Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-16

| well organized campaign OF eXplolCatlon
of Suns personality.
The Russians who had faced some
what similar problem in their own lana
had discovered that they could not de-
! stroy such symbols of public creduilty
as the Iberian Virgin without Offering
a suitable substitute. So they had
given the people Lenin in place OF their
incense, their rosarieS, their supersti-
tions, And to the Chinese they now
presented the perfect patriotism
Yat-sen.
one once wrote, was nine tenths
propaganda and one-tenth actual fight
ing" This is perhaps an exaggeration.
But under the astute guidance OF those
Russian Communists who aided the
Nationalist until they were dis
credited" at Hankow in 1920, the
Chinese quickly learned, and have
never forgotten. the power OF paper
bullets" During the entire Nationalist
campaign thousands OF young men ana
women paved the way for the revolu-
ton bv winning over the soldiers Of
the opposing armies, as well as civilians,
through naively worded propaganda
lauding the virtues of Sun Yat-Sen and
the San Min Chu I. And 1t was from
this force that northern militartSm was
forced to fall back.
Northern Armies Wen Equipped.
The armies Of the northern war lords
! for the most part were better equipped
better ofiicered and better disciplined
than the ragged encourage that COM
posed the force OF Chang Sai-Shek.
| Had it been merely a contest Of arms
the latter would have been quickly SUBJ
dued But against the cunning propa-
ganda of the Nationalist they were
| powerless. The morale of their soldiers,
among whom had been disseminated
large quantities of literature of rosy
promise, sagged and in many instances
broke entirely resulting in widespread
desertions and reVoltS.
Having discovered the potency Of
Suns name, the Kuomintang has done
everything possible to increase its
prestige since the National government
was established at Marking. His char
acter has undergone a process OF syn
thetic sublimation Books have been
| turned out which extoll his virtues,
which were numerous and admirable,
but do not mention those many made
quacies which explained repeated fail
ures to achieve his ambitions during
his own lifetime.
Sane discussion OF Suns ideas has
become limited to private groups. In
public the Kuonlintang member is re-
quired to maintain the integrity Of the
belief that Sun never made q mistake.
Those who venture opinions to the con-
trary are termed "counter-revolution-
aries" And q counter revolutionary,
depending upon his offense, may be
punished by anything from expulsion
| from the party to an undignifed and
hasty exit to the yellow Fountains.
Recently I asked one of the! directors
Of the Central Publicity Bureau, an
educated and cultured man with q
doctors degree from q Western univer-
sity, If he did not. think the tendency
to defy Sun was opposed to the funda-
mentals of the Kuomintang policy. He
knew that L was sympathetic to the
aspirations of Nationalism and that my
question was Of the friendliest sort. Yet
he was family annoyed at my suggestion
that Sun was being apotheosized. He
asked me upon what I based my belief.
Is Patriot Of Revolution.
I pointed out to him various mani
festations of this attitude which i
observed among Chinese all the way
beyond the First Gate of the Realm in
Manchuria. He seemed surprised.
We have never spoken Of Sun as
supernatural" he unused. I'VE have
said that he was q great man-and he
was. He was the first patriot the
Chinese revolution produced. More
accurately, he himself produced the
revolution. This is a mere truism to
you and me- Yet the great majority of
our people knew little Of Suns life or
his struggles for their benefit. We have
had to educate them by literature and
by word of mouth to those who cannot
read. You do the same thing in America
when you. elect President"
But in the tradition of the Chinese
there is no presidential pattern. They
have no background upon which to
judge hero except as q god. They
have never had q PRESIDENT real
preSident-elected by the people. Before
the republic" the rulers Of the Chinese
were kings and emperors. What were
they called2 asked my friend. Holy
men. Sons Of heaven. And each Of
them, for hundreds Of years, had been
worShiped as a sovereign by divine
right not only by the masses but by
the most intelligent leaders Of thought
"All the heroes OF your history have
been metamorphosed into idols" re-
minded him. "Confucius was a great
philosopher and they built temples to
him and elevated him to the first rank
hui and Tseng-tSe was the same. The
god of conquest, Kuan-ti, was once a
mere mercenary who fought for an
emperor, and the great Shang-ti, ruler
of the United Heavens, was only clever
charlatan who cured q monarch Of
stomachache resulting from an over
| indulgence in samShu."
Fight Against Superstition.
nkAaI al
foolish deitieS," he exclaimed. China
will soon be rid of superstition. That
has all been arranged"
Yes" said, you are demolishing
the temples and hacking these ancient
idols to pieces. You are explaining to
the people that their gods are impotent
and appeals to them q mere waste of
time. You tell them the story of how
Sun Yat-Sen, as a lad of II, defled the
grinning demon that presided in his
village temple by twisting on some of
his mud fingers in the presence Of the
astonished worshipers. But you have
given them nothing to replace the spir-
itual security that all these little people
of wood and earth and paint once rep
resented to them Nothing, that is,
unless it is Sun Yat-Sen"
My listener got the point. After 3
time he said:
81 suppose we are likely to overesti-
mate the extent of the change in ma
tional thought that the revolution has
brought about sometimes forget, or
long to forget. that 80 per cent of our
people are still illiterate, credulous, I'M
able to read and write. Perhaps 1t is
true that the psychology Of our unen-
lightened masses has not yet been ma
terially affected. The only way we can
correct this is by education--educatio
on a gigantic scale. But meanwhile we
must secure support for the government
which can bring these benefits to the
people. We must try to arouse the in