For an old American who has seen a good many changes of public feeling at home, and has seen a large number of alien races come into his own country by the million, it is impossible not to sympathize profoundly with the present huge effort of the Chinese people. It is impossible for a visiting American with any experience in administration and its normal difficulties not to sympathize with these few men who have taken their lives in their hands and risked their whole careers, and are trying to build up a free government in China. Who could fail to sympathize with men in such a dangerous position, trying to do this immense service to such a people? And yet I am sorry to say that the lay representatives of the western peoples, the Occidentals living in China, diplomatic, consular, commercial, or industrial, have seldom manifested during the past year genuine sympathy with this immense effort on the part of a few hundred thousand men out of the huge population of China. It is very possible, indeed, common, for a foreign merchant to remain a whole generation in China and never make the acquaintance of a single Chinese gentleman, or indeed, of any Chinese above the grade of a house-servant, a porter, or a clerk. An English merchant, who had been conducting thirty-five years a successful, widespread business in China, told me that he did not know a single word of Chinese, or a single Chinese man except his compradore. Hundreds of foreigners in China live there. for many years without making the acquaintance of a single Chinese lady or gentleman. In the middle of the city of Tientsin in the British concession is a small municipal garden. On the gates of the garden there was posted until the Revolution had been some months in progress the following notice: "No Chinese or dogs allowed." The secretary of the two municipal councils in Tientsin, an admirable Scotchman who has lived there many years, told me that that notice had been on those gates during his entire residence in Tientsin, and that the practice continued, although the notice had been withdrawn. In the clubs organized and resorted to by English, Americans, and other foreigners in

the Chinese cities, no Chinese person is eligible for membership. Think what that implies concerning the probable ignorance of the Occidental resident in China concerning the Chinese people, their qualities, their hopes, and their aspirations. The western people in China who really know something about the Chinese are the missionaries, teachers, and other foreigners who go to China, and stay there, with some philanthropic purpose, or hope of doing good. They get into real contact and friendly relations with the Chinese, both educated and uneducated. One must not be surprised, therefore, if one finds among foreign business men who have lived in China only the most superficial acquaintance with Chinese conditions and qualities. On the other hand, the great confidence which foreign merchants and bankers in China exhibit in their Chinese cashiers and agents is a strong testimony to the fidelity and honesty of that class of Chinese employees. Knowledge of the Chinese language is all-important to make intercourse between Chinese and foreigners profitable and helpful. Failing that, English is the best language to use. I have seen two Chinese gentlemen, one from the north and the other from the south, give up trying to make themselves mutually understood in Chinese, and take to English as their means of communication. There they were successful. The foreign missionaries, both clerical and medical, and the foreign teachers learn something of the Chinese language, and so win access to the Chinese mind and heart.

I believe I have put before you, ladies and gentlemen, some of the difficulties, obstacles, and apprehensions which beset the path of this wonderful Revolution. I hope I have also suggested to your minds the hopes and reasonable expectations we may cherish. My journey gave me the most interesting stay in a foreign country that I ever had, or indeed ever expect to have. I could not have arrived in China at a more interesting epoch, if I had had my choice over two thousand years; and we all are living in a time when an intelligent interest in the affairs of China will add not only to the breadth of our sympathies but to the enlargement of our hopes and expectations for mankind.

THE EFFECT OF THE REVOLUTION UPON THE RELATIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES

By Ching-Chun Wang, Ph.D., Assistant-Director of the PekingMukden Railway, Delegate from the Republic of China to the recent International Congress of Chambers

of Commerce

The Chinese people, heretofore silent and submissive, rose up so suddenly and simultaneously last year, that even careful observers were totally surprised. What was even more unexpected was the incredible brevity and unparalleled bloodlessness of the Revolution. In less than onethird of a year, they have removed a monarchial system which had been regarded as unremovable, and introduced a democratic government which has stood the test during the most dangerous period of the last eleven months. They have done all this with a moderation and sanity which have never been paralleled, thus setting a new standard in the fighting and winning of revolutions by peaceful methods.

What is going to be the effect of this upheaval upon the relations between the two largest nations on the Pacific? This question concerns us especially, for upon it largely depends the greatness of the one, the stability of the other, and the prosperity of both.

In order to ascertain this effect, we may first of all examine what this great change means. It has been repeatedly said that one of the most certain results of the Revolution will be the increase of China's foreign trade. In spite of all sorts of drawbacks, this trade has already reached the enormous proportion of 870 million taels1 in 1910, as against 455 million ten years ago. In other words, even behind closed doors, this trade has increased almost 100 per cent during the short space of a decade. Enormous as this

1 A tael equals about 75 cents in American money.

foreign trade may appear, it only represents two taels, or one dollar and a half per capita per year, which may easily be increased to five billion taels, if every Chinese consumes only one-half as much as each of his eastern neighbors, the Japanese. Therefore, we can see from all available signs that there is not the least doubt that this phenomenal increase of foreign trade will soon take place.

When we

Side by side with commerce, China's industries will advance. She will bend every effort to utilize the enormous latent power of the millions and millions of her laborers for the development of her unlimited resources. recall that each one of these millions of the so-called coolies, who now idles his time away and proves to be a burden to society, on account of lack of productive occupation, has in him not only the power of making a comfortable living for himself and his family, but of adding a considerable share to the sum total of the wealth of the nation, if he is only given a fair chance to work, we may then have some idea of what these teeming millions mean. As the United States is gifted by nature with the inexhaustible power of Niagara and other falls, so China is no less blessed by God in having an equal, if not more precious amount of power in her immense industrious population. What China is now trying to do is to turn these millions to account, so that the misery and sufferings of which we have heard so much, may be changed into happiness and content, not by charity from outside but by making use of the worth of these sufferers themselves. The railroads-thousands and thousands of miles of themmust soon be built. Following the railway, the mines, which are not only extraordinarily rich but almost numberless, must be opened. Industries will in turn spring up. Forests will be developed and agriculture modernized. In short, China will be completely transformed.

Side by side with this material development, moral and religious advancement will also engage our attention. Indeed, from what the writer has seen and heard, he feels justified in saying that more effort will be devoted to the elevation of the moral and ethical standards of the people from now on than ever before, and that the belief in a single

Deity will be more rigorously revived, and eventually adopted as the dominating, if not the only, belief in China. This may sound impossible; but we must remember that the Chinese are a practical people, and that they are already beginning to see that there is no other religion which is more enlightening and practical than true Christianity. Moreover, true Christianity, more than any other religion, agrees with Confucianism. As a matter of fact, these two doctrines can well be moulded together so as to be mutually helpful. Christianity supplies the part which Confucius has omitted, while Confucianism, in China at least, could render Christianity not only easier to understand, but more up to date in every day life. The idea of God has been repeatedly, though vaguely, emphasized in the teachings which constitute Confucianism. Again and again, we find passages in the ancient books which refer to the Almighty as being omnipotent and omnipresent. By careful interpretation and with due notice of the difference in the religious temperament of the Chinese and in the characteristics of expression in the Far East, the true lovers of God could take advantage of the present change to Christianize China while the scientists and engineers are "materializing" her.

We said a moment ago true Christianity, because, like everything else, Christianity could be made to mean different things to suit various occasions, according to the degree of man's emotions or other circumstances. The apparently mechanical worship taking place all day and all over the streets in Russia does not seem to be the same thing as that shown by some of the reverent prayers offered in some of the churches elsewhere, and yet both are called Christianity. The heartless religious massacres of the middle ages, of which more than one sect were guilty, do not appear to be much more justifiable than the massacres recently reported to be taking place in Constantinople, and yet we understand they all were inspired by religious devotion and for Christian purposes. Therefore, we say true Christianity, for we do not need any more Christian superstitions in China than we need any other kind of superstitions. True Christianity must be that which only aims at the promotion of filial piety to God