Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/democraticmovemeOOdennrich THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA NOWHERE 18 THE DEMOCRATIC DRIFT IN ASIA MORE MARKED THAN IN THE FACES OF ITS NEW SCHOOL GIRLS. THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA TYLER DENNETT ASSOCIATION PRESS Nbw York: 347 Madison Avenub 1918 -, .:. J-O^ Copyright, 1918, bt The Asia Publishino Co. Copyright, 1918, by The International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations CARPENTIER • • • • • •• • •• FOREWORD The following chapters, now brought together with many revisions and with the addition of much new material, were first printed in Asia, The theme was developed in a lecture which the author was invited to deliver before the members of the American Asiatic Association on the sub- ject of Foreign Missions and World-Wide Democ- racy. The fact that the material thus collected and presented was acceptable to Asia and to the American Asiatic Association is striking evidence of the interest and favor which the subject has won for itself. It is only within recent years that a secular magazine and an association which has no relation whatever to religious propaganda would have found the facts with reference to foreign mis- sions worthy of so much consideration. It must also be evident that the point of view of the au- thor is detached and impartial, rather than either partisan or critical. The facts were gathered in the course of two extensive tours through Japan, China, the Philip- pines, Malaysia, and India. They are the ob- servations of a tourist who merely took the trouble to turn aside from the usual routes of travel to make investigations at first hand. A large place has been given to the narration of incidents and stories, because each bit of evidence FOREWORD is cumulative rather than conclusive. It has been the repeated impact of these situations described here at length which has produced the convictions out of which these chapters are written. The photographs from which the book is illus- trated were, with two exceptions, taken by the author. A complete list of acknowledgments is im- possible. The author is grateful to a host of friendly people throughout the countries visited for their never-failing hospitality and their sym- pathetic understanding of the purposes of the quest. It is not unfair to make special acknowl- edgment of the inestimable assistance received from Galen M. Fisher, of Tokyo, and George A. Fitch, of Shanghai, in the way of introductions to their distinguished friends among the Japanese and the Chinese peoples. Special thanks are also due to the editors of Asia, at whose invita- tion the chapters were first prepared and with whose enthusiastic cooperation they were com- pleted. [vi] CONTENTS Chapter Paok Foreword v I. Asia in the Family of Nations ... 1 II. The United States in Asia 13 III. What Asia Thinks of Missionaries . 41 IV. Builders of Civilization 59 V. The Missionary Schoolmaster ... 87 VI. The Missionary Doctor 109 VII. The Emancipation of Women .... 137 VIII. Remaking the Oriental Social Order 161 IX. Nationalism and Church Unity in Asia 187 X. The Business Side of Foreign Mis- sions 207 XI. Foreign Missions and World-Wide Democracy 229 ASIA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS • '•'. ' CHAPTER r ASIA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS Perhaps half the causes of the European War were not in Europe at all, but in Asia. Certainly half the consequences will be there. At the end of another half century this fact will be more evident than now. Likewise, it will then be clear that when the United States became a world power it also became an Oriental power. It is quite hkely that, great as are the present contributions of America to Europe, even greater will be her con- tributions to the cause of freedom and justice in the East. The United States actually became an Oriental power when it came into possession of the Philip- pines, although we did not then fully realize it. The American occupation and administration of the Islands, in turn, prepared the way directly for the leadership which President Wilson was able to assume when he made the first declaration of Allied war aims and pronounced for the principles of self-determination. If the American policy in the Philippines and elsewhere in the Orient had been other than it was, such a declaration would have had little influence in the councils of Allied poHcy. Coincident with and even antedating the po- [3] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA litical entrance .of the United States into Asia was ,fcte steady gppiwtli. of American influence in China. The Open Door policy and the remission of the !l^x!ev Indielmiiity. W^re merely two incidents in a long series of friendly and disinterested acts which won the confidence and affectionate regard of the Chinese. Meanwhile the American traders and the Amer- ican missionaries were extending their influence. They were relatively few in numbers, yet potent in leadership throughout the entire Eastern Hemi- sphere. Neither of these unofficial representatives of the American people were the unrepresentative types which they were sometimes reported to have been. Barring real exceptions, the American busi- ness man in the Orient has been a clean-cut, clean- living, clean-dealing agent. He has won respect. The missionary also has carried with him a typi- cal American spirit, touched with a persuasive idealism. He seldom made enemies, for it was his primary purpose to make friends, and every friend he made was also a friend for the nation which had sent him out there to relieve suffering, teach the illiterate, and enlighten the superstitious. The combined effect of these diverse influences has been to elevate the United States to an unique place in the estimation of the Asiatic races. China became a republic. The first republican leaders had been bred in the American missionary school, even though the teacher had been quite uncon- scious of the role which he was preparing his pupils to play. India demanded Home Rule. [4] THERE IS HARDLY A VILLAGE IN ALL CHINA TO WHICH THE NEWS- PAPER DOES NOT SOME TIME PEN- ETRATE. THESE MEN ARE READING FROM A PAPER PUBLISHED BY ONE OF THE POLITICAL PARTIES AND POSTED FREELY ON BULLETIN BOARDS. ASIA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS Why? There were many influences at work, but one must not overlook a most important one: India had been observing the American policy in the Philippines. Other nations and races also were stirring when the European War came to claim their attention and to teach them its les- sons. Now they are asking: How does the war for the defense of the rights of weak nations affect us who are politically the weakest of all? Democracy is not merely a catchword of the War; it has become the watchword of the world. The War has accentuated the ideal and acceler- ated its growth; but, long before the War began, the ideal had thrust down its roots in many soils where republican institutions were plants of ex- otic growth. Asia is moving toward democracy in interna- tional affairs and also toward republican ideals of government at home. Many of these ideals have been borrowed directly from America or from Americans. India has, of course, drawn impar- tially from the great stream of political idealism which runs through our common English and American literature and history, but the Filipino and the Chinese each has learned directly from the United States. In the face of this democratic drift of the Orient we must recognize that the Asiatic races are not at all prepared for many of the privileges of self- determination which they are demanding and which they have in part received. Those who follow current Chinese history are almost in de- [5] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA spair for the future of the new republic. England has committed herself to a policy in India which will leave a huge unfinished task long after the map of Europe has been redrawn on lines of justice and stability. The United States is not yet able to withdraw from the Philippines, and none is so rash as to prophesy a date when with- drawal can be accomplished without the defeat of the very principles to which America has dedi- cated herself in these far-off lands. The key to an understanding of the Oriental problem as it is and as it is likely to remain for generations is the comprehension of the fact that Asia itself is a unit, which does not lend itself to division into the Philippine, the Chinese, the Jap- anese, the Siberian, or the Indian problems. Fur- thermore, Europe and America are as much a part of that unity as are China and India. This unity cannot be dissolved until the problem itself is solved. All the nations and races of Asia are now standing on end like a circle of dominoes. If any one of them is knocked over or disturbed in any way, the resulting commotion is imme- diately communicated to all the others. The Japanese policy in China or Siberia, for example, is not to be considered apart from Home Rule in India or Filipino independence, any more than it can be separated from the future of Malaysia or Russia. But it is even more im- portant for us to realize that this Oriental Question includes more than the Orient. [6] ^^^Hb ■ j^K^^^ttk'^ H 1 ^^^^^t^„ » ^^^^Bi^^ES|l M pU^^p^'^* "^^^ ^ ' • ' ■■' IHiMk' .......... A NEW SPIRIT OF LIBERTY HAS SEIZED UPON INDIA, AS THE FREE STRIDE OF THESE GIRLS AT THE ISABELLA THOBURN COLLEGE TESTI- FIES. c " c c c I ASIA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS If we think of Asia as a circle we find elbowing each other on its circumference the United States, England, Holland, France, and Russia, as well as Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, and India. I omit China from the list of nations on the circumference because she is really the very center of the whole problem. The position of China at present is so unique that one is war- ranted in saying that as China goes in the next few decades so goes the Orient, and perhaps the world, for the next few centuries. Notice the line-up on this circle: Russia at present a passive quantity; Japan still an im- perialistic power; France with a not very creditable colonial policy and a very discreditable diplomatic policy in South China; Holland with none too fine a score for humanity and justice in Java; the United States embarked upon a policy of administration and control which has already extended to the Filipinos a greater de- gree of autonomy than was ever before given to a subject race; Great Britain now introducing revolutionary measures in India which put her in line with the American policy in the Philip- pines. Then notice that the political conditions in large parts of the rich Malay Peninsula are as yet almost entirely unmade, that Siam is as plastic as wax, that China is as fragile as a cracked lacquer bowl. Hitherto the Oriental question has been ap- proached by Americans chiefly from three dis- tinctly different angles. The statesman, who [7] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA has sometimes been merely an international politician, has sought to steer a course which would keep the United States from being involved in vexatious international disputes. The banker and business man has surveyed Asia as a field for exploitation, where risks were extra hazardous and where other nations were already well en- trenched. The foreign missionary, and those who sent him to his task, defined his transcendent purpose as one of redemption of souls, in which the Hindu, Mohammedan, Buddhist, Confucian- ist, or Shintoist would be converted to Chris- tianity. Meanwhile, the great majority of citizens had no interest whatever in the prosecu- tion of any one of these three purposes. Many factors must combine or cooperate to lift the races of the Orient to the point where they can meet, on democratic terms, the powers of the West at the council tables of the world. The purpose of this book does not include more than the enumeration of some of these factors, nor is it the desire to claim more importance for any single one than the facts warrant. It must be perfectly clear, however, that the tra- ditional attitude of the European toward the Asiatic races must give way before new policies and methods, in keeping with the ideals for which the war in Europe is being fought. The United States has now become a world power and has assumed a place of leadership among the nations which will involve more and more concern for the political welfare of Asia. [8] WHEN THE AMERICANS CAME TO THE PHILIPPINES THEY INTRODUCED A NEW SPIRIT AS WELL AS A NEW THEORY OF GOVERNMENT. BASE- BALL DISPLACED COCK FIGHTING AS THE NATIONAL SPORT. ALMOST EVERY ALLEY IN MANILA NOW HAS ITS BASEBALL TEAM. ASIA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS This new relation to the backward races will in turn demand that the United States shall assume its proportionate responsibihty, which must be very large, for such economic develop- ment of these peoples as will be necessary to fit them for international partnership in pro- duction, trade, and politics. Meanwhile the missionary must view his task from the wider angle, and see himself as a national representative and as an international agent in preparing na- tions and races for the responsibilities and priv- ileges of self-determination. Hitherto the business man has seen in Asia merely a field for exploitation; the missionary has been primarily impelled by the urge to preach the Gospel to all nations. These two motives can no longer be considered exclusive of or opposed to each other. Both business man and missionary are really engaged in a common task to develop the latent resources — physical, intel- lectual, and moral — of backward peoples, without robbing them of any thing or any quality essen- tial to the preservation of their independent national life. The American people must replace the not uncommon distrust of the American business man who does business abroad with confidence that he has not lost his integrity merely because he has chosen to be in business where his neighbors are unable to observe his actions. They must see in him a man who is rendering an important international service. Likewise, we must recognize that, in addition [9] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA to the religious imperative which has projected foreign missions into the non-Christian world for more than a century, there is now the inter- national imperative which the immediacy of the Oriental problem has revealed, although it would be regrettable if the missionary were to lose his religious idealism in proportion as he becomes conscious of the immense economic, social, and even political consequences of his work. The missionary, as an interpreter, is extremely valuable. He is constantly explaining and illus- trating the American people to his constituents. To most of his neighbors he is first an American, and only secondarily a missionary. His letters about his work, addressed to the constituency at home which supports him, are an invaluable medium for transforming parochial Americans into internationally-minded citizens. When he opens a school he succeeds to the honorable estate of teacher among peoples who have always given their greatest reverence to wise men and sages. His hospital creates infinite good will. His superior education and his altruistic purposes immediately elevate him to a place of leadership in matters of social reform and not unfrequently of government. He creates new markets and new industries of immense direct and indirect value to international trade. Meanwhile, his entire work becomes an under- pinning for the new civilization which alone will admit the backward races to democratic fellow- ship with the Western nations. The missionary's [10] ASIA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS influence is all the greater because actually he has no relation whatever to government, politics, or commerce, and is controlled only by motives which admit no other purpose than to elevate the people for their own good, by emancipating them from their spiritual bondage. It is plain, then, that merely an enlightened self-interest on the part of the United States is quite sufficient to justify the presence of the American missionary among these Asiatic races. [11] THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA CHAPTER n THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA To a degree not at all realized by most Amer- icans the United States has already become an Oriental power, or, if one prefers, a Western power with tremendous commercial, political, and moral leadership in Asia. Not long ago the Ford general sales-manager dropped into Bombay and found the trade in a panic. The police commissioner had recently purchased a new motor car, British made, one of those fine machines which England used to delight to make before the War. It had seven- teen coats of varnish and an engine which would run ten years without developing a knock — ^you know the kind. The commissioner ran his car around for a few days and came quickly to the conclusion that he was quite an authority on automobiles. His next conviction, deduced from an admiration of his own machine, was that the American flivver was entirely unsafe. Forth- with he drew up a recommendation that the Fords be deprived of their licenses as taxis. The sales-manager called on the commissioner. Yes, the official mind was made up. The car had been examined; it was unsafe. But, being as good a sport as are most of his countrymen, [15 ] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA he agreed to hold up the recommendation until the following Saturday, when the sales-manager promised to give a public demonstration of his far-famed contrivance. On the appointed day, by official permission, a platform four feet high was erected on the Maidan. It was announced, in ways not novel to American publicity men, that there would be a public test and demon- stration of the American car. Needless to say, the crowd was there, including the police com- missioner. The American drove his car out upon the field and up on to the platform. He jumped out and tinkered with it a moment for dramatic effect. Then he backed off, loaded up with a crowd of curiosity-eaten Marathis, threw in his clutch, gave the engine some more gas, drove up on the platform, off the other side, landed in good order, and rolled proudly across the field through an aisle of dumb-stricken Indians. There was never any renewal of the proposal to bar this or any other American car from the streets. Such methods of doing business out- picturesque even the picturesque Orient. They do not add greatly to the popularity of the American among the other foreigners, but they do appeal tremendously to the natives. "America must be the sun and moon to the Orient," said one of India's greatest industrial and financial leaders to me not long ago. It is the kind of statement which I should expect to hear in China. One might possibly gather up [16] I THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA such a remark in Manila or in Singapore, but when one hears it in Bombay, it becomes ex- tremely surprising and significant. The United States has entered upon, without seeking, although not without some preparation, an active leadership in the affairs of Asia. This leadership, while active only in the sense that the Asiatic races have accepted it even though it was not directly offered to them, is none the less very real. It is more political and moral than commercial, although American business in- terests are rapidly extending themselves. Its beginnings date back to the time when the United States followed up the occupation of the Philippines with shiploads of school-teachers and the promise of ultimate independence. A new and hitherto unknown political and colonial theory was thereby introduced into the Orient and its influence has been most pervasive. I have seen a letter written by a most distinguished Indian to the prince of a well-known native state sug- gesting, in response to a request for advice, that the prince create a post of Councilor, "such as Mr. Lansing held before he became Secretary of State. This person should, under the present circumstances, be a foreigner, preferably an American." Ex-Governor Forbes of the Philip- pines was suggested as a possibility for the place. "It would be the duty of such a person to com- pare the system of a given state with that pre- vailing in the Philippines or Hawaii. He would see the enormous work for good done by the [17] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA Americans and would ask what prevents a rep- etition of that work in India." "I am a nationalist in sympathy," said a dis- tinguished gentleman of Bombay, "although I do not join in the slander that England impover- ishes India. There is an old statement that our country is being drained of her wealth. Let us assume that seventy-five millions of dollars goes to England in trade. This is hardly one dollar per family, per year. Account is not taken of the fact that if the Enghsh civilians who come to India were cattle they would be valued at enough per head, as imports, to offset the other account. In return for the Home Office charges which go for administration and pen- sions, India is receiving services which are im- measurably great. "Nevertheless, when I visited the Philippine Islands I found that the people are far more prosperous than the Indians. America has taken a new spirit to the Islands which the conservative Briton has not brought here. The Filipinos have had revealed to them new ways of developing their resources. When I asked Americans in Manila to explain why the Islands have pros- pered so much, they were unable to do so. I believe the cause to be the American spirit." "The chief cause of irritation in India," said Sir Stanley Reed, editor of the Times of India (Bombay), "has been that England has been so slow in granting simple and urgent requests. There is so much red tape, so much delay, so [18] THE AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE HAS BEEN WELL INTRODUCED INTO INDIA WHERE IT 18 VERY POPULAR BE- CAUSE OF ITS CHEAPNESS. ONE CANNOT BE MANY HOURS ON ANY GOOD ROAD WITHOUT SEEING AT LEAST ONE AMERICAN CAR. I THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA much ponderous machinery to move, that when India does receive what she asks for, the grant has been so long delayed that the favor seems to have been given grudgingly. Thus England loses the good will which she might have gained." Many people confirmed this statement. "Our great complaint," said B. J. Padshah, financial advisor to the great Tata group of industries, "is that England has been so conservative; so unwilling to adopt new ideas." Then he added, with a twinkle in his eye, "It seems funny, doesn't it, that the Indian should criticize the Englishman for being conservative." In China the United States is regarded not only as a powerful friend, but also as an ideal. