The Washington times., 1923-06-29
u. s. EDUCAT|
SEEN AS HARM
,TOCH|NESE
When They Return Home'
Writer Says, They Do Not
Readily AssimiIate.
By Ell sic MCCORMICK.
CosmouoIitan News service.

NEW YORK, June 29.-When the
Shantung bandits reached out a
casual hand and collared a number
Of American tourists, when the Saili-
tary party sent President Us a
marked copy of the latest time table,
Cured to make a chop suey out Of
the oriental dove of peace, many
have been inclined TO wonder why
the Chinese with American college
degrees have not at least voiced q
protest or two to the central gov
eminent.
Every large university has a num-
Der OF earnest Chinese students who
belong to Cosmopolitan Clubs and
VINO make fervid speeches in ire
proachable English about how to
save China. At the end of four or
SIX years, they pack up their diplo-
mas, Phi Beta Kappa keys, class
remnants land tuxedos, bid goodbye
to the professor of political science,
and proceed on their mission to
bring light to Asia. After that,
nothing more is heard from them.
What happens to the returned
student after he reaches China?
Why does he play such a neg.
hg1ble role in the nations affairs?
80 Per Cent Unemployed.
It was recently estimated by an
American officer Of the Shanghai
Z. M. c. A. that eighty per cent
or the returned students in China
are unemployed. The majority Of
the men educated by their govern
ment or by the self-sacrifice of
their parents do not even achieve a
pay-envelope when they come hack
to the orient.
Back Of the poor showing made
by the Chinese with an occidental
education is tragedy of mal-ad-
JustmentI The writer once saw a
shipload of Boxer indemnity stu.
dents leaving Shanghai for Amer.
lea. Equipped with shiny new suit
cases and uncomfortable foreign
clothes, the enthusiastic voyagers
leaned over the rail and give third
hand limitations of American college
yells.
On the dock were their parents
stout old ladies lettering on tiny
bound feet; patriarchal fathers clad
IN SILK robes and carrying fans. Al
ready the gulf between them and
IAO JOuAS H1SH OH the snip na0
tragically begun to widen.
Has OutgrOwn Country.
When a student returns after
four years in America, he finds his
new aspirations thwa.rted by a
massive wall of conservatism. Dur
ing that period, he has Travelled mil.
lions Of miles in mind and expert.
ence; when he returns, he finds
that his family has not moved an
inch. His father answers all his
new ideas with a question from
COnfucius; his mother expects him
to take part in ancestor worship
and in the local ceremorials. Us.
ually he discovers that his family
has betrothed him in his absence,
perhaps to a girl who has not had
a day in school. 1t frequently hap
pens that he sinks into the old
culture around him, and the total
visible result of his four years in
America Is the installation Of an
electric fan in the family home.
Even when the returned student
is not hindered by family influence,
he finds heavy obstacles in the way
Of his advancement. He returns
dreaming of a governorship; he
finds instead that the best position
open to him pays fifty Mexican
dollars q month Foreign firms Of
Shanghai and other open ports DIFF
ferentiate sharply in the salaries
paid to Occidental and Chinese en-
ployes. The young Chinese with q
college education feels that he
should receive as much as the
American at the next desk who