The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-03-23
SHANGHAI-AND AFTER

The time is overripe for the foreign powers to
propose something, to make move, to end their
dispute with China and, at the same time pave the
way to peace in that teeming and war-torn land.
turning point in the fighting has been reached
Shanghai has fallen to the southerners-the Canton
csc or nationalist forces. Between them and Pekin
the nominal capital, but only the nominal capital
there remain only the forces Of Marshal Chang Tso-
Lin, ex-bandit and actual keeper of Manchuria for
Japan.
word from the proper direction and the Man
churian lord would fold his tent and HE himself
back to Mukden. Such troops as hold the routes
to Pekin would melt away like April snow flakes in
the sun. The war would be over.
The United States should be the country to make
the first gesture leading to the recognition of the
coming Chinese regime. We have urged this before.
We urge it again.
The Chinese still regard in the light of a
friend and we should nurture that feeling We have
tremendous interests at stake there and these
are now in the baance-not the trifng kerosene
lamp and trinket trade interests of the moment but
the colossal locomotive, bridge machinery. automo
bile, cotton, wheat and similar trade of the new
China now a-borning
Europe is mevng to shut us out of her own
markets insofar as she possibly can Our bungling
diplomacy is closing many Mexican Central and
South American fields to us. China has 400, 1000 900
potential buyers of American products Let's win
them over Or, having them already as our friends.
let's keep them our customers.
Some of the foreign powers now busy in China
are envous of the sort of preferred position we have
occupied for the past twenty-five years In Chinese
sentiment. They would give good right arm and
lots of em to see us stump our toe and spill our
prestige as they have spilled theirs Some would
v even trip usaup if they got the chance We must
not let ourselves be tripped
AS these lines being written the situation in
Shanghai is tense-naturaly. Anything may happen.
Up to the present however press correspondents and
others have been virtually unanimous in credtng
the nationalist with maintaining unusually good or
der in the regions they have taken over.
When there was looting or other excuses it was
generally the work Of the defeated forces as thew
prepared to retreat
True, our newspapers are telling of riot and ruin
and flame and dead and wounded and a superficial
reading Of the cables give an impression of bloody
confusion. But any one who ever witnesses the
evacuation of cit ybefore an advancing foe knows
such scenes are inevitable War is everything Sher-
man said 1t was, and then some, for it has added
few new wrinkles, since he participated in one.
None we ever heard of was waged with atomizers
charged with lavender.
Thus far what has happened in Shanghai shrinks
to game of bean-bag in the light of our recollec-
tons of the World War with its Smelling Of unde
tended cities its airplane bombing of helpless women
and children and it's sinking of unarmed merchant
ships filled with noncombatants. Yet the war in
China bids fair to work more important change in
our lives than the great European conflict vet shows
signs of doing
Not only is China's 4ooOOoooO people involved
but the rest of the worlds population as well in their
relations with those people A new lineup of the
east and west is in the making, with all that that
may mean.
So let's try to beyond the headlines and
Tsp what is actually happening out yonder in
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