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed Anson Burlingame of Massachusetts to represent the United States in Peking. He immediately pro- posed to his diplomatic colleagues "a policy of cooperation, an effort to substitute fair diplo- matic action in China for force." Professor Willis Fletcher Johnson, in his "History of American Diplomacy," records the story of how six years later Burlingame was released from his post, presented by the Emperor with a com- mission engrossed on yellow silk, and sent out with almost unHmited powers to "attend to every question arising between China and the western nations." He made a treaty between the United States and China and then began a tour of the European capitals in the interests of his new client, dying suddenly in Petrograd. [19] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA From that period until now, Chinese respect for and confidence in the United States has grown, with but slight set-backs, until now it is enough to make the most thoughtless American hold up his head a little higher, and yet tread softly. I was in China during those weeks of debate as to whether she should send home the German minister and enter the War. The Chinese were bewildered in the midst of the diplomatic tangles. They could not understand what it was all about. German influences were very active. Japan did not favor the move, at least not in the earlier weeks of the discussion. China had some old scores against nearly all of the Allies. On the whole, their longer record in China was less inspiring of confidence than even that of Germany. China could not see why she ought to enter the War and yet the United States recom- mended it. That was sufficient to turn the tide. "We know," said very many Chinese to me, in many different parts of the country, "that America has no sinister motive." China would not have entered the War were it not for her confidence in the United States. The Chinese like American candor, even though they prefer for themselves more devious ways of address. China is still smiling over the re- mark of an American engineer made in the Russian Chancery at Peking. This gentleman had been sent out to build railways which are being financed by an American banking corpora- [20] THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA tion. He is one of our real native products, the kind which comes from Minnesota, never went to school after he was eight years old, and learned his profession by swinging a pick, although one would never guess it to talk with him. He had been having trouble in finding routes which had not already been preempted by some one else. One day he went over to the Legation Quarter to learn how he stood with reference to Russian concessions. "This," said the attache, "is a map of China colored to show the various spheres of influence." The engineer studied it a moment. Shantung and Southern Manchuria had one color for Japan, Northern Manchuria and Mongolia had another for Russia, the Yangtse Valley was tinted for England, and liberal sections of the South ap- peared to be mortgaged to France. The map looked like a Joseph's coat. The Chinese like the direct and even abrupt way in which the American brushed aside the niceties of diplo- matic language and exclaimed, "Then where in is China .f^" The question was, and is and will be, until the peace conference settles it, a pertinent one. Not long ago I happened to be at a semi- pubhc dinner in Shanghai, at which Dr. P. W. Kuo of the Normal Teachers' College of Nanking made an address. He had just returned from a government mission to the Philippines, where he had inspected the school system. Turning to the Americans present, he said with great earnest- [21] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA ness: "You Americans have every reason to be proud of your country's work in the Philippines." He also expressed the greatest sympathy with the Filipino desire for complete independence. Each year a steady stream of Indemnity stu- dents returns to China. There are usually more than sixteen hundred Chinese students in school in the United States. They will all return raw, inexperienced, not very useful at first, but fairly saturated with American social and political ideals. The contribution of the United States to Asia has been a gift of idealism. This idealism has most recently found expression in President Wil- son's definition of our war aims, but it had already been fanned into a flame in the East by the breeziness of Uncle Sam, and its sparks were scattered all over Asia. These sparks found plenty of tinder for the fire on ground already prepared by the penetration of the trader and the missionary, and by grievances of the people arising out of the arrogance and rapacity of the various Powers. Incidentally, the United States has backed up its idealism in the Philippines by the investment of a great deal of money and devotion. It has also recorded many times its intention of retiring from the Orient as soon as the Filipinos demonstrate their ability to go their way unaided. But the success of the Amer- ican experiment in the Islands is entirely con- tingent upon whether it can eventually be re- peated elsewhere in Asia. If the republican [22] I THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA xperiment fails, for example, in China, either because of aggression from without or through internal weakness, no part of Asia can be safe for democracy. If China were to become the feed, fuel, and mineral box of any imperialistic or autocratic power, the democratic drift of the Orient would be blocked. If the Oriental problem did not include a move- ment toward democracy it would be much simpler. The Philippines have most nearly arrived at their destination, but Great Britain is initiating measures in India which will throw heavier responsibilities for self-government upon the In- dians than they have ever had before. London seems disposed to make changes much faster than the foreigners in India believe wise. One must also remember that during the war hundreds of thousands of Indian soldiers and Chinese coolies have been transported abroad and given a world view which is likely to put them even more than before on the side of self-determina- tion for their national affairs. Asia, outside of Japan, is already committed to republican experiments which can be success- ful only under the most favorable conditions. The Philippines and India have been governed by experts. We must be prepared to see a lower- ing of efficiency as public affairs are passed over to republican control. Such is the price of de- mocracy. A mobilizing of the forces of the world to make democracy even respectable may yet be necessary. [23] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA The plain facts of the ease are that Asia, speaking broadly, is not at all ready for the exercise of the rights which she is demanding and has already in part received. China is from ninety-two to ninety-seven per cent illiterate; India, averaging the ten per cent literacy of the men with one per cent for the women, is in no better condition. The desire for Home Rule is now reaching down into the villages of India, but the ryot, in the same breath in which he assures one that he wants it, will say, "But what is Home Rule, any way .f^" In his mind it is associated only with the improvement of his economic condition. It may mean that he can have a pukka house of brick, instead of his mud hut. The forty million outcastes fear that they will have their law- suits tried before a Brahmin judge, and are al- ready protesting against the proposed new order. The present maladministration in China is increasing, not decreasing, the burdens of the people. The following incident, told to me by a mis- sionary in one of the remote cities of China, gives one several angles of vision on the present internal economy of the new republic. In a certain city the magistrate's yamen was burned, no cause for the fire being evident. The next day the magistrate called together all the wealthy men of the city and said, "You know who burned my yamen last night." The men protested that they did not know. "Well, at any rate, it seems peculiar to me [24] THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA that my yamen was the only building to bum. It looks suspicious. I believe that you men are in secret league with the bandits and that you told them to burn me out." Again the men protested, but the magistrate continued : "Here are plans and specifications for a new yamen. I shall expect you to see that it is built immediately. Otherwise I shall know that you are in league with the brigands and shall report you as such to the miUtary governor of the province." The new yamen was erected forthwith. A few weeks later the missionary was asked by the military governor to go up into the moim- tains and arrange a compromise with the brigands, by which the latter would agree to lay down their arms and return to peaceful life. The mil- itary authorities have been utterly unable to cope with the situation, so that for several years anarchy had prevailed. The missionary exhorted the robbers to forsake their evil ways, whereupon they replied: "But we are not the worst brigands. We steal and hold for ransom; that is true, but we do not eat government rice while we are doing it." "What do you mean.?" asked the missionary, mystified. Then they recalled to his mind the magistrate who had recouped his loss by intimi- dating the rich men. They mentioned haK a dozen other stories of a similar kind. "If he steals and loots the people," suggested [25] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA the brigands, "why cannot we do the same? Go tell the governor that we will lay down our arms when he provides us with honest magistrates." The missionary reported the interview to the governor, confirming the truth of the assertion that the magistrates of that region were the most accomplished brigands with whom he would have to deal. "Well," replied the governor, con- fidentially, "you tell the brigands to go down and kill that magistrate and loot his yamen, and I will overlook the matter entirely." While this story illustrates extreme conditions, I know at least a dozen more, revealing similar chaos in widely scattered districts. If China can be guaranteed an open sea and smooth water in which to practice the new art of republican navigation, and can have competent pilots, she will probably yet achieve a stable government. She will need help, political and economic as well as educational, but there is no evidence that the Chinese, individually, are a degenerate race. If one takes a Chinese, a Jap- anese, a Malay, and an Indian and sets them down in the Malay States, which are rich beyond the dreams of avarice, and underpopulated, the Chinese is almost certain to rise superior to all the others. The Chinese element in the Philip- pines is so virile and so successful that one may even be able to put in a fair defense for the American policy of Chinese exclusion in the Islands, on the ground that the Filipino must be protected. The Dutch in Java have been [26] THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA forced to establish a discriminating headtax on Chinese immigrants, because they are so much superior to the Malays that the latter go under in the competition. The Asiatic question is greatly complicated by the presence of a formidable color-conscious- ness and a growing racial pride. This pride, which first crystaUized when Japan defeated Russia, has been greatly increased during the years of the European war. The nations and races of the Orient are one in their desire to be delivered from European meddling and super- vision. "We are wondering," they say, "how the principle of the rights of weak nations as applied to Belgium is to be applied to us." Perhaps the color question lies at the bottom of the entire Oriental problem. The Oriental feels that he has been discriminated against be- cause his skin is tinted. He is irritated at the snobbery of the white race. Consequently he likes the Jones Bill which opened so many doors to his dusky cousins. It is the color question which gives Japan what hold she has on Asia. Most Europeans in the Orient have a very simple philosophy on this subject. As an Amer- ican doctor, loaned to the British Government for some special medical research in the Federated Malay States, expressed it to me, "I believe that the white race is bound to rule the world." If pressed a little farther he would probably have admitted that he referred to that part of the [27] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA white race which is Anglo-Saxon. When I quoted this reply to an Indian gentleman with whom I happened to be discussing the subject, he sighed and remarked: "I hope there will never have to be a test of this claim. The Oriental is not by nature a cruel person, although many people say he is, but if the world were ever to line up on the color question and fight it out, there would be trouble indeed." One may see to how great an extent the United States is idealized by the following remark, made by an Indian who has been around the world many times: "The race and color-prejudice out here are bad. Of course every one knows that the English- man is caste-ridden. But in America it is dif- ferent. When I was there Mr. Wilson invited me to come to see him." An Indian Judge of the High Court, from whom I was seeking to draw out a statement as to the extent of India's loyalty to the Govern- ment during the War, after assuring me on that point, remarked speculatively: "India sees no European master whom she would be willing to have in exchange for England, but if it were a choice between England and Japan I am not so sure what India might say. She might conclude that it would be better to have a purely Oriental administration. She might say, * Japan has taken her religion from us; we would understand each other.' " [28] JAPAN IS NOW AT THE PARTING OF THE WAYS, CHOOSING BETWEEN PO- LITICAL IMPERIALISM AND ECONOMIC EXPANSION. THE WAR HAS SET JAPAN FORWARD INDUSTRIALLY BY MANY DECADES. THESE GIRLS ARE AT WORK IN A SILK MILL, THE EN- TIRE PRODUCT OF WHICH IS SOLD IN THE UNITED STATES. THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA I faithfully followed up this question wherever possible and am bound to conclude that this judge was not voicing the feelings of many of his countrymen. Indeed there is almost as much race prejudice in India, where the Japanese and the Indian meet, as there is between the tinted and the white races the world over. "These Japanese whom one sees by the hundreds in Bombay are such dirty people," remarked a Mohammedan lady to me in disgust. As a matter of fact, the Japanese are the most cleanly folk in the world. And yet there is an active prop- aganda being carried on, at least in Shanghai, to draw Indian, Chinese, and Japanese leaders together on a color platform. One of the deep questions which the peace conference will have to settle, if not in theory, at least in fact, is whether there are in justice any priority rights among the shades of the human spectrum. The stubbornness with which many Chinese opposed the entrance of China into "the white man's quarrel" witnesses to the existence of a similar desire to shake off the European influences in China. The growth of this sentiment tends to throw China into the arms of Japan, which has already so skilfully and so repeatedly de- feated or outmaneuvered the Europeans. If Japan had not so botched her diplomacy, this move- ment of "Asia for the Asiatics" would now be much farther advanced than it is. Even so, I have heard not a few enlightened and influential Chinese say: [29] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA "China would be far better off if Japan were to take the country over; we have done so badly in our attempt at republican government that we do not deserve to govern ourselves." There is a deep vein of pessimism in the Chinese nature which accounts for some of this despair, but the fact remains that China is quite incapable of steering her own junk, except in the open sea and in very smooth water. She is in the grip of a militarist party, the leaders of which are commonly known in China as "well-dressed coolies." These military leaders are quite gen- erally pro-Japanese. The Chinese system of government provides that each province shall have two governors of coordinate powers, one civil and one military. The military governor has in his army the only force in the province which can be quickly mobilized to support an opinion. Consequently the military governor al- ways has the upper hand. He can control every election, suppress any publication, and determine every pohcy. Until recently China has assigned the soldier to the lowest seat in her scale of social order. The soldiers have been drawn al- most exclusively from the lower classes. The result is that, so far as matters governmental are concerned, the social order of China has been inverted and the soldier, who was the lowest, and still is among the most ignorant, finds him- self now the highest. If the Chinese Repubhc possesses any considerable group of able leaders, then most of them are in hiding. [30] THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA The English-speaking Chinese are, in the main, opposed to Japan; the mass is inarticulate. The Chinese seem to be unanimous only on two points: they do not desire a restoration of the monarchy, and they will not willingly accept a return to the old days of "spheres of influence" and European meddling. Beyond this China is, for the present, practically the unknown quantity, or the variable, in the Asiatic equation. It is very difficult to discuss the relation of the Japanese to the Oriental problem and at the same time to escape the charge that one has abandoned a judicial frame of mind. In spite of its centuries of history, the Japanese Empire of today is in a period of adolescence. It is filled with conflicting emotions, which will not be quickly unified and which prevent any fixed classification in international affairs such as both friends and enemies of the nation demand. It is even difficult to classify Japan as a part of the Orient, although she claims to be its leader and mouthpiece. She is one with China, the Philip- pines, and India in her Oriental pride and color- consciousness, and has already fought many battles for the independence of the yellow races. On the other hand, Japanese history has not been enriched by the struggles of the masses to wrest the privileges of self-government from their lords and masters. At present Japan stands quite apart from the republican struggles and aspira- tions of China, the Philippines, and India. It is not even evident that she approves of them. [31] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA Singularly, in Japan one finds little of this spirit of popular discontent which is so pro- foundly stirring her neighbors. For years one has been warned of the imminence of a revolution. Twice within three years have I visited the Empire, expecting to hear or overhear the mut- terings of a dissatisfied common people. Each time have I been disappointed. Only recently I sat at dinner with two distinguished Japanese editors, one of whom is a member of Parliament. The fourth guest was an American who has lived many years in the country and understands unusually well both men and measures. "How goes it with democracy in Japan?" I asked. "I believe that democracy is making some progress," replied the member of Parliament, after a few moments of sober reflection, "and yet I am unable to square my impression with the fact that there is absolutely no demand for the extension of the electorate." The other editor confirmed the statement. My American friend, himseK surprised, added, "These men are close to the people; they know what they are talking about." I did find some few individuals in the univer- sity circles who were disposed to be critical and even to say things which I am not permitted to quote; yet it is a notable fact that even many graduates who have the privilege of the ballot do not use it. At any rate, it is safe to say that M there is no such political unrest in Japan as ■ [32] THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA there is elsewhere in the Orient. The leaven may be at work, but a survey of Japanese history shows that the Japanese people do not go in for revolutions of the explosive kind. The recent rice riots were obviously economic, not political, in their origin. Whether they will have any permanent political influence is a matter which only time will reveal. Up to the present time no political reform in Japan has been forced or induced by any uprising of the common people. Each political concession, and there have been not a few of them, has been handed down from above freely but paternally by a very small group of the aristocracy. The mass of the Jap- anese people has never yet given any evidence that it is politically-minded. Japan, judged by her internal economy and by her administration of Korea, is quite out of step with the world movement toward democracy and self-determination. There could not possibly be a greater contrast in the purposes of colonial policies than that between Korea and the Philip- pines. Even the name "Korea" has been re- moved from the postal guide. The "mailed fist," "the rattling saber" were gentleness and honesty itself compared with the methods by which Japan forced her demands on China a few years ago. One cannot overlook the fact that although Japan is joining in this war for the safety of democracy, she herself is not one of democracy's defenders. The internal economy of Japan is not a proper [33] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA matter of concern to Americans, or to any nation, except as it has its bearing on international affairs, and more particularly on the Oriental problem. There are at present within the Empire some very influential and significant groups of people, who are seeking to divert Japan from a course of political imperialism to one of economic expansion. The thorough defeat of Prussianism will doubtless exercise a profound influence. It is well not to frame more than tentative judg- ments of Japan for the next decade; but for the present it is not evident that the exaltation of Japan to a place of accepted political leadership of Asia would not paralyze the present repub- lican movements in China, the PhiUppines, and India. Business men may say that China's weakness is fundamentally commercial and industrial; the statesman may say that it arises out of a con- fusion of political theories; the railway builder may find the cause in the wretched system or lack of system of communication; the teacher concludes that the trouble is illiteracy; the phy- sician that it is low standards of health. But any broad survey of present Chinese conditions must reveal very clearly that none of the reforms proposed will carry very far, except where they are accompanied by the most radical moral and spiritual changes in the people. The ethics of Confucius, with its pronounced individualistic accent, does not promote the sense of social responsibihty which is essential to the develop- [34] ASIA REPRESENTS A VAST RESER- VOIR OF LABOR WHICH AS YET HAS BEEN UTILIZED VERY INEFFECTU- ALLY. UNFORTUNATELY, AS POWER MACHINERY AND MODERN FACTORIES INCREASE, THE WOMEN AND THE CHILDREN ARE AMONG THE FIRST TO BE DRAWN INTO THE NEW IN- DUSTRIAL SYSTEM. 3 I THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA ent and sustenance of public spirit and pa- triotism. In practice it has proved even unequal to supplying the personal virtues necessary for the carrying on of the simplest cooperative political, commercial, or educational enterprises. Likewise, the most serious obstacle to the establishment of Home Rule in India is not eco- nomic or educational, but moral and religious. It is frequently pointed out that India lacks a religious unity which makes for peace and con- cord. The Hindu and the Mohammedan repre- sent two irreconcilable religious loyalties which are frequently in conflict. It is equally true that neither of these religions has in the past demon- strated its fitness to produce the ethical qualities of honesty, justice, liberty, and social respon- sibility which are essential to the maintenance of free government. In a similar way the greatest handicap to the development of democracy in the Philippines is in the traditions and ideals of a religious system under which democracy has never been able to flourish. The four sides to the Oriental problem are respectively political, economic, moral, and re- ligious, and the United States is already in- timately related to each one of them. The political relation of the United States is such, both for the immediate present and for the more remote future, that there is no possi- bihty of taking the backward track. It will not be possible to retire from the Philippines until the principles of government and of liberty [35] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA which have been taken to the Islands are well estabHshed and fully protected, not only in the Philippines, but also among all the backward races of Asia. Meanwhile, every political, social, or moral condition in the Eastern hemisphere favorable or unfavorable to the success of the Philippine experiment is a matter of immediate concern to Americans. The thorough defeat of Germany disposes of the specter of a Pan-Asia Movement for the present. This defeat may easily be also the end of imperialism in Japan, if the end of the War marks, not the beginning of a new period of selfish exploitation of Asia by the Western nations, but a nev/ age of international coopera- tion for the welfare of every race. On the other hand, if the new arrangements do not provide that the race-consciousness of the Oriental peoples be joined with such favorable conditions for self- development as will satisfy their new aspirations, it is only a matter of time when the Indians, the Chinese, the Filipinos, the Japanese, and their many cousins will pool their issues in an Oriental imperialism which will make the present World War look like a skirmish. For a decade the American investments on the other side of the Pacific have been increasing by leaps and bounds. Immediately following the close of the War there will be a new contest for the markets of the East. Vast commercial and^ industrial powers are already straining at the leash, waiting for the end of the War, when they [36] I THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA will be free to undertake new enterprises on a scale hitherto unknown. The unnumbered tons of shipping which will be in the possession of the United States will greatly facilitate and promote these new plans. The commercial relations be- tween the United States and Asia will be the more encouraged because of the fact that the economic development of those vast areas will be most essential to the creation of political stability. Likewise the United States will be quite un- able, and unwilling, to lay aside the moral leader- ship which has come to her by reason of the War. The backward races of Asia, assured by President Wilson's definition of war aims, confirmed as they have been by Lloyd George and by the proposals for India, confidently expect to receive new privileges and opportunities. These ideals, as expressed by President Wilson, bid fair pro- foundly to modify the established colonial policies of every European nation. Within a few months after the entrance of the United States into the War, the French Governor General of Algeria, Tunisia, and Oran issued a manifesto to the colonies of North Africa, announcing that France would initiate new policies for her colonies similar to those which the Americans have established in the Philippines. An extension of the electorate in North Africa has already been begun. For the intelHgent discussion of any phase of the Oriental question it is necessary to have before one a broad survey of the entire field. [37] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA The one great question before the American people in relation to the Orient is how the new era in Asia may be introduced with the greatest prospects of success. The obstacles which these nations have to overcome are political, economic, and social. It is too late to consider the rather academic question of whether these peoples have in them the inherent qualities out of which democracies are built. Lack of communications, of common language, of education, and of re- ligious faith which is in harmony with republican ideals, is in itself sufficient to create what now appear as such handicaps to effective and col- lective action. The Oriental peoples at least have the right to the freest opportunity to over- come and correct their deficiencies. The question of religion, therefore, is very properly a subject for consideration. One must recognize that Asia's most fundamental weak- nesses are social and ethical and spiritual. Changes in the political and economic order must be accompanied by the development of new ideals. In this latter task the work of the missionary assumes a greater and more immediate importance than has yet been realized. The statesman, the colonial administrator, the com- mercial promoter, and the missionary must work hand in hand. Such a partnership would not be desirable or defensible if the future were to resolve itself into another period of mad scrambhng for the political or commercial exploitation of backward peoples. [38] THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA The missionary can have no part in such a pro- gram. There must be no more using of mission- aries for poHtical propaganda as Germany em- ployed them throughout Asia, particularly in India and China. We have the faith to believe, however, that the world is entering upon a new phase of colonial and of international policy, in which weak peoples are not to be exploited but are to be helped to self-government. The Western nations are about to place in the hands of the Oriental races the vast resources of civilization — machines, factories, methods of or- ganization, forms of government. It is of the utmost importance that when these forces are carried to Asia there shall go with them the idealism which has made their accumulation possible and their uses human. To give one without the other is to invite calamity both for the East and for the West. The following pages do not attempt to give the missionary a place of exclusive preeminence in the establishment of the new age; they seek merely to relate his work to the other forces which must also be operative in the creation of that new world. The same facts which clothe with a new dignity the work of American states- men, bankers, and business men in the East give also a new importance to the American mission- ary school, hospital, and chapel. [39] WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES CHAPTER m WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES "The missionaries are a bad lot." One can hardly set foot on a trans-Pacific steamer without hearing this verdict. "They come out here to live in luxm*y and to make money; they never make a sincere convert." Such reports come in freely from the tourist, who rapidly gathers con- victions from what he hears on the steamer and in the hotels, and also from highly respected people who have had long residence in the Orient. During the last few years I have spent nearly half my time, as tourist and writer, traveling about in "foreign missionary countries" and on the steamers between them and home. These criticisms have always interested me. When I first heard them I had few positive convictions on the subject, but I always attempted, wherever possible, to make a personal investigation of every charge. Furthermore, I have almost never failed, when talking with either a foreigner or a native, whatever our main topic of conversation may have been, to come around to this question: What do you think of the missionaries.'^ What follows is not an apology; it is merely a record of these investigations. I have found that there are two ways for the tourist to s^^ the Orient: One is to follow the [43] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA trail of the good hotels, carry a few consular introductions and as many cards as possible to business men, and to supplement these with the eagerly proffered services of rikisha coolies, taxi drivers, and hotel guides. The other way is to go to the missionary. The native guide, either professional or volun- teer, has one big idea and very few small ones. As directly, or adroitly, as possible, he wishes to get his party to some place where the tourist will spend some money, upon which the guide can return later to collect a commission. He has a miscellaneous list of sights for which he has a few words of broken English explanation, but his purpose is to get one past these things as quickly as possible and head for the silk store or the curio shop. If his party consists only of men and he is left to select his own destination, he is almost certain to arrive at the segregated district. The only country in the entire Orient to which this last statement does not apply is India. It is unfortunately true that a great many tourists never get very far outside of routes marked out by these zealous and often self- appointed guides. Introductions to consuls and other government officials and to European residents are valuable. It is regrettable that tourists do not use them more. Not only do these people lead an exiled life, which makes a visit from a countryman with the latest news from home very welcome, but they are also able to answer many questions [ 44 ] IF YOU WERE TO ASK SENATOR 80R0KU EBARA, OP THE JAPANESE HOUSE OF PEERS, WHAT HE THINKS OF MISSIONARIES, HE WOULD REPLY THAT HE BELIEVES IN THEM ENOUGH SO THAT HE BECAME A CHRISTIAN MORE THAN THIRTY YEARS AGO. WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES and offer much advice of great value. When one moves off the beaten paths of travel, the open-handed hospitality of every European home is one of the delights of Oriental travel. How- ever, one may utilize to the limit the services of both the guide and the European and yet see very little of the real Orient. One can see temples until the very suggestion of another temple brings one to the verge of collapse. One can buy silk and curios until even all the newly acquired trunks are too full to close. One can take number- less bad snap-shots of street scenes, and can study countless coolies in their natural habitat, but the actual Orient is something quite aside from all this. Like some other places, Asia is chiefly a state of mind or a point of view. One will have to search elsewhere than in streets, shops, or temples to find it. Some years ago in Tokyo I met Carl Crow. I was about to take my first plunge into China, and was then carrying in my grip Crow's guide- book to the country. "What suggestions have you for the trip?" I asked. "How can I see China best.?" "Go to the missionaries," replied Crow. Then he modestly added that his guide book was largely a compilation of information which he had col- lected from the missionaries. "They are the only people," he explained, "who really know the country." I have had frequent occasion to test this asser- tion and I feel impelled to record that it is pro- [45] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA foundly true. The temples and the bazaars have their value in introducing the traveler to the country, but they chiefly give him a glimpse of what the past has been. The people who are the present and who are determining the future cannot be found there. In order to see the Orient that is, the tourist will have to make very gener- ous use of the missionary. And yet very few tourists see him at all. The missionary is often the one person avail- able who understands both the language of the tourist and the language of the country, but more important is the fact that often he alone under- stands why the traveler asks the questions he does. He knows the background of the ques- tioner's mind and is at the same time intimately familiar with the life about which the question is asked. The English-speaking native may under- stand the words, but unless he belongs to a very limited class of those who have been educated abroad he is at loss to understand why anyone would ask such a fool question anyhow. The consular agent may know the language — he must before he can secure promotion — but his relation to the native is largely official. He may be able to answer questions, but his intro- ductions to citizens of the country often have an official coloring which is an embarrassment to free conversation. Even the consul who is de- voting his time enthusiastically to study does not begin to be in such intimate contact with the commonplace daily life of the people as is [46] WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES the missionary. The business man whom one may meet has been sent to the Orient to take care of business. Usually he does not learn the lan- guage, or at least does not learn it well. His contacts with the native life are largely second- hand, through his comprador or some native assistant, and are almost exclusively commercial. While I have met some business men, particularly in India, who stand in exceptionally close relation to the native, I have usually found it necessary to allow for a certain amount of color prejudice in appraising the judgment of the average business man on any subject connected with the Orient, outside those included in his commercial relations. Of course, I do not wish to imply that the missionary alone is to be relied upon for trust- worthy opinions, but merely to record my own observation that the missionary, because of his unofficial and intimate association with all sorts and conditions of people, and because of his knowledge of the language, usually has the best balanced judgments. Naturally he is trying to see the people at their best and his relation to them is friendly and even affectionate. He is often frankly partisan. When he errs at all it is usually on the side of optimism. On the other hand, the unmitigated snobbery of the white race is such that most other foreigners in Asia have a tendency to err on the side of pessimism in their judgments both of the natives and of local conditions. So much by way of explanation as to how I [47] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA first came to seek out the missionary and to know him. My motive was quite utilitarian. I came more and more to find that he was the most useful guide. In the back of my mind when I met him were the current criticisms. I have always found him willing to meet them frankly when they were stated. More recently I have hved in his home for days and weeks at a time, in places where there were no hotel accommo- dations within hundreds of miles. I have been in intimate association with him and his family and he has freely introduced me to his friends. Now as to the criticisms. Do they ever make sincere converts? The name "rice Christians" has spread throughout Asia. It implies that the convert is held by inducements of rice and of other economic, social, and even political advantages. I have been told again and again very soberly and seriously, by Europeans who have lived for ten, twenty, and thirty years in the Orient, that the missionaries never made a sincere convert. One would indeed be very courageous, as well as something else, to suggest in Japan to Prof. Inazo Nitobe of the Imperial University, Senator Soroku Ebara of the House of Peers, Dr. Ukita, editor of the Taiyo, Takutaro Sakai of the Mitsui Bank, Mr. Kobayashi, the tooth-powder man, Mr. Obara, the millionaire silk manufacturer of Kurashiki, Mr. Hatano of the Ayabe Silk Fil- atures, Madame Yajima and Miss Tsuda, both of whom were recently decorated by the Emperor, _ [48] I n pcoc ry^y^x^M "^ M 9m MADAME YAJIMA TREASUllES A DECORATION FROM THE EMPIRE FOR HER DISTINGUISHED SERVICES TO THE EMPIRE. SHE IS THE PRESI- DENT OF THE JAPANESE WOMAN's CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION AND A LEADER IN ALL REFQRMS FOR WOMEN. » Ir <■ P, WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES Madame Hiroaka, daughter of the Mitsui family and one of the richest women in Japan, that they were "rice Christians." Madame Hiroaka told me that during the last three years she has, under the direction of the Union Evangelistic Campaign, stumped the Empire from Hokkaido to Shi- monoseki, speaking in practically every large town in church, hall, or theater, wherever she could find shelter, for Christianity. Mr. Ko- bayashi, Mr. Obara, and Mr. Hatano — and I might mention many other Christian manufac- turers — are setting standards in industrial better- ment and in welfare work for their employes far in advance of public sentiment, and equal in extent and thoroughness to the best there was of the kind in the United States not many years ago. There has never been a time since the Japan Parliament was organized when there have not been more than a dozen Christians in the member- ship. The Japanese are as sensitive as Americans to detect insincerity among Christians. The very fact that these people whom I have mentioned are who they are and what they are contributes an important answer to the question: What does Japan think of its Christians? The strength of Christianity in Japan is all the more remarkable when one remembers that there are still many people living who remember when the old edict was still in force: "So long as the sun shall warm the earth, let them all know that the King of Spain himself, or the Christian God, or the Great [49] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA God of All, if he violates this command, shall pay for it with his head." As one passes over to China one encounters a similar list of imposing names. There are the Nieh Brothers, cotton manufacturers of Shanghai; Wong Kwong, President of the Yangtse Engineer- ing Works at Hankow; many of the oflScers of the Hanyang Iron Works; Dr. W. W. Yen, recently minister to Germany, and his brother who is building the government railway from Hankow to Canton; C. T. Wong, until revolution left him without office, Vice-President of the Senate; C. C. Wong, who has served as Auditor General for the Ministry of Posts and Com- munications; and Yung Tao, the millionaire philanthropist of Peking. I selected these names from a much longer list of representative Chinese Christians who talked freely of their Christian convictions. The recent president of the Kwangtung Pro- vincial Assembly was the Reverend K. Y. Shia, who was called to that office from the pastorate of the Second Congregational Church of Honolulu. Over in India, where I was repeatedly assured that all Christians are "rice Christians," I met Sir Rajah Harnam Singh, a charming Hindu gentleman, whose adherence to his Christian views cost him a kingdom. He assured me that he had no regrets. Two years ago he served as moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly for India. The most recent statistics show that there [60] WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES are about 7,000,000 Christian converts. Catholic and Protestant, in Asia. They are divi'ded according to the following geographical divisions: Japan, Korea, and Formosa. . . 360,000 China 2,350,000 British Malaysia and Dutch East Indies 186,000 India, Ceylon, and Burma 4,237,000 It would be misleading to give the impression that this vast body is made up exclusively of such as those whose names I have mentioned. I have cited these people, almost all of whom I have talked with, merely to show that Chris- tianity has so commended itself to the Orient by the results which it has achieved, that such men and women as these whom I have named have become converts. Here is another way of going at the subject. How much do these seven million Christians pay toward the support of the churches to which they belong.'^ It must be remembered that a gold dollar represents in terms of day labor anywhere from five to twenty times as much in the Orient as in America. The records show that out of the approximately forty millions gold which is annually spent on foreign missions, more than one sixth is collected on the various fields. This represents, roughly measured by wages paid to skilled labor, and in sacrifice, as much as fifty million dollars contributed by Christians in the United States. [51] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA I have never been content to rest on the mis- sionary's estimate of his own work. I have been astonished to meet among his converts men and women of such distinction, but I have gone even further than that to find out what Asia thinks of missionaries. I took the question to Sir James Meston of Lucknow, Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces, and recently made a member of the first Imperial Council in London. He is an old Indian Civil Service man, who has worked his way up through the ranks to his present position. The position of Americans in India at the time I called was delicate. President Wilson's first peace note was being widely dis- cussed, and generally taken as not very friendly. A Scotchman, very sympathetic to Americans, told me about that time that if public sentiment against Americans increased in the next six months as it had in the last six, it was not improb- able that all of them would have to leave India. When this fact is taken into consideration. Sir James' statement becomes doubly impressive. He said: "Of course there is a great difference of opinion about mission work. Some scoff at it; some value it for its purpose to convert the native to Christianity; others appreciate it for its humanitarian services. The Government takes a neutral attitude, but it does enormously value the assistance rendered by the missionaries to good government. The missions have helped in education and have done a great deal for the depressed classes which the Government could [52] WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES I ^■lot do and which the Indian is unwilling to Ho." ^B "What about the American missionaries in particular?" I asked. "Of course the Government must preserve a strict impartiaUty," replied Sir James, "but I will say this: I have never been embarrassed by any act of an American missionary." Never shall I forget a frank conversation which I had in his palace with His Highness, the Gaek- war of Baroda. He told me of some of the meas- ures which he had already introduced for the betterment of his subjects, and of the difficulties which he had encountered. His admiration for things American is so unqualified as to be almost naive, but I think I was most of all impressed when he said, "I am thinking of calling together the missionaries and asking them to tell me their views on how we can improve the quality of the native priesthood. Then I want to call the priests together and say to them, *Look at the missionaries. See the sacrifices they are making to help our people. You ought to go out and do the same kind of work.' " His Highness has already established a professorship of comparative religion in the Baroda College for the express purpose of introducing the native religious leaders to other religions, with a view to improving the quality of their own. The Times of India, published in Bombay, is one of the two or three outstanding newspapers of the land. Sir Stanley Reed, the editor, per- [63] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA haps more than any other European newspaper man in India, enjoys the confidence of the Indians themselves. I asked him, "What do you think of the missionaries?" "One cannot estimate the success of the mis- sions," he repHed, "by the number of converts or by the statistical reports. I am not an active member of any church, but I will say this: If missions could not show one single convert, they would still be justified ten thousand fold by the moral influence which they exert on the country. I have fifty or sixty Indian friends here in Bombay, unusual men, leaders of exceptional ability, re- formers. One and all, they have been power- fully influenced by Christianity, although some of them will not admit it, and others do not know whence the influence has come." I might easily append similar statements from men of equal standing, both foreigners and na- tives, both Christians and non-Christians, but the reiteration of the same general opinion would be tiresome. Perhaps the most emphatic state- ment of any comes from Dr. G. E. Morrison, formerly correspondent to the London Times in Peking, and more recently special foreign adviser to the Chinese President. He said to me, "It is easy to criticize the missionaries, to say humor- ous things and to see the ridiculous, but their work is good. Whenever I hear anyone abusing missionaries and saying that their work is value- less, I set him down as a fool. He simply does not know what he is talking about. One cannot [54] BARON 8AKATANI, ONE OF THE LEADERS AMONG THE YOUNGER JAP- ANESE STATESMEN, SAYS THAT THE MISSIONARIES HAVE RENDERED A GREAT SERVICE TO JAPAN, PROMOT- ING MANY NEEDED REFORMS AND DEVELOPING A SENSE OF INTER- NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD. xu. ' .: WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES travel a week in any direction even in the re- motest corners of the Republic and not run on to a mission. These places are sources of good and only of good. They are the greatest forces for the uplift of this country." "What has Christianity brought to Japan .f^" I asked Baron Y. Sakatani, seeking not for com- pliments and kind words, but for his cold estimate. He is not a Christian, but he represents the very best which Japan has produced. "Christianity has brought a widening of ideas, the feelings of internationahsm and brotherhood," he replied. "Would not commerce have brought this.^^" "Yes, but in a different way. Commerce is self-seeking. Christianity has been unselfish and has stood aside from personal profit. In our long history, we have experienced several times the importation of foreign ideas. Confucianism came, then Buddhism, then Christianity. The old faiths were Japanized. Whenever new ideas come, we are not swallowed up by them, but we digest them. The Buddhism in Japan is far better and purer than that in India. We take the best and we shall be glad to take the best out of Christianity. At the present time Chris- tianity is making its most notable progress among the better educated people." How then does it happen that so many tourists and business men come back from the Orient not knowing these facts? Not long ago I heard an engineer who had been out there eighteen [56] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA years say to a circle of information-hungry tour- ists on shipboard that the missionaries are only trouble-makers. In proof of his point he as- serted that they have made so much trouble in the last few years in Korea that the Govern- ment has had to drive them all out of the country. His standing in his profession, his assurance in making this statement, and his eighteen years in the Orient made him an authority in the estimation of his hearers. Doubtless if it had gone unchallenged a dozen Americans would have been released in America to spread such a state- ment from California to Maine. As a matter of fact there are today in Korea almost five hun- dred missionaries, an increase of fifty-seven per cent in six years. Most tourists never see a missionary unless by chance they meet him on the steamer. The missionary does not frequent the hotels. He is almost never at the club. He does not attend the race-meeting. Usually he is off in the in- terior where no tourist ever goes. There are few facilities for bringing the missionary and the tourist together. Each of them finds each day exceptionally full. The missionary himself is in part to blame that his work is so little known. When Judge Gary was in the Orient a few years ago, the man who made out his itinerary and personally accom- panied him, himself the son of a missionary, went to some of the missionaries in one city and sug- gested that Judge Gary would be there at a [56] WHAT ASIA THINKS OF MISSIONARIES certain time and that it might be possible for them to show him some of their work. They were so preoccupied in what they were doing, so busy with regular engagements, that they failed to see the importance of the suggestion. The result was that, although Judge Gary was given every possible facility to see other phases of Oriental life and development, he had prac- tically no chance for first-hand study of the foreign missionary business in the Orient, which involves the work of a foreign staff of 13,737 people and an annual expenditure of approx- imately $20,000,000. Dr. Simon Flexner, who did see the missionaries when he was in China making investigations for the China Medical Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, made the statement that there is no organization in the world, either philanthropic or commercial, which is getting as large returns out of the money it spends as the various boards of foreign missions. The chief cause of the failure of the tourist to meet the missionary is that the former is so caught and enthralled by the novelty and pic- turesqueness of the country that his attention is immediately distracted from what are, after all, the biggest subjects of interest. He goes to the Orient to see "something different," and he carries with him more or less of the Caucasian assumption that all that is not of Occidental origin, while interesting, is essentially inferior. Thus prejudiced and misled, he does not even attempt to get to the people who can speak for [57] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA their country and who are leading it. If he went to them they would lead him to the mis- sionary. On the other hand if he went first to the missionary he would find that he, more than anyone else, is in intimate association with the native who has the big ideas and who has the vision of a new age for Asia. [58] BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION CHAPTER IV BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION What sort of folks are the missionary and his wife? I called on one some years ago while he was home on furlough, to ask for some exciting stories, having heard that he had once escaped on his bicycle from a tiger down near the borders of Siam and the Federated Malay States. He was a very modest gentleman, quite at a loss to understand or sympathize with my quest. He would rather tell me about his hospital. At length I made clear to him that for the moment I was in more urgent need of information about the human side of missionary work. He replied: "You remind me of a story about Hoover of Borneo. The last time he was in this country he was being pursued by a group of ladies at a missionary meeting. They said to him, *Now, Mr. Hoover, tell us a story. Of course we are interested in your rice mills, your Chinese immi- gration work, and your association with the White Rajah of Borneo, but we know that you come from the land of the head-hunters. Surely you can tell some exciting tales about being chased by the Dyaks!' " Tery well, then,' said Mr. Hoover, T will tell you of my greatest adventure with the head- [61] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA hunters. One day I was out in the jungle with four of them. We were on a lonely trail in the dense forest. There were two boys in front of me and two boys behind me; no white men within hundreds of miles. Just when we reached the darkest spot in the jungle, the boy behind me drew out a long knife and stabbed me through the heart. The head-hunters buried me there in the jungle under a tree, and, do you know, it makes tears come to my eyes whenever I think of that poor little grave.' " If the ladies had only known it, they might have drawn out from Mr. Hoover an equally exciting, though less fantastic, tale about an effort to make a couple of carabao work in front of a new-fangled American mowing-machine. An enthusiastic friend of modern agriculture pro- jected the idea that the rich lands of Borneo would blossom like the wheat-fields of Kansas if only they could be cultivated with modern agricultural implements. Straightway he ordered shipped to Sarawak an assortment of labor-saving instruments, in which was included a mowing- machine. Some of the implements were very useful and eagerly adopted by the Chinese colonists, but the mower presented difficulties. The carabao is usually a mild-mannered do- mestic beast who likes to possess his soul in peace and quiet. He wades leisurely through the paddy fields, attached to a crooked stick which serves as a plow and is steered by a rope attached to a ring in his nose. The farmer loves [62] BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION him as a member of his own family, for he is the only draught animal yet discovered which can be induced to live and work in many parts of the tropics. Nothing in a carabao's previous experience fits him to be hitched up in front of a modern mowing-machine. The missionaries down in Borneo are willing to make an affidavit to the foregoing statement, for they made the experiment with amazing results. A pair of carabao, attached to the new American mower, were turned loose in a ten-acre lot which was ripe for the harvest. The poor beasts bent them- selves to the yoke and got the contraption under way. It must have seemed to them as though they had been suddenly cut off in the rear by a battalion of Browning machine guns. The faster they traveled, the worse the racket. The carabao charged down the field like the immortal Light Brigade and made for the swamp where they could lie down and get under cover. The Chinese farmers disentangled the machine, lifted it out of the mud, and tried hauling it themselves for a while, but at length surrendered to tradition and cut the balance of the crop according to the methods of their fathers. One reason why the missionary does not always tell his most interesting story is that he does not dare. He is the guest of the government and of the people with whom he works. After a few bitter experiences with uninformed or unscru- pulous reporters or head-line writers, he con- [63] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA eludes that the only safe course is to keep his mouth shut tight. What he says while home on furlough is reported directly back to his field of labors. His statements may offend, or be twisted so that they will offend either the govern- ment which has permitted him to work there, or the people whose confidence and friendship he must have if his work is to continue after he returns. The experience of a young Indian who came to this country a few years ago to complete his education will illustrate the need of extreme caution on the part of the missionary in treating of subjects which lie outside his own special field. The story is merely illustrative of general conditions; the man himseK was not a mission- ary. He supported himself during the summers by giving Chautauqua lectures on India, and proved a most acceptable speaker. On his return to his own country he accepted a position as teacher in a state college in one of the native princedoms. After he had been at work a few weeks there came a letter to the British Resident from Delhi, instructing him to inquire of the au- thorities why they had employed a returned stu- dent who was known to have uttered seditious sen- timents while in the United States. The young man denied the charge and his answer was re- ported back to the capital at Delhi. Shortly afterwards the Resident received a sheaf of clippings about the Chautauqua lectures in which both the reporter and the head-line writer, had [64] BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION done their worst. Fortunately the young man was able to prove through the president of the university from which he was graduated, who took the matter up with the British Embassy in Washington, that the lectures had been mis- quoted, so that he retained his place. Bangs was sent to Bang-bang, up in the Malay Peninsula. This is not his name, nor is it the place, but that does not matter. The story is true. His instructions were to start a school for the Chinese and to open up mission work. The Government had promised to provide the land for the school building and Bangs expected to find waiting for him a very extensive subscrip- tion hst, signed by wealthy Chinese, to meet the expenses of building. He was instructed to present himself to the police-inspector who was supposed to be heartily backing the project. Shortly after Bangs' arrival the official was sud- denly transferred for excellent reasons. Then Bangs discovered that the names of all the brothel-keepers in the region were on his sub- scription list. They had no objections to sub- scribing when the inspector of police argued the cause, but they felt very differently about paying out their cash when a young missionary came to collect it. He in turn, had Httle disposition to accept that kind of contributions. Meanwhile, Bangs found that the contract for the school building had been let to a dishonest builder; the time during which the construction must be started was rapidly passing, the Chinese [65] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA were losing confidence in the enterprise, and the Government was impatient. He sent out two hundred notices to leading Chinese, inviting them to meet and confer on the proper action to be taken. No one came. He called a meet- ing of his executive committee, with a similar response. Then he jumped on his bicycle and scoured the highways and byways of the jungle in the scorching sun, which registers one hundred and forty degrees and no shade every day, to round up his committee. The last member he roused from bed late at night and called them to order. The project was revived and a new sub- scription list started, which soon totaled $8,000. The school began temporarily in an old church with forty -three pupils. At the same time preaching services in Chinese, Tamil, and Malay were opened in the jail, and a Young Men's Association was organized for the Chinese, offer- ing opportunities with mutual benefit features which appealed greatly to the wealthy men. One effective means of raising money for the young men was to make a rule that whenever a $500 gift was registered the donor might have his picture hung in the club rooms. Bangs went to the government rest house, but the rules there stated that none except govern- ment ofiicials might remain more than seven days. Even during that period he was liable to be dispossessed if an official had need of the room. Of course it was just Bangs' luck that an official did need it one night about one o'clock. [66] THE YALE MISSION IN CHANG3HA, CHINA, HAS A VERY ACTIVE BOY SCOUTS TROOP, IN WHICH THE TRA- DITIONAL YALE SPIRIT SOMETHING VERY NEW IN CHINA IS BEING PROPAGATED. » o » o • p t c- BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION Then he went to a Singhalese hotel and shared his room with less official and even less com- fortable bed-fellows. Nevertheless, the mission- ary did not quit; he finished the schoolhouse, found the money to pay the contractor, tutored some boys for the Cambridge examinations and turned the money in to pay for a Chinese preacher, put in enough time on the polyglot languages of the district to make himself understood, and when I visited him was on good terms with everybody in town. The missionary who cannot stand such acid tests as these need not apply for the job. Many a time I have had a missionary take me out over his field and after showing me some- thing of the vast extent of his work, exclaim, "There is no job in the homeland as big as this." Missionaries in these days do not talk much about personal sacrifices, although they have to make them, but so does the railway builder, the mining engineer, the consular official, the mer- chant. In these days men are not speaking with pride of the discomforts they endure, but of the accomplishments in which they have a part. Harry Caldwell, a missionary from Yenping, China, came home the other day with a record of having made peace between the provincial military governor and twenty bands of brigands ranging in size from three hundred to two thou- sand men in each band. In addition he killed seven tigers, saved a city of forty thousand people from a revolution, and brought home [67] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA seven thousand specimens for the Natural His- tory Museum in New York. When the city of Nanking was besieged by the forces of Chang Hsun in one of the recent revolu- tions and the defending forces were exhausted after seventy-two hours of continuous fighting, they went to Dr. W. E. Macklin, a missionary, and said, "You know this man Chang. Will you please go out and negotiate with him.^ Tell him that we are perfectly willing to keep on fighting. We don't want to surrender, but we must have some sleep. Ask him for a truce for a few hours until we get rested. Then we will fight some more." Dr. Macklin explained that such courtesies are not usually extended in modern warfare, but he did go out to make a peace which saved the city from destruction. He made Chang Hsun agree not to loot the city when he occupied it and when the wily general broke faith with the missionary a few days later and allowed his troops to go "on the loose" for a few hours, it was the aged Dr. Macklin who went before the general again and compelled him to return to his previous pledge. The missionary task is so complex and has so many sides to it that no talent which a man has is wasted. If he has skill in the use of lan- guages, he may at length find himself seated around a long table with a group of native pundits or literati, compiling a dictionary which for the first time reduces to exact statement the [ 68 ] ^^^s BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION ages of a hundred generations. If the mis- sionary develops a special ability to handle business affairs, there is the large volume of mission business to care for, the purchase of property, the disbursement of funds, the keeping of accounts. There is an increasing demand on the mission field for the highly trained specialist. Efficient administration demands that respon- sibilities be locaHzed and fixed with those who are especially competent. In looking over a list of positions which are now open in various mission fields I notice needs for printers, man- agers, agricultural directors, shopmen, and archi- tects. The time will come when all missionaries can be selected with reference to similar technical qualification. Meanwhile, the man who knows a little about all these trades and professions as well as several more will find when he arrives on his field that no talent is to be wasted. There is no task like that of the missionary's to throw a man on his own resources and thus develop within him every least ability he may possess. Tact, common sense, and everlasting pertinacity are among the first essentials. A certain mis- sionary a few years ago was sent to a remote island in the tropics, which was governed by a few very literal -minded officials. They had made an arrangement by which areas for mission work were portioned out to different missions, thus preventing missionaries of different denom- inations from occupying the same field. This particular area had been assigned to a mission [69] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA which had never occupied it. There never had been a reallotment of territory, and according to the law the new missionary could not legally conduct a preaching service anywhere in that region. "What constitutes a preaching service?" asked the missionary. The official pondered the matter, consulted his orders, and explained that a preaching service is committed when there is a regular preacher who takes a text and stands up to preach a sermon just as they do at home. "Very well," replied the missionary, feeling sure of the good disposition of the Government, "I will comply with the law." He gathered his people, sat on the floor, made them do likewise, and made an exposition of the Bible without taking a text. When one of the hearers asked for baptism he took him in a canoe outside the three-mile limit and baptized him with a broken cocoanut shell. The Government was not slow to discover that the missionary was not only in earnest, but also a great aid to good adminis- tration in the island. Recently this missionary has returned home with the proposition from this same government that if he will find the mis- sionary doctors to take charge, the Government will erect no less than eight hospitals and turn them over to the missionaries to administer. An instance recently came to my notice in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the rubber country in the Malay Peninsula, which shows how a man [7QJ I BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION ay be called upon to draw on all his talent at once. A group of Chinese immigrants had squatted on the uncleared land of a rubber plantation, with the permission of the company. When the time came to plant trees the colony was dispossessed. At first the squatters seemed very unhappy over the transaction, feeling that they had been used to clear the land, and were being ejected with too Kttle ceremony. However, on thinking the matter over, they concluded that they had learned a valuable lesson. They had discovered that the soil was very rich. There- fore they sent their preacher — for they were a Christian colony — to the missionary. Reverend George Frederick Pykett, to make the following proposition : "You go to the Government and secure for us an allotment of five acres apiece of raw jungle land (there were five hundred families), and we will clear it, plant it with rubber trees, and establish a Christian village." Mr. Pykett was shy. The preacher was him- self a rubber planter of some experience and success; he was serving his charge without salary, but an old axiom stood in the way. It was not safe, ninety-nine times in a hundred, for the missionary to mix up in the business affairs of his converts. "Very well," said the preacher, "then we will go ahead on our own account." The missionary reconsidered the matter. The [71] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA Chinese are excellent workers and business men, individually, but when they come together in a cooperative undertaking they usually make a bad success of the enterprise. Cooperation is, perhaps, the one quality which the Chinese peo- ple will have to learn in the next century or go under. One of the greatest contributions which the Christian Church is making to the Chinese is at this very point. It teaches them the methods of organized cooperation. Mr. Pykett knew that this colony stood a better chance of success than would have been the case had the members not been Christians, but still it seemed safer to help these people, and keep a string on them, than to leave them alone. Without much diffi- culty he secured the concession from the Govern- ment and the colony was started. A few weeks later the preacher-manager came around and presented the missionary with a new automobile and a Mohammedan boy to drive it. These gifts do not seem too large in view of the fact that an acre of rubber trees brings in a profit of about $1,200 a year. These families had probably never had a third of that sum to live on in Fukien, from which province they had migrated to Kuala Lumpur. The most remarkable fact with reference to the gift, however, was not the gratitude of the colony or the rather extraordinary good fortune of the missionary, but that the car was pro- vided for the express purpose of conveying Mrs. Pykett more frequently than would otherwise [72] THESE NEGRITO CHILDREN LIVE IN THE FORESTS OF LUZON. THE ONLY AMERICANS THEY EVER SEE ARE THE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AND THE MISSIONARY WHO COMES ONCE A MONTH TO INSPECT THE SCHOOL WitlCH THE MISSION HAS ESTABLISHED. CO. ,•, BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION have been possible to visit the new plantation. The colonists realized that it would be very difficult to have a model Christian colony with- out some attention to the wife problem. At this point Mrs. Pykett's good offices were so highly prized that they were worth the gift of a motor car. There is no pathos in all Asia quite equal to that of a Christian home where the wife is still enthralled in the customs and superstitions of her grandmothers. The children receive the advantages of at least a rudimentary Christian education, the husband, moving about in the Christian community, comes in frequent touch with the missionary, and quickly catches the new pace which is set for him. Too often his wife lags behind. She had no education to be- gin with, and the traditions of her race do not permit her much freedom of movement outside her home. The full impact of Christianity can- not be made on the Orient until father and mother, as well as the children, are products of the Christian school. Meanwhile there are many situations such as that in Kuala Lumpur where the missionary wife is urgently needed, although there are seldom motor cars to bring her. Do the missionaries live in too fine houses? I am frequently asked this question. Reports go broadcast that missionaries live in luxury such as they could never attain at home and that many of them deliberately choose the mis- [73] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA sion field because it offers an easy life. My observation is that missionaries usually live well, although I know many who live in houses which are hardly more than unsanitary hovels. A mission station is usually a group of buildings within a compound. This compound bears the same relation to the surroundings that a social settlement bears to a congested city block. The houses are better constructed, the grounds are better cared for, sanitation is developed with care. It is very essential that missionaries should live well. Their health must be protected. Fur- loughs come only once in from five to seven years, although commercial houses usually pro- vide for more frequent visits home for their employes. When a missionary or any member of his family falls ill and has to return home for medical treatment, some large piece of work is paralyzed and there is a serious loss on the investment which the missionary society has made. Missionary salaries range from nine to fifteen hundred dollars, gold, a year. Although the cost of living in Asia has risen quite as rapidly as it has in the West in the last few years, there has been very little readjustment of salaries. Many missionaries in the last year have con- fessed to me that they are each month running deeper into debt. No, the missionary does nol live too well. Some months ago I made a trip up the Mi River in the province of Fukien from Foocho^ to Yenping. The larger part of the journey wi [74] BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION I ^Haade on a launch less than seventy -five feet long, ^ftn which were loaded no less than two hundred and seventy Chinese. It was in the spring, be- tween seasons, too early for Chinese summer clothing, too hot for the closely bound padded garments which the Chinese put on in the fall and do not take off again until spring. The odors were such as one wishes to forget. When I ate my breakfast the entire two hundred and seventy passengers crowded about me so closely that the captain had to order them away to avoid capsizing the craft. While eating one had to steer carefully to get the food into the right mouth. I spent an entire day on this launch, from two o'clock in the morning until four the next afternoon. My only European companions were two missionary ladies and three small chil- dren. I cannot dwell on the details of the trip, but I had the feeling before it was over that if these missionary families had been returning to live in marble halls or gold-bedecked palaces the compensation for the horrors of the journey would be entirely inadequate. Yet when I told them how I felt, they assured me that we were fortunate in having a relatively comfortable trip. One of the ladies had, a few months before, been compelled to bring her two babies, ill with a raging fever, down on this same journey. A missionary's home, as has been said, is like a social settlement in the congested portion of some American city. It serves the double pur- pose of shelter for the missionary family and [75] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA actual demonstration of Christian standards of living for the neighborhood. The home is open to all and there is a never-ending stream of visitors. They notice the screens on the win- dows and receive an explanation as to why the screens are necessary to health as well as to comfort. They cannot fail to compare their own stuffy, almost unlighted rooms with those in which the missionary lives. No detail of housekeeping escapes their wondering gaze. But, best of all, the men who come there have an object-lesson as to the Christian valuation of womanhood. They see the wife treated not as a slave or as a servant, but as a partner. She not only sits at the dinner-table with her hus- band, but is actually served first. The popular imagination usually locates the missionary in village or rural surroundings. As a matter of fact, most missionaries live in fairly large centers of population and many of them in very large cities. The problems of Christianity in Asia are not merely rural. Japan, China, Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, and India all have their city problems, which are becoming increasingly dijQScult. The cities of Asia are growing rapidly. There is a movement from village to city, just as there is in the western world. Every nation has its "City of Dreadful Night." The darkest spot in the world is not in London, Paris, New York, or Chicago. It is in Tokyo, Shanghai, Calcutta, Bombay, or Madras. The missionary has, therefore, to develop a new [76] BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION I ^■echnique for the evangelization of the cities ^■>f Asia. The scattering of tracts, the opening of day schools, and the building of chapels are entirely inadequate. There is need of play- grounds, gymnasiums, clean "movies," reading- rooms, day nurseries, and all the devices of the stitutional church. Indeed, institutional churches are now being established in many of the large cities. In China the movement began in Foochow several years ago when an alert missionary, who never allowed himself to be encumbered by traditions, went down into the center of the city, rented a fine old residence and launched a full-grown social settlement and church with resident workers, kindergarten, cooking classes, and boys' clubs, as well as religious services. Here the Christians from the educated and wealthier classes may meet with the Christians who once were coolies. They learn to know each other and in being brought face to face have set before them for the first time the essential lessons of civic and social responsibility. The impression is not uncommon that the missionary has only to do with the lower classes of people. I have often heard this statement made in the hotels and on shipboard by tourists and merchants. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Each missionary creates his own constituency. He associates with the same kind of people in China or in India as he would associate with [77] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA at home. Quality recognizes quality the world over. I have never yet sought an introduction to any distinguished Oriental, no matter how high his degree, when I could not find some missionary who could with all propriety bring about the meeting, although by no means every missionary one meets is prepared to do this. If I wished to make a detailed investigation of the exact status of the Home Rule movement in India today, I would go with the missionaries out into the villages. There I would learn what no government official or upper-class Indian gentleman could tell me. If I wanted to know the extent of the present division between the North and the South in China, I know of mis- sionaries who could lead me to more accurate and extensive information on that subject than I could gather from any consular officer or from any official in Peking. More and more in the non-Christian countries the common people are coming into places of influence. They are be- coming the determining force and the missionary knows them through and through. It may be many decades, even centuries, before democracy appears in its noonday splendor among the backward nations, but none the less the day of the common people is dawning. The most marked feature of the Orient today is the drift toward democracy. In the creation of this movement the missionary, particularly the American missionary, has had a very large part. He teaches the people to read and to think [78] BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION together. The Methodist Episcopal Mission in Hinghwa, China, for example, publishes the only newspaper for more than three million people. The American missionary is himself a democrat. He fairly exudes democracy wherever he goes. He demands religious liberty, preaches the brotherhood of men high and low, gives himself to the care of the unfit and the weak who are so often trampled under foot by the backward races, and sets before people the Bible, which has ever been the inspiration of democratic movements. The missionary becomes uncon- sciously the builder of a new civilization or at least of a new social ideal. Whatever he builds is democratic. It must be, from the very nature of the instruction. The missionary not only reaches the influential people of the community; he creates them. The day's labor for a missionary is usually a strange mixture of the commonplace, the extra- ordinary, and the fundamental. I was once allowed to accompany one for a day in India. Here is an outline of our program. We rode bicycles to the railway station, and took the train for a twenty-mile ride up the line. There we left our bicycles in the care of the station master, and mounted camels for a most excruci- ating trip across the fields to some Christian villages. We hung on with both hands, while diminutive boys, who were hardly taller than the camels' knees, led the way through the glaring, hot sand. [79] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA At the first village we were greeted by the preacher, who introduced us to his wife and two babies and then escorted us to the outcaste section of the village, where a service was held, followed by baptisms. The preacher had been a Brahmin. Now he stood in the midst of a village which to enter would be defilement for any caste man and, grasping the headman's hand, called him "Brother." In this we witnessed the laying of the only foundation stone on which caste-divided India can ever build republican institutions. The missionary preceded the baptism in each ease by pulling some scissors from his pocket and cutting the long scalp lock which every Hindu wears, so long as he keeps his loyalty to Hinduism. The ceremony took place in the center of the village, under a tree, the brown mud walls of the houses rising on every side. First the men were baptized and then the women, who squatted in a little group far off at one side. After the service there was lusty singing, a prayer, and then some sweetmeats. An old lady came up to the missionary, stepped out of her shoes, made obeisance, touching her forehead to the ground, and begged him to inquire about her son who had been missing from home for several months. She feared that he had been kidnapped and sent as an indentured laborer to the Fiji Islands. At the next village a similar service was held and all the men of the village followed their [80] THIS BAPTISMAL SERVICE IN Ajf INDIAN VILLAGE IS QUITE TYPICAL OF THE WAY IN WHICH THE MISSION- ARY WORKS. THE PEOPLE ARE OUT- CASTES: THE VILLAGE PREACHER AND TEACHER WAS FORMERLY A BRAHMIN. BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION departing guests, single file across the fields, as a mark of respect. At the railway station we had our lunch which we had brought with us from home, drank distilled water for which our parched throats had been crying in the villages where to drink such water as was offered would have meant suicide, and then jumped on the bicycles for a ten-mile journey to another village where a new church was just being erected. The night before we arrived at this village there had been an anti-Christian riot, in which several converts had been beaten and it had been necessary to smuggle the women away for security. The missionary inspected the new building, and coun- seled with the preacher about the riot. He also had a conference with the school-teacher, and then we started on for another ten miles to an Indian mud-house, where we had our dinner. From this village we took the train again and reached home just before midnight. One may dwell upon any aspect of such a day as pleases the imagination. The railway train and the camels traveled side by side; the bicycles passed a procession of shuffling elephants in the dusk of evening. The Brahmin stood by the outcaste, the woman grovelled in the dust. The churchyard was trampled by a mob which had threatened to kill the Christian converts. The mob had been restrained by fear of the police, who represent the British Raj and are sworn to uphold religious liberty in the land. More than once we overtook the bearers of [81] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA crude biers on which were stretched the white- robed victims of the plague, whom the disease had smitten that very day. These Httle pro- cessions were on their way to the burning-ghats of the Ganges. But all these events belong with the externals. The important fact to remember is that here is a man, by birth separated as light is separated from darkness from his neighbors and his parish- ioners, who has chosen to cross the gulf and share his life, his ideals, his faith, his standards of living with them. He preaches not merely by what he says, but most emphatically of all by being there. He exposes himself to the most searching examination, day after day, year after year. His life is an open book, the only book of any sort which the vast majority of the people can read. Every day is a fight, a struggle with himself, a struggle with a social order ages old which knows not yet how to make life livable or death dieable. To his house by the side of the road come the most friendless of all God's crea- tures, and out from the doors of that home go influences for the wellbeing of the world which no man can measure. The two turning points in missionary history, so far as the selection of personnel is concerned, are the organization of the Student Volunteer Movement thirty-two years ago and the Edin- burgh Conference on Foreign Missions in 1910. The former modified all the later development of mission work by laying the responsibility of [82] BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION volunteering on the student bodies of the various colleges rather than on the churches. At Edin- burgh new standards of efficiency were so empha- sized and defined that every phase of missionary organization and administration took on new vitality. A brief outline of the various roads which a young missionary recruit now has to travel before he is actually installed in his work on the foreign field may be illuminating. Presumably he either becomes a Student Volunteer while in college or at least receives there the impetus which eventually leads him to make applica- tion to the Board of Foreign Missions of his denomination to be sent out as a missionary. There was a time, not many decades ago, when his application had to be accompanied with the promise that he would offer himself to go when- ever and wherever his church might wish to send him. Meanwhile he would continue his course of general study in college and later enter some theological seminary or a medical school. Practically all special training for his work was deferred until he reached the field. The result frequently was that he never had any special training at all. The Edinburgh Conference re- ceived the astonishing report that forty-seven per cent of the missionaries on the field could not speak the language of the people with whom they were supposed to work. Now, however, the volunteer usually offers himself for some special kind of work. Each [83] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA mission board keeps a list of positions for which men or women are needed. Many of these openings call for highly technical training. Just now, for example, there is a very great demand for various kinds of educational experts: men competent to take charge of commercial schools which teach book-keeping, stenography, type- writing, and business methods; shop-men for tech- nical courses; agricultural directors; and music teachers. There is also urgent need for archi- tects to superintend the vast building operations which are continually being inaugurated, athletic directors, printers, and trained nurses. One important result of the Edinburgh Con- ference was the establishment of a Board of Missionary Preparation in the United States; this drew up a standard list of courses which ought to go into the preparation of the mission- ary for his task. After that came the Hartford School of Missions, and, later, the establishment of departments of missions, or professorships, in all the leading theological seminaries. Coordinate with this was the institution of Union Language Schools in important centers in the Orient. Now a Student Volunteer has laid out for him a long course of study and preparation, which, after he leaves college, is being constantly aimed to prepare him for his specific task. Even after the candidate has arrived in the field of his labors he must still submit to the test of his fitness to take up the work. If, after two or three years, he has proved unequal to the dif- [84] I BUILDERS OF CIVILIZATION cult task of learning the language, or fails in ability to come into sympathetic relations with the people, he will probably have to return home. Some mission stations even have the right to decide on the congeniality of the candi- date as a fellow-worker. Meanwhile, between the day he volunteers and the time of his departure for his work, there are the questions of health and marriage to consider. I have heard of one man who was given no less than seven medical examinations. If a married man is to be sent, experience has demonstrated times without number that his future usefulness will depend not more upon his health than upon his wife. Many women, for example, cannot stand the tropics. Again, the candidate may be impelled by some evil genius to take one final fling before he enters his consecrated work by marrying a not ade- quately consecrated wife. That will mean im- paired usefulness from the day he begins his work and probably an early return, with a con- sequent loss of a considerable investment by the missionary organization. It is generally reckoned that no missionary can attain his max- imum usefulness until after he has had five or six years' experience with the language and the people. Even though this apparently rude in- vasion of a domain where one is usually assumed to have the power of the freest choice will seem intolerable, it is none the less necessary and based on the soundest of experience. My ob- [85] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA servation is that American business houses in the Orient could doubtless increase the efficiency of their staffs very largely if only they could exercise a similar supervision of their employes in the matter of marriage. All these various tests of a candidate's ability to do the work are subordinate to questions of character. Before young men or young women are sent to the foreign field they must come before an examining board of thoroughly com- petent people and give evidence of personal character and of personality which will justify the continuation of the preparation. Small wonder is it, therefore, that only about one in twenty of those who apply for missionary work ever reach the field. One may readily see that the new type of missionary must be an all-round man. He is an unofficial ambassador for his government, creating good will and sympathetic understanding; he is a peace-maker, interpreter, and builder of new social and economic orders. He may become even a statesman, whose advice and counsel is sought and valued by governments. [86] THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER CHAPTER V THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER Thirty-two years ago a steamer anchored at Woosung at the mouth of the Yangtze to dis- charge passengers for Shanghai. One of them was a young American by the name of Hawks Pott, from New York, a missionary sent out by the Protestant Episcopal Church to join the staff of St. John's College. But the college was no college at all; it was only a low-grade boarding school with sixty boys, all of whom were on a charity basis. Even their shoes were given to them. The prospects for a real college must have seemed rather dim. However, about that time the Chinese of Shanghai began to wake up to the necessity of learning to use English. The foreigners were coming there in large numbers to do business. They had not the patience to learn Chinese, so some of the wealthy merchants of the city went to St. John's and asked that their boys be ad- mitted to learn the foreigners' language. "Of course you understand that St. John's is a mis- sionary school .f^" Yes, they understood that, and were willing to take the chances of their sons being converted. "Very well, then, they can come if you are willing to pay for the teach- ing." The day those boys entered the school as [89] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA paying pupils marked a new stage in the history of the institution. Recently I had the privilege of calling on this missionary who was put ashore at Woosung thirty-two years ago. I found him in the pres- ident's office, the director of a university which has 833 students, forty-five teachers, six college departments, and one of the most attractive campuses I have seen the world over. "Let me see," said Dr. Pott, running through the pages of the St. John's Alumni Catalogue, "of course you know Wellington Koo. He is one of my boys. Then there is Alfred Sze, the Chinese minister in London, and Dr. Yen, who has been the Chinese minister in Berlin; they also are graduates of St. John's." Not a bad record, that, for a single missionary college to have tutored the three foreign repre- sentatives of China upon whom has fallen the heaviest burden of Chinese diplomacy during these last few critical years! After St. John's had done for them what it could. Dr. Pott had directed them to the United States to finish their training at Cornell and Columbia. Dr. Pott modestly continued through his alumni lists, mentioning a score more of names of his other graduates who were occupying places of trust and great responsibility; men like Dr. Tsur, then president of Tsing Hua College, where the indemnity students are selected and prepared for America, and the president of the Hanyang Iron Works. St. John's still lays special stress [90] DAVID YU, NOW GENERAL SECRE- TARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL COM MITTEE OF THE Y. M. C. A. IN CHINA, WAS FORMERLY A LECTURER ON JAPAN. THIS WAS ONE OF HIS EX- HIBITS SHOWING china's INSECURE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION AS COM- PARED WITH THE UNITED STATES, GERMANY, ENGLAND, AND JAPAN. THE BASES OF THESE CUBES SHOW THE PROPORTION OF LITERACY RELA- TIVE TO THE TOTAL POPULATION. THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER on the teaching of English and is educating the sons of some of the most distinguished families in China. The university is by no means self- supporting, any more than are our American universities, but the receipts from tuition are about $45,000, gold, each year. This story suggests something of the general character of the background out of which the last three decades of missionary education have come, not merely in China but elsewhere in the Orient. Most mission colleges were, in the beginning, colleges only in name. In fact, they were charity boarding schools. Their primary purpose, like that of our American colleges in the early days, was to raise up and train a literate clergy. They had to take their pupils unpre- pared, wherever they could find them. They drew, therefore, largely from the coolie, outcaste, and servant classes. But today if you were per- mitted to attend the alumni dinner at the Doshisha in Kyoto, Peking University, the Anglo-Chinese Colleges at Foochow or Singapore, the American College at Madura, the Christian College at Lucknow, or Forman College at Lahore, you would meet some of the most distinguished and influential men of the entire Orient. There were the best of reasons why the early mission colleges and schools had to be free schools, with even shoes provided. The missionary had gone to an alien land to sell a new idea which no one wished to buy. He adopted an approved business method, selling the idea on approval, [91] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA even going so far as to distribute free samples. He began with the servants of his own house- hold, the sons of his cook, his bihishti, his gardener. In that way the missionary was able quickly to develop native helpers to assist him in trans- lating, teaching, and preaching. But incidentally, or perhaps primarily, he sold the idea of Western learning to the East. In those days famines, plagues, and floods were very common; indeed, they are still an annual menace. They left in their wake hosts of or- phans. The missionary opened his doors to receive these waifs and then cabled to America for funds to provide food. The money was forth- coming and orphanages were established, hun- dreds of them. Of course boys and girls were immediately placed under instruction and many of them have risen to places of distinction, thus proving that even the most unpromising material can be transformed by Christian education. The missions are now going out of the orphanage business as rapidly as they can, for they have devised better and cheaper ways to provide for such victims, but the orphanage helped consider- ably not merely to demonstrate the disinterested, humanitarian motive of the mission but also to prove the value of education. The missionary was the pioneer of Western learning throughout Asia. The East India Com- pany had to borrow William Carey to carry on its school for the training of Indian clerks; later the British Government took from Alexander [92] THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER Duff, a Scotch missionary, the program of Indian education which, in the main, is still followed. Japan drew its first inspiration for Western edu- cation from missionary sources, and very many of its older statesmen who are now in their prime or are just passing off the stage were first launched into the era of enlightenment from mission schools. Marquis Okuma never tires of telling what he owes to the inspiration of such pioneer missionaries as Verbeck. That Japan can now make the proud boast that over ninety-eight per cent of her school population is in school, is due in the first instance to the missionary. China, watching with one eye what western learning was doing for Japan and with the other what the mission schools were doing at home, kicked over her ancient educational system and started a new structure upon plans first drawn up by the missionaries. The idea has been thoroughly sold to Asia. She now wants, more than anything else in the world, better educational facilities. Ask a citizen of any Oriental country today what three things he most desires for his people. Two of the an- swers will vary according to the local conditions, but one is uniformly the same from Sapporo to Hyderabad — better schools. Not all schools are so favorably situated as St. John's in Shanghai. There are hundreds of millions of people in Asia whose entire family income is not equal to the $220. Mex., which St. John's is able to charge for tuition. It is not the aim of every school [93] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA to become self-supporting. The glory of the Christian ideal has always been that the primary care is for the poor and unfortunate. But every year the mission schools are able to shift their work more from the purely charity basis toward one of self-respecting independence. Western education is now so highly prized that pupils and parents alike are willing to make superlative sacrifices to acquire it. Indeed, the graduates of mission colleges, and even natives who have not had the privileges of such education, are already beginning to make large gifts for pur- poses of endowment. Only last year Mr. Katsuka of Tokyo gave over $100,000 to the Methodist college of that city. The missionary school- master is now sailing not against the current but with it. The story of the Anglo-Chinese College at Singapore, for example, reads like an amazing romance. A little more than thirty years ago William F. Oldham was sent from India to start a Methodist mission in the Straits, but, as was somewhat characteristic of the Methodists in those days, no funds were provided wherewith to start said mission. Oldham was a son of the Orient, born in India, educated in the United States, and happily combining a genius for good nature with a genius for doing and saying ex- actly the right thing at the right time. He arrived in Singapore without a cent. For the last hundred years and more the Straits of Malacca have been the happy hunting- [94] Wl THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER ground for the Chinese. That strip of land pro- jecting from Burma down through the tropics to the equator is perhaps, mile for mile, the richest area in the world. The Chinese were the first to discover the fact. From Southern China they came in great numbers, and the frugality and industry which were the prime necessities for a bare existence in the crowded valleys of China made them rich in Malaysia. One man who came to the Straits sixty-five years ago as a coolie died last year reported worth more than $20,000,000. The business of Singa- pore is largely in the hands of the Chinese. There are no less than 40,000 Chinese in that one city who were born there, as well as 135,000 who have migrated. They represent the largest as well as the most progressive block of that very cosmopolitan population. The young Methodist missionary soon found himseK taken to the heart of the Straits Chinese. Not long after his arrival he was invited to lecture before the Celestial Reasoning Associa- tion, an educational organization of Chinese merchants. He selected astronomy as a safe topic for the lecture. The next week the penni- less missionary became tutor in English to a prominent Chinese gentleman. In a month he had a class of thirty-six boys, most of them rich men's sons. A little later the merchants gave him $6,200 with which to start a school. The Government, always willing to encourage the Chinese in the Straits, in marked contrast to [95] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA the American policy in the Philippines, also con- tributed a few thousand dollars and the Method- ist Anglo-Chinese School was launched. In ten years this school began to enroll a thousand pupils annually and now there are more than 1,600. The most extraordinary part of this story is that the school, now a college, has never yet cost a missionary a cent for operating expenses, not even for the salary of the teachers. At the same time the institution has always been dis- tinctly a Christian school and under the direct control of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The fame of the Anglo-Chinese College of Singapore spread throughout the region from Penang to Java. The Chinese immigrants, who come in at the rate of half a million each year, leaving the graves of their ancestors behind them in Foochow, Amoy, and Canton, leave also much of the conservatism and immobility of their race. In the new land they are eager for new ideas. First of all they desire education. The result has been that the Methodists now have no less than eight Anglo-Chinese schools scat- tered over the peninsula and the islands, in which the missionary is the schoolmaster, while the entire expenses of the schools are borne by the patrons, sometimes with the aid of the Govern- ment. The missionaries are, of course, free to engage in evangelistic work outside of school hours, the result being that everywhere the church follows the schoolhouse. Not long ago a Singapore merchant came to New York and [96] I THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER offered the founder of this system of schools, now Bishop Oldham, some hundreds of thousands of dollars if only he would return to Singapore and give his personal direction to the enlarge- ment and extension of the Anglo-Chinese Col- lege. These educational triumphs in the mission field have been accomplished in the face of great handicaps. Missionaries have usually been se- lected with slight reference to their qualifications as teachers. The primary object of the foreign missionary has always been to make converts to Christianity and to raise up a self-propagating, self-supporting church. His work as a teacher was first undertaken to contribute to his main purpose and even in later years the work of teaching has been only one of his many duties. Only recently a missionary remarked to me, "I am supposed to occupy the chair of political economy in a college, but my chair has proved to be a bench with a lot of stools added." Then he went on to enumerate the other responsi- bilities which he has had to assume. Such heavy burdens and division of interests do not promote the highest efficiency. The understaffed condi- tion of every mission field, due to the inability of mission boards to find suitable recruits or to support them when found, leaves one amazed that the missionary is able to do so many things, and so many kinds of things, and yet do them as well as he does. It is not generally understood how the changes [97] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA in the religious thought of the last few decades have begun to modify the work of the mission- ary. In the days when salvation was the simple problem of securing an experience of conversion with a view to putting the convert in the path which leads directly to the shining gates of Heaven, the task was one of simple evangelism. Now that the Christian doctrine of salvation is being reconsidered and extended to cover con- ditions of body and mind as well as of soul, the missionary purpose must also be re-defined. The new missionary marks the progress of his con- verts not merely by the fact that they have torn out the idols, but also by the fact that they have changed the course of the sewer and begun to desire to learn to read. It is now generally conceded that although a man may be a Christian and still believe that the world is flat, he will probably be a better and more effective Chris- tian if he knows that it is round. Changes of thought on the mission field come more slowly than at home. The missionary has taken himseK out of their main currents of thought and immersed himseK in action of the most strenuous kind. It so happens that there is not yet entire agreement in the mission field as to the value of education as an agency of salvation. Within four years I have sat in a mission meeting and heard a representative of a church which in America gathers the best- educated people of the community, say, "I don't see how you missionaries find so much time to [98] PREM DAS (SERVAXT OF LOVE) WAS RECENTLY BEATEN BY THE liANDLOBDS FOR VENTURING TO TEACH THESE BOYS TO READ AND TO FIGURE ACCOUNTS. HE SPENT SEVERAL WEEKS IN THE HOSPITAL, BUT AS SOON AS ABLE RETURNED TO HIS PRIMITIVE SCHOOL UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE POLICE AND OP THE MISSIONARY. , «~ I. « • <• ; THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER teach school. I am out here to save souls and I don't have time for anything else." When one knows that this speaker has just as much voice in determining the educational policy of that mission as the most highly trained speciahst from an American teachers' college, one sees one of the great weaknesses of mission organization in many places. However, one has only to scan the lists of new missionaries who are being sent to the field to see that within a very few years practically every missionary is going to be a highly trained specialist, prepared for a specific task. The mission school is, therefore, sure to be lifted steadily to higher standards of quahty and work. Already the missions are beginning to lead out with radical changes of educational policy. The missionary carried to Asia the American venera- tion of the college. As rapidly as possible he gathered up what pupils he could from the primary and secondary schools, to put them into college. This method was necessary, and still is, for the entire educational work of the Orient, both public and private, is now all but marking time, waiting for the production of a sufficient number of trained native teachers to carry on the present work and extend it. For this pur- pose the college is most essential. On the other hand, the college now finds that it has far too few feeders in the form of primary schools. Most children do not get beyond the primary school. The recognition of this fact, in Asia as well as [99] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA in America, is calling for a greater emphasis on the development of primary schools. The population of the Orient is rural. The people live by tilling the soil, employing prim- itive methods which have changed little in forty centuries. The missionary schoolmaster, there- fore, faces the task of a Hampton and a Tus- kegee rather than that of a Harvard and a Yale. It is often the case at present that the mission- ary has taken his converts as far as they can go until their economic condition has been improved. Neither Christianity nor civilization can develop far in advance of the ability and opportunity of the individual to earn sufficient money to sustain better standards of living or more effective forms of government. Perhaps the most notable illustrations of how the missions are branching out along these lines of agricultural and voca- tional training are found in the work of Sam Higginbottom at Allahabad, India, and Joseph Baillie at Nanking, China, although there is hardly a mission station anywhere today which is not trying to make its education more practical. Higginbottom is preaching the gospel of deep plowing and silos. When he finds that India produces only eighty pounds of clean cotton while the United States produces two hundred and Egypt four hundred pounds to the acre, he himself goes to an agricultural school, learns how to raise cotton, and then starts his boys off with experiments in soil pulverization, fertiliza- tion, and seed selection. He is none the less a [100] THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASl'ER missionary because he mixes iis' Biblfe'^^ttt-dy with lessons on the growing of sugar cane and wheat. Already Gwalior State has asked the Presbyterian mission to loan Higginbottom for part time as government director of agriculture. Indeed, this enthusiastic young American has already pioneered the way for the Government, which has admittedly failed in most of its efforts to teach agriculture to the Indians. As a by- product of his work the high caste pupil learns the dignity of labor and rubs the edges off his caste prejudices. Not long ago a visitor to Allahabad found four sons of rajahs hard at work filling a silo. Hitherto the sight of an Indian prince working with his hands has been as rare as an elephant-hunt on Broadway. Joseph Baillie of Nanking is usually referred to as "quite a character." It took him a long time to find his place in the missionary work of China, but at last he discovered it. He is teach- ing the Chinese to plant trees. Tree-planting will reforest the bare hills and prevent floods. It will reclaim millions of acres of land which are now a waste. Baillie, backed by mission, college, gentry, and government, has so firmly planted his idea in the minds of the Chinese that tree-planting has come to be almost a hobby. Provinces have taken it up, and cities — yes, and villages. A national Arbor Day has been estab- lished and is generally observed. Next to the suppression of opium-smoking this crusade of tree-planting is about the most vigorous sign of [101] ; THE DEJ^CBATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA ifc iiewJtfe in China. If space permitted I might enumerate many other missionaries who are breaking away from conventional educational theory and practice to enter upon new paths which promise to revolutionize trades and even industries. For example, a missionary down at Hinghwa recently introduced a new model of hand-loom which greatly improves the quality of cloth produced. This same missionary man showed the rice-growers how to multiply the value of their fertilizer G.ve times, by substituting a grinding process for the method of turning sea-shells in which the value of the bone is largely lost. This kind of practical missionary education is capable of almost infinite extension. Hitherto the missions have held back from industrial training and vocational education of these sorts, because there were so few men available to con- duct the work and also because of the great ex- pense involved. However, if the missionary is to retain the place of educational leadership which he has won it will soon be necessary for him greatly to increase this kind of work. Asia is demanding that its new schools be made very practical. The American administration of the Philip- pines has exercised a profound influence upon things educational throughout the entire Orient. The blase colonial administrator was inclined to smile when Uncle Sam, in his exuberance of en- thusiasm and sentimentality, began to export [ 102 ] j I THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER schoolteachers by the shipload to the Philippines. None smile now. Notwithstanding the fact that after eighteen years of effort over fifty-five per cent of the rather scant Filipino population over ten years of age is still illiterate, and half of the school population is still unprovided with schools, none jeers at Uncle Sam's schools. Instead, other governments are sending delegations there to study them. The missionary will do well to know them carefully. They have proved prac- tical: they have demonstrated that the Oriental is worthy of careful education, but better still they have introduced a new idea. The great deficiency of the average mission and government school in China and India, has been that it does not yet think in terms of citizen- ship. The mission school is designed primarily to prepare for intelligent church membership; the government school tends chiefly to prepare clerks for government offices. This is especially true in India. Because of the tremendous impetus given by the American policy in the Philippines to the desire for self-government throughout the Orient, accelerated as it has been by the present war, any school which expects to win or keep the confidence of the people will have to consider this rising tide. Some missionaries will argue that it is unnecessary to regard this aspect of education, inasmuch as a good Christian will, of course, be a good citizen. But such an answer will not satisfy the Indian or the Chinese. The missionary schoolmaster is now at the [103] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA parting of the ways, so far as his leadership is concerned. Either he must prepare himself to conduct a school better than can the returned student who has finished his course in pedagogy at Harvard, Yale, Oxford, or Cambridge, and to offer the broadest kind of training for citizenship in the new governments which are, or which are to be, or he will most certainly lose the place which he has won. Two of the most important contributions of the mission school remain to be mentioned. Last spring I was a guest at a Chinese feast in one of the great provincial cities of China. Aside from the amazing dishes set before the dozen guests, the feast was interesting because it was a gathering of the kind of men who are actually governing China. With the exception of myself and two others, they were politicians, representing ranks corresponding approximately to that of city aldermen. The men all came in sedan chairs, partly be- cause etiquette requires it, but also because many of them are physically incapable of walking a mile in any reasonable time. It is not too well understood that while the lower class Chinese are tough and strong as oxen, the upper classes are soft and effeminate. Most of the men carried fans and handled them in a most ladylike manner. Many of them were drunk when they arrived, and drunker still when the feast was over. They ate and drank for two hours and a half in the middle of the day and then hurried off to attend [104] THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER a second feast, which was due to begin at seven in the evening. Nearly every man there was overfed and dyspeptic. The conversation was foul and indecent. That week the republic was sliding swiftly toward revolution and chaos. Meanwhile these officials gorged themselves, fid- dling while Rome burned. This vision of China will always remain for me one of the most un- pleasant I have to remember. A few weeks later I attended an athletic meet on the grounds of Peking University, a mission- ary institution. The teams from Tsing Hua Col- lege, where the indemnity students are prepared, and from the Government Normal College were competing with the home athletes. I saw boys go into a gruelling two-mile race and stick to it until they stumbled from exhaustion and were carried from the field. Four boys tied for the pole-vault at ten feet six, and fought it out for half an hour. All over the field smaller boys, hero-worshipers, carried blankets for their favor- ites, moved hurdles on and off the track, and did many kinds of menial labor which not many years ago would have been considered suited only to coolies. When a boy lost a race, instead of losing face, he went and shook hands with the one who had defeated him. China is being governed today by these over- fed, polygamous, dissipated politicians who live from feast to feast, but tomorrow — ? Do you think that these 160,000 boys and girls now under instruction in mission schools, learning modem [105] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA science, clean living, and good sportsmanship, will always be content with things as they are? Some of those boys at Peking University may never amount to much. Some of them may turn out to be crooks. There are already mission- school graduates of that character in every country in the Orient. But, for that matter, turn to the alumni catalogue of any American university and you will find a percentage of the same sort. Most of the mission students do turn out well, in spite of the fact that the dead weight of centuries of accumulated corruption and ignorance falls upon their backs the moment they leave the college gate. Remember that China is a land of six or seven per cent literacy. In America a college education is no longer a unique preparation for life; in China it makes a boy a prince. In the next generation these boys, and the girls too, are going to have a place. Incidentally, one may add, there is little hope for China until that day comes. Perhaps the greatest contribution of the mis- sion school to Asia, is the attention which it has given to the education of girls. In the care for boys the missions have, as I have already men- tioned, been sailing with the tide for several decades. Not so, as regards the girls. It has been frequently said that Asia, from one end to the other, is one long crime against woman- hood. The crime begins in infancy and childhood. It is the missionary teacher who is bringing the Orient a new valuation of womanhood. Chris- [106] ALTHOUGH JAPAN HAS PRACTI- CALLY ALL OF HER SCHOOL POPU- LATION BETWEEN THE AGES OF SIX AND TWELVE IN SCHOOL, SHE STILL FEELS THE NEED OF SUPPLE- MENTARY AGENCIES FOR THE TRAIN- ING OP THE YOUTH. THIS IS A CLASS IN THE HOUSE OF THE FRIENDLY NEIGHBOR, A SOCIAL SET- TLEMENT MAINTAINED BY MADAME OMORI, IN TOKYO. THE MISSIONARY SCHOOLMASTER tianity in Asia is marked by the fact that it be- lieves in educating girls. When I asked Professor Nitobe of the Imperial University in Tokyo to name the contributions which, in his estimation, Christianity has made to Japan, he placed first the education of women. "The education of boys would probably have been taken care of by the Government," he said to me, "but the girls would have fared badly without the example and inspiration of the mis- sions." Then he told me of an incident which, while it illustrates only one phase of the subject, will serve to mark the point. A little while ago a journalist came to Pro- fessor Nitobe and said, "Give me the names of some of the best women teachers who have been doing exceptionally good work but have not yet received public recognition. I wish to visit their schools and write about them in my magazine." "What did you find.?" asked Professor Nitobe a few weeks later, when the man returned. "I notice this difference between the older and the Christian teachers," he replied. "While they are all excellent women, I find that those teachers who were trained under the old Confucian ethics are cold, and without enthusiasm. I find that the Christian teachers are more enthusiastic, more tender." "That is the great contribution of Christianity to Japan," remarked Professor Nitobe to me. **It has made our women more tender. Our old [107] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA religious and ethical system stifled the emotions, dammed them up, gave them no right channels of expression." Perhaps, when all the accounts are cast up, it may be found that the work which is now go- ing on quietly in each mission station, always with great respect for the prejudices of the people, for the education and the emancipation of those who are to be the mothers of the next generation, may prove the greatest gift of the West to the East. One should never neglect this factor when considering the very complex Oriental problem which is to confront the world as soon as the War is over: there are about 900,000 pupils under instruction in the mission schools of Asia. [108] THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR CHAPTER VI THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR Before a few doses of quinine or a small vial of iodine superstition and prejudice give way. The missionary doctor may be accepted not so much for his professional standing as for his powers as an apparent magician, but whatever the afflicted man, his family, and his neighbors may think of him, they are glad to accept his services. The village may be slow to extend its gratitude and affection to the colonial govern- ment's civil surgeon. The village priest may make trouble for the Christian preacher and the village sage may hold his ground before the missionary schoolteacher, but the astrologer or the witch-doctor cannot keep the loyalty of the man with a stomach-ache when there is a modern doctor within call. The science of modern medicine is now well established in Japan, al- though not everywhere accepted, and is rapidly becoming indigenous. Elsewhere in Asia and in Africa the secrets of health are still almost ex- clusively within the keeping of the foreigner, either the colonial official or the missionary. Their only rival, and he has already become a formidable one, is the patent medicine agent. The missionary may make the not very proud claim that he was the first to introduce the [111] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA patent painkiller and the elixir. He is to be acquitted of conscious fault, for he took the painkiller out with him as much for himself and for his own family as for his prospective con- verts. The patent medicine manufacturer, quick to see the opportunity for the development of new markets, provided the new missionary with cases of medicine as his personal contribution to the cause, and then sent agents to put up bill- boards from Tokyo to Bombay announcing the virtues of this marvelous Western remedy. The missionary has learned wisdom. He continues to order cod liver oil by the barrel, but he no longer distributes patent nostrums. But patent medicine agents and the billboards are still there and have apparently come to stay. There is hardly a bulletin board in all Asia which does not carry the advertisement of some patent medicine, many of them offering certain cures for venereal disease, and the new native news- papers, which are increasing like a conflagration, would quickly fail but for the advertisements of cigarettes and of these cures. Dr. Edward Hume of the Yale Mission in Changsha, China, told me that he had even seen a medicine which was advertised to cure the bound feet which are now going out of fashion among the Chinese women. The following advertisement, clipped from a newspaper in the Federated Malay States, aside from being a not unfair specimen of what one may read in almost any newspaper in Asia, [112] THE EAST HAS TAKEN ENTHUSIAS- TICALLY TO BILLBOARDS AND ALSO TO WESTERN PATENT MEDICINES. SUCH ADVERTISEMENTS AS THESE ARE APPEARING EVERYWHERE, FROM TOKYO TO BOMBAY. THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR illustrates the fact that human nature, high and low, does not vary greatly the world over, re- gardless of the tint of the skin. Her Highness INCHI BESAR, Sultana the mother of H. H. Sir Ibrahim, Sultan of Johore, who has been suffering from Lumbago and Back- ache for five or six months has taken the JONGKEENA mixture with good results as the following letter certifies : Johore, Sunny Side Dear Y. Tan, In receipt of yours of 20th instant about the medicine "Jongkeena" I am taking it every day. I have finished three bottles. It is doing me very good. I cannot say I am alright yet. But I feel much better. The pain on my back is better only my feet is still weak and little pain and I might, however, I hope to get well soon. Thank God your kindness has relieve me of some pain and I thank you. The Doctors say it is Lumbago old peoples' sickness and fever cold. You can make good my letter. Thanking you again for your kindness. Yours truly, (sd) INCHI BESAR. The world production of food, raw materials, and manufactured products is not more than half what it would be if the health of the back- ward races, which comprise roughly two-thirds of the population, could be lifted to the level of the health of tJie other third. [113] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA Statistics are lacking either to prove or to disprove this assertion, but such facts as one has to judge by make it appear probable that it may be even an under-statement. Among the backward races the death rates are incredibly high and the majority of those who do survive are seriously handicapped in labor by partial disability and impaired constitutions resulting from preventable disease. The rate of infant mortality in New York City is less than ten in a hundred. Among the backward races this rate is seldom below forty in a hundred and there are areas where only one infant in five lives to be a year old. The govern- ment tabulators estimated that India at the time of the last census would have shown an increase of population six and one half million in excess of the actual increases for ten years, had it not been for the ravages of plague. The records from 1891 to 1901 showed that the dura- tion of life for Indians is constantly growing shorter. The annual toll from tuberculosis among the billion people of Asia and Africa is doubtless much greater than the total loss of life in the European War. Premature death anywhere in the world may be translated directly into terms of economic loss in civihzation. The child in South America or in Java has as definite an actual economic value as a potential producer as the child in America. But premature death, amazing as is its extent, does not impoverish civilization so much as does [114] THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR the permanent or partial disability of the living. India, for example, has twice as many bhnd people in proportion to the population as the United States, and in Russia blindness is even more common than in India. The blind popula- tion of the backward races is probably in excess of two million people. Tuberculosis, malaria, hookworm, and frequently venereal disease are the bane of tropical countries. These, aside from high death rates, bring, as every one knows, greatly lowered vitality for those who siu'vive. It is estimated that no less than ninety per cent of the population of Java suffer from one or more of these preventable diseases. There is a popular impression that disease and early death are not unmixed disasters for Asia and Africa. Many people regard them as prov- idential arrangements to check or cure the evils of overpopulation. Why thwart the designs of Providence .f^ While it is generally understood that South America is underpopulated, it is assumed that Asia and Africa already have greater populations than the resources of the countries are able to sustain in prosperity. Such assumptions are not borne out by the facts. England is twice as thickly populated as India; Holland has almost five times as many people to the acre as China. There are vast tracts of land in India and China, as well as in Africa and Russia, which are still awaiting settlers. Indeed, China has more free public land for homesteads than has the United States. The [115] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA backward races are impoverished, not because the resources of their lands are meager, but be- cause these peoples do not profitably utilize the immense riches which they have. The back- ward races are weak because they do not produce enough; underproduction, not overpopulation, is the cause of their poverty. True, famine is an annual menace in Asia and Africa, but this is due not to overpopulation but to congestion of population in the superabundant areas, such as rich river valleys, where flood or sudden drought works sweeping havoc. As India extends her railway systems and her irrigation projects, famine disappears, for crops increase, while roads and railways make it possible to transfer food from place to place as the need arises. Owing to the present bad distribution of the population and the frightful congestion in restricted areas, a very large proportion of the people suffer from malnutrition, with a consequent lowering of vitality, increase of liability to dis- ease, and restriction of production. The remedy for such conditions is not an epidemic, but the development of transportation, diversification of labor, and better utilization of the natural re- sources. Many factors enter into the increasing of production, but first of all is the improvement of the health of the producer. In view of the present appalling destruction both of men and of materials in the European War, the present low productive capacities of the backward races become of especial interest. The [116] THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR world must replenish its supplies from some- where. A new era of manufacturing is just ahead. There will be an increasing demand for raw materials. In Europe more and more people will be withdrawn from agriculture and the pro- duction of raw materials and set at machines to produce manufactured goods. New railway systems already planned across Africa, Asia, and South America, together with the unmeasured tons of shipping now being produced, will make available to civilization to a degree as yet un- realized the resources now in the keeping of the backward races. Every continent will be called upon to produce more, to make a better use of its natural wealth. We shall then be face to face with the fact that this two-thirds of the world, which has thus far shared little in the benefits of advancing material civilization, is ill prepared to enter heartily into the international partnership of production. These races, not- withstanding the richness of their possessions, are impoverished, producing less than is required for their own needs. They have, taking all their needs together, no surplus whatever to share with the Western world or to use as a basis of exchange for manufactured products. The Western nations may build railways, open mines, introduce tractor plows and the modern science of agriculture, promote improved school systems and vocational training without limit, and yet these efforts to develop the backward races, not only for their own good but also for [117] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA the welfare of the world, will dismally fail of full eflSciency unless there go with these efforts proportionate constructive measures for improv- ing the public health. One may urge the loss to civilization due to the high death rates and ill health of these peoples, without minimizing the humanitarian appeal of the incredible physical suffering which this large part of humanity is now silently bearing because of its ignorance of the laws of living. Together with the suffering goes a brutal callousness to human misery which bars the way to effective civilization. Democracy, or Christianity, can make little progress where human life is held cheap and the afflicted human body is in con- tempt. In the face of the present deplorable state of public health among the less favored races of the world, modern medical and surgical practice have an absolutely free field. A brief survey of the present measures for the promotion of public health in India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and China will show how very feasible is a Christian crusade for health in the backward races. The responsibilities for this movement are divided between the colonial health officer and the mis- sionary. The latter, including the missionary nurse as well as the doctor, must play a unique role. A glance at what has already been accom- plished suggests the wonderful possibilities of a usefulness which will be international as well as racial in its scope. [118] THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR The British Government keeps a corps of over 750 medical men, aside from many sanitary commissioners, in India. Originally the Medical Service was devised for the care of the British officers and their families and the native troops. The duties of these men have been gradually widened to include the general supervision of sanitation, the protection of water supplies, and the prevention of epidemic disease. Many a wanderer in India has cause to remember grate- fully the good offices of the "civil surgeon," especially if he first has been led through the bazaar in search of a few liver pills. Although the British Government has made vast contributions to the cause of public health through its medical officers, through its labora- tories for the study of tropical diseases, and by its offices freely given to everyone in times of epidemic, it must be recognized that its policy has been more defensive than offensive. The truth is that no colonial government has yet entered aggressively into the field for the pro- motion of public health. Probably more has been done in the Philippines along these lines than in any other colony. The work of the Government in the care of health is supplemented by that of the missionary physician. In none of the British colonies does the missionary hospital receive government aid, such as is given to the mission school. The missionary, on the other hand, is so preoccupied with the pressing evangelistic and educational [119] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA needs that although mission work is supposed to rest on a tripod of church, school, and hospital, the hospital leg is often very much the shortest. In no missionary countries has medical work received the emphasis which its importance to civilization demands. The missionary doctor was not originally in- troduced among the backward races to care for matters of public health. He was merely a spe- ciahzed missionary, usually ordained, and pre- pared to expound a text as easily as to open an abdomen. Probably it would not be fair to liken his medical skill to the worm which covers the hook and yet it cannot be denied that his services were often offered as a bait to the curious. Per- haps one might better say that he was the Baptist who went ahead to prepare the way by disarming prejudice, making friends, and demonstrating the disinterested motives of the missionary. He was the classic proof to the people that the mission- ary seeks not yours but you. Furthermore, the introduction of the medical missionary repre- sented an advanced step in efficiency in the mission. He displaced the patent medicine and replaced the unprofessional ministrations of the missionary, who hitherto had always had to carry on his rounds a few drugs as well as tracts and a Bible. More recently the scope of the work of the medical missionary has greatly widened. He still retains his place in the mission hospital, and while the patients wait their turn in the [120] MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE HOS- PITAL ITSELF IS THE IDEAL WHICH 18 BEING INTRODUCED INTO THE EASTERN WORLD — THE INTELLIGENT CONSERVATION OF HUMAN LIFE. THE LOWERING OF INFANT MORTAL- ITY MARKS THE GROWTH OF THE EASTERN NATIONS TOWARD THE IDEALS OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY WHICH UNDERLIE SELF-GOVERN- MENT. THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR dispensary the preacher and the Bible woman preach to them. But as the doctor operates he is surrounded by a circle of students who will some day be either nurses or doctors on their own account. The aim of the mission is to make the practice of modern medicine and surgery indigenous. In the hospital and in the medical school, which is often very primitive, as well as by itinerating trips through the villages, the doctor multiplies his influence far beyond the circle of his personal contacts, but in his place as professional adviser in matters of public 'wealth he is now in a way to make his largest contributions to the new age. The Dutch Government in Malaysia has re- cently embarked upon an interesting experiment, in which it has made the proposition to an Amer- ican missionary board that the Government will finance the erection of nine hospitals and bear three-fourths of the cost of the salaries for phy- sician, nurse, and several native nurses if only the mission board will supply the doctor and nurse. Up until the present time Holland has given very little attention to the health of her subject races. Manila fares rather better than most Oriental cities in the matter of health conditions, as one can readily see from the fact that the city an- nually reports an excess of births over deaths of several in a thousand, whereas Singapore, Madras, and Bombay report an actual excess of deaths over births of from fifteen to twenty in [121] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA a thousand. Nevertheless the United States Government found conditions far from ideal — so bad in fact that they yielded only stubbornly to improvement. In the year 1902, during an epidemic, about three-fifths of all children under one year of age died. At that time the general rate was about three and one half times as high as in New York City. The normal death rate in the Philippines at the time of the American occupation was, omitting cholera years, about eighty-two per cent higher than in the United States. The average duration of life for the Filipino was about two -thirds the average in the United States. The Government launched upon what is prob- ably the most extensive campaign for public health ever inaugurated in Asia. Beginning with Manila and reaching out as far into the smaller cities and barrios as was possible, measures both for the prevention of disease and for the promotion of health were introduced. Pure water supplies were developed to replace shallow wells and contaminated springs; laws dealing with pure food, pure drugs, and pure milk were introduced; sewer systems were constructed; a system of quarantine was established, and the subject of health was made a part of the study in the public schools. Meanwhile a magnificent government hospital was built in Manila, with a training school for nurses, and the University of the Philippines began the training of doctors on an extensive scale. As a direct result of these [132] THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR measures of sanitation, education, and better care of the sick, the death rate in Manila in a dozen years was reduced from more than forty- five in a thousand to less than twenty-five. Manila now has a death rate not greatly in excess of many American cities in the northern tier of states. The Government in the Philippines has con- ducted its health campaign so energetically and on such a large scale that there has been less need for the missionary doctor there than in most countries where missionaries are at work, although there is still a place for the mission hospital in the Philippines. The remarkable suc- cess of the work indicates something of the possi- bilities for the conservation of life in Asia when the work is undertaken with skill and energy. China is now undergoing an awakening of interest in pubKc health in which the missionary is the leader. In the new republic the mission- ary has the unique place of being responsible for most of the good impulses and few of the bad ones. Nowhere is he rendering a more effective service than in this matter of the prevention of disease. Although the Government does not sub- sidize the mission hospital except in the single instance of the Yale Mission at Changsha, where the subsidy is given in an indirect way such as the Chinese love to travel, there is very close cooperation everywhere between the Government and the missionary doctor. Sometimes the co- operation is with more zeal than knowledge. THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA The older generation which is now passing off the stage is still proud and yields its established precedence grudgingly. Fenchow, North China, recently had an epi- demic of diphtheria. There were available only two western-trained medical men, Dr. Percy T. Granger, the American Board physician, and his Chinese assistant. Dr. Ma. They telegraphed the government Board of Health in Peking, requesting that the local health officials be asked to cooperate in checking the epidemic. Peking responded through the proper channels, order- ing the local authorities to give every possible cooperation. The magistrate disposed of the matter at once by having posted all over the city an official proclamation, prepared in con- sultation with the Chinese doctors, which offered the following prescription: "Use Women's Toenails, Bamboo Pith, and Bed- bugs, Grind to a Powder and Sprinkle in the Throat." If the traveler has the patience and the grit he may find his way to the city of Yenping, China. To get there from Shanghai he will have to brave the typhoons of the China Sea, visit the hotel-less city of Foochow, take a sampan at midnight, trans-ship to a rickety and infested launch at three a. m., endure its discomforts for twelve hours, and then spend several days in another sampan which often has to be pulled THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR through the rapids of the Mintu River by coolies. One will find a city perched on a cliff at the con- fluence of two rivers which reach back into the mountains where few foreigners, except a half dozen missionaries, ever go. The province of Fukien is like an island encircled by a forbidding coast line on one side and by brigand-haunted mountains in the rear. One would expect it to be a most favorable spot in which to study China as it is when untouched by any foreign influence. On the contrary, Yenping is in the van of Chinese progress. An anti-foreign outbreak swept over this part of China about twenty years ago, and several missionaries were murdered, but the missions persisted in extending themselves into the coun- try and eventually built a station at Yenping, erecting a hospital as well as schools and churches. The hospital is a ramshackle affair, which will probably some day fall in a crash unless it is rebuilt. The operating room is crude and the doctor uses flour bags for towels. However, the institution has, in an area of 3,600 square miles, no rivals with which to suffer in comparison. It is the sole modern agency ministering to the health of 700,000 people in the two river valleys, and the people respect it so much that though revolutions come and go through the gates of the city, the hospital is always protected. A few years ago the taotai (mayor) came to Dr. James E. Skinner, the physician in charge, and asked his advice, concerning not his own [126] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA personal health or that of his family, but the public health of the city. What could be done to improve the health conditions? Dr. Skinner pointed out how the filthy condition of the streets facilitated the spread of disease and ex- plained how every American city has a street- cleaning brigade. Immediately a street-cleaning department was organized and set in operation at Yenping. Then the doctor took the magis- trate out and showed him where the city was drawing its water from contaminated sources. He explained how western cities protect their water, even bringing it long distances from the mountains to insure pure and ample supplies. Yenping immediately started the development of a new water supply under the direction of the medical missionary. At length the doctor ap- proached the most difficult problem. "How about all these unburied coffins .f^" he inquired. It is the custom in China to delay burial until the astrologer can name an auspicious day and place. The result of this custom of delayed burial is that China is cluttered up with an enormous number of unburied coffins. One finds them in backyards, by the roadsides, and in every field. The doctor explained how dangerous to public health were those unburied coffins in Yenping. The magistrate had a census taken and discovered 16,000 of them, the population of the city being only about 25,000. The disposal of this obstacle to modern progress was a delicate question. The official recognized [126] I THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR the necessity for the removal of the coffins, but he might easily proceed in such a way as to bring the entire city down about his ears. But the Chinese are clever in such situations, perhaps the cleverest people on earth. It would not do to attack the validity of the astrologer's judg- ment nor to blast away the solid rock of Chinese traditions and sentiment, but it was entirely within his province to levy taxes. Indeed the Chinese magistrate exists by virtue of that pre- rogative. Forthwith he issued a proclamation fixing a tax of fifty cents on all unburied coffins. The Chinese may be superstitious, but they are even more thrifty. There is a vein of the Anglo- Saxon in them. They do not like to permit reli- gious sentiment to interfere with business. There- fore Yenping cast astrology aside for a while and devoted itseK to funerals at the rate of a thousand a week. Today this little, isolated Chinese city in the wilds of Fukien is on the road to health. About the same time that Yenping was being invaded by a mission hospital, one of the gentry from Nanchang, the provincial capital of Kiangsi, paid a visit to Kiukiang on the Yangtze River. At that time this entire province was closed to foreigners and the proud city of Nanchang was quite outside the currents of modern progress. But the wife of this gentleman was ill and he had heard that there were two Chinese girls in Kiukiang who had recently returned from the study of Western medicine as it is practiced in [127] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA Ann Arbor. These girls had been adopted as babies by a missionary. Miss Gertrude Howe, educated as her own children, and were now at work in the Methodist Hospital for Women in Kiukiang. At the conclusion of his tour of in- spection, this member of the gentry implored the mission to send one of the young lady physi- cians to Nanchang to cure his wife. Dr. Ida Kahn accepted his invitation, became the guest of the Chinese family, found the lady suffering from hysteria, and cured her, as she says, by mental suggestion. Nanchang, however, re- mained unmoved, complacent, reactionary. Dr. Kahn decided to remain in Nanchang and start a hospital. The first months were tempestuous. One day she was stoned and mobbed, because she thoughtlessly ventured to ride through the streets of the city in an un- covered sedan chair. Nanchang folk would not tolerate such lapses from feminine propriety. But at length the gentry came and offered her several thousand piculs of grain, which she sold and with the money purchased land for a dis- pensary. They wanted her to have the property deeded in her name, but she dismissed their arguments with the concise reply that such a course would be foolish in view of the fact that she could not live forever. Then they tempted her with promises of generous aid if only she would cut loose from the mission and from Christianity. Dr. Kahn refused the offer and continued her work. [128] THE PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY OF THE WORLD WOULD DOUBTLESS BE DOUBLED IP THE HEALTH OF THE BACKWARD RACES COULD BE LIFTED TO THE LEVEL OF THE HEALTH OF THE OTHER THIRD OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION. TWO-THIRDS OF THE WORLD SUFFERS FROM SUCH MALNU- TRITION AND PHYSICAL WEAKNESS AS CREATE LARGE IJABILITY TO TUBERCULOSIS AND PLAGUES. THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR In fifteen years, during which time the doctor had been receiving a salary of perhaps three hundred dollars each year. Dr. Kahn built up a magnificent hospital, the only one for women in an entire province, and trained a great many nurses and assistants. Two years ago the Tientsin Women's Hospital, a municipal institution in which the Government and the gentry share expenses, invited Dr. Kahn to become its super- intendent. When I visited Nanchang last year I found a municipal board of health, a uniformed street-cleaning department equipped with buckets of unslacked lime for sprinkling the streets, and a mission doctor giving his services to the city in the work of free vaccination. One may gather anywhere in China similar illustrations of how eagerly the Chinese respond to the introduction of modern methods of curing and of preventing disease. The Chinese make excellent physicians and especially skilful surgeons because of their dex- terity in the use of the hands. Miss Lin Hie-Ding came to the United States eight years ago deter- mined to become a doctor. She was so successful that she was eventually made chief interne in a Chicago hospital. There she perfected a new method of inducing twilight sleep, which she used one hundred and ninety times with entire success. One day a little Chinese boy was brought to her with a bad case of tonsilitis. Dr. Lin recommended an operation to remove adenoids and explained to the scandalized relatives how it [129] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA could be accomplished. When they hesitated the doctor opened her own mouth and showed them how she had once submitted to a similar opera- tion. The family did not like the idea of having their boy's throat cut, but at length agreed. Very joyfully the boy was received back into the bosom of his family the very afternoon after the operation had been performed. One day a few months later Dr. Lin found her reception room fairly crowded with the boy's family, rela- tives, and neighbors from Chinatown. What did they all want.^^ They reported that while the boy had for- merly been a very disagreeable member of the family, quarrelsome and irritable, and stupid in school, his disposition was now completely changed and he was doing remarkably well in school. The family had talked it over and the entire neighborhood was now agreed that if that Foochow girl at the hospital could effect such marvelous changes in disposition and men- tal powers for the boy, they ought every one to come and apply for treatment. Would Dr. Lin please cut their throats in a similar way? When Dr. Lin returned to establish a hospital for women in her own land, she took with her many hundreds of dollars' worth of drugs and instruments, the gifts of her Chinese friends in Chicago, to help launch the new venture. During a recent tour of China which carried me far off the beaten paths, I did not enter a single city which did not already have a street- [130] THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR cleaning department and a board of health, or at least a health association. Dr. W. W. Peter, lecturer on public health for the Young Men's Christian Association, is largely responsible for this amazing situation. For several years Dr. Peter has given himseK exclusively to the stim- ulation of Chinese interest in public health. His methods are picturesque and peculiarly adapted to a land of literati and illiterates. Dr. Peter arranges it so that he visits the city at the invitation of the gentry and of the official classes. His coming is attended with much ceremony. The schools are closed to permit the pupils to attend. The largest temple or hall in the city is rented. Dr. Peter, under the patronage of the Minister of the Interior, even invaded the Forbidden City at Peking and gave forty-six lectures. Admission is by ticket only. An American press agent for a circus could teach Dr. Peter nothing about the uses of publicity. The lectures themselves are unique. They are visual, rather than verbal, presenting the facts as to China's sad plight in the matter of sickness by means of pantomimes and mechanical toys which offer to the audience numerous oppor- tunities for laughter. A laugh is half the battle in China. Dr. Peter shows his audiences how the people die of tuberculosis: a toy man walks out of a toy house and falls into a toy coffin every thirty-seven seconds. Blocks jump out of a table to show the relative density of population in the various countries of the world. A coolie [131] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA appears bowed down to the ground with bundles, each bearing the name of one of the common Chinese ailments. He cannot run a race with Japan, he cannot build railways, schools, or ships because he has to carry this heavy load. "This represents sick China," says Dr. Peter. One by one the burdens are lifted and carried be- hind the curtain. At length Dr. Peter says, "Now see how fine China can be when she puts all these burdens under her feet." The curtains in the rear are parted and a young Chinese athlete appears standing on the packs arranged in the form of a pyramid. The athlete waves the Christian flag and the audience applauds. Dr. Peter has been holding these series of lectures throughout China and has already ad- dressed more than 65,000 people. Peking is now building a magnificent government hospital, which is to serve as a model for the development of similar institutions throughout the republic. It stands next to the Temple of the Imperial Ancestors