these things
that they are growing. And the
strength they have is an immense
racial vitality and persistence.
While the dominant nations of the
earth and becoming vast polyglot
nobs in which the best strains tend
TO decrease while the poorer in
crease, the Chinese and the East In
dams retain their racial identity
and homogeneity. They are con-
oucred, owned, and exploited by
alien races; they are carved into
spheres of influence and protector
atos; they are subjected to massacre
and famine and oppression; and yet
by tending steadily to the businesses
of raising babies and crops they
have remained a distinctive peoples
with distinctive ideals.
An E~nglishman or an American
these days may be a Mediterranean
or a Nordic. He may be of an old
Indigenous family or he may be an
immigrant of a few years ago. Tho
streets of all of the principal cities
of the great western nations are
~ vi 1lpOis III s"eti ~
vast molted crowds of men who
have nothing in common except
their hunger for land and money,
| Melting pots where the ingredients
do not fuse are these great cities. SO
that an American or an Englishman
may be anything. But when you say
q Chinese or an East Indian. you
know exactly what you mean, The
word summons a picture of a dis
| tinetive kind of man. These peoples
are united in aspiration and purpose
because they are uniform in blood
and tradition.
That is one great advantage they
have over the nations which now
dominate the earth, When you sly
Great Britain you neal a govern
iaent, and governments have always
been transient and troubled things.
But when you say China or India
YOU mean a people, solid and homo
genous, and that is a thing as real
and permanent as a continent or an
ocean.
The reasons why these peoples
persist, retain their racial identity
and multiply, while the occidental
nations lost their identity and die
out at the top, seem to be chiefly
two. In the first place. they do moi
go in for war and in the second
place they have no talent for Indus
try.
War, as has been pointed out 3
great many times in the last few
Years, really threatens the destruc'
ton of western civilization. The Ma
poleofNc wars weakened Francs
enormously and are said to have re
dueed the average height of French
men several inches. The Franco
Prussian war was a further blow
France has not. in any line of hui
man endeavor, reached the great
ness she had before those airs
The Civil War in its effect on ouI
own South is one of the best strik-
ing examples of the result of pro
lohged conflict. But all of these
wras were minor affairs compared
to the one just passed, We know
that it killed ten million good youns
men, that it crippled the principal
European nations in every depart
Iuent of human endeavor, and thai
it left them all in a baekwash of re-
action by destroying the young
blood which is the only possible