'
'
.
4 the Conservative *
THE DECAY OF CHINA.
It is little less than amusing to see the
reasons recently given for a belief that
China is in decline nud decay. In the
first place , it is said that the Celestial
empire is falling into pieces because the
Chinese object to the presence of
Americans and other foreigners among
them. Long columns of high wisdom
on this text are being written and pub
lished in the United States and Ger
many. To object to foreigners of a
different race , coming among them to
save their souls or do anything more or
less material , is regarded as a reason for
the immediate partition of China , or the
occupancy of her territory by allies ,
who are allies only because they cannot
trust each other. But while in this
country and in Germany the writers
write of this sign of decay in China , wo
are casting about for more rigid means
to make good and enforce our own
objection to the presence here of
foreigners from China. If that be a
sign of decay we have been decaying for
the last twenty years. "We have not
only mildly forced .China into treaties
to exclude her people from this country
but we have passed all sorts of laws ,
local and federal , to the same end. In
r vacation time , when we have not been
I inventing and setting up legal traps and
, tricks to keep out these objectionable
foreigners , we have been killing them
in California , Colorado and Wyoming ,
and in that way , by mob violence , we
have killed twenty Chinese foreigners
to one white foreigner killed by mobs
in China. It is laughable that , with all
this so recent in our history , and much
of it current , contemporary and every
day matter , we should be uttering wis
dom on the decay of China as proved by
the objection of that unenlightened
people to the presence of foreigners !
The next reason given for the decay
of China is the reported persecution of
native Chinese for religion's sake. It is
even said that our government has pro
tested against this because the victims
are Christians. Wo beg to respectfully
submit that our government is not a
protector of the Christian religion in any
of its forms. Indeed , ours is not "a
Christian government at all. It is a
secular government and not the pro
tector of any form of religion , Christian
or otherwise. We are seldom without
some form of religious persecution at
home. Not long ago a Jew mayor of
Savannah had to stand between Catho
lics and A. P. A. protestauts to keep
them from slitting each other's throat.
Within a year Mormau missionaries
have been hunted out of several Ameri
can states , glad to escape the vengeance
of their pursuers and in some cases clad
in neat-fitting but uncomfortable suits
of tar and feathers.
If China is occasionally spitting a
native Christian on a bamboo skewer ,
why is that any more a sign of her
decay than our Mormon chasing is a
sign of our decay ? A Christian is just
as offensive to China as a Mormon is to
our orthodox Christian taste.
Professional hypocrisy is doing a large
business in the world at this time. One
of its manifestations is this outbreak of
holy horror about the internal condition
of China. In this country we exclude
Chinese and mob Mormons , and in Ger
many the weather has not washed out
the tracks of the Poles , expelled and
marched out by Bismnrk as objection
able foreigners , and yet we are astounded
and pained to learn that poor , old ,
broken China objects to foreigners and
in her decay indulges in religious perse
cution as a pastime !
The western world has made other
mistakes about China and Japan. The
late Marquis Tseng , in commenting on
the opposition everywhere to Chinese as
objectionable foreigners , said : "China
voluntarily isolated herself and desired
to remain isolated. She did not force
herself upon the west. But the western
nations used force to open China to the
world , without seeming to reflect that
they also opened the world to China. "
A little more of the "look before you
leap" statesmanship would be a good
thing. The United States sent Com
modore Perry to open Japan to the
world , and he did it. Japan is just now
returning the favor by considering that
Commodore Perry's can-opener worked
both ways , and opened the United
States to Japan. We did not think of
that forty years ago , when wo ordered
Japan to open her door or we would
shoot a hole through it. But we nre
reminded of it now , when we find it
necessary to close our own door to
Japan. We were under the glamor of
the great trade we hoped to get from
Japan , but it is now shown to be prob
able that the invasion of this country by
Japanese in large numbers will take
from us in five years more than all the
profit on our Japanese trade from the
beginning.
But not many Here and in Europe
seem to be impressed by the fact that
China is actuated against foreigners by
exactly the same motives that impel the
western nations to exclude Chinese and
will soon make them exclude Japanese
also. It is self-preservation , and a
natural feeling that the different races
would better stay in the place where
nature planted them. But when wo
act upon that principle it is statesman
ship ; when China does the same it is a
sign of decay I San Francisco Call.
TIIE MONROE DOCTRINE.
So long as the world moves , no ex
pression of human wisdom can be
formulated so complete but that it may
at some time become liable to amend
ment. Even the Ten Commandments
may , under stress of circumstances ,
admit of occasional exceptions. With
regard to the long-accepted policy of '
this government in relation to our ' '
Central and South American neighbors , ,
it would seem that our future main
tenance of this policy might reasonably
be made dependent on the conduct of
those neighbors themselves. If by the
end of another hundred years , for
instance , it should bo found that they
were some hundred and fifty years
behind the rest of the world in en
lightenment , security to person and
property , and so forth , would we be
likely still to maintain that neither wo
would nor any other nation should , take
them vigorously in hand to bring them
into line ? The common view that ,
though England's coarse with the Boer
republics is unjustifiable , its results will
still be good , argues a prevailing belief
that the earth's surface belongs , by
some elementary right , to those who
can make the best use of it. And we
are expressly estopped from disputing
this proposition by our own action in
the case of the red man. That the great
plains were meant solely for the occu
pation of hunters of the buffalo , in the
proportion of one Indian to ten square
miles of territory , was manifestly un
reasonable. Therefore we dispossessed
the Indian.
When the Monroe doctrine was pro
claimed , we were a small people and
feared lest we should be eaten. Now
we are a large people and a dispenser of
destinies to other nations of the earth.
It is fitting that the fate of other govern
ments in the Western Hemisphere
should lie in our hand , rather than in
that of any other. But it would be
neither right nor profitable for us to
maintain indefinitely by force an inferior
phase of civilization throughout that
vast tract reaching from our Mexican
border to Cape Horn. If the Latin
peoples now controlling those lands can
belie their blood and make themselves
in time fit material for a true demo
cratic republic , well and good ; none
shall interfere. But if on the contrary
they are found to remain stationary at
their dead Mediterranean level , the fair-
haired people from the old German /
forests , of whom we are the forefront , i
must necessarily soon or late take the !
conduct of affairs out of their hands ; :
and if we stand in the way we must j
inevitably get a well-deserved knock.
COM.
SNUFFLING HYPOCRISY.
In any event , whatever Boss Oroker
may say jn favor of Mr. Bryan is more
apt , outside of the Tammany organi/i-
tiou to do him injury than good. Mr.
Orokor may not believe it , but no one
outside of New York would think of
looking to him for political guidance ,
any more than he .would look in that
direction for sincerity , statesmanship ,
or disinterested action. The fact that
Boss Orokor has concluded to lead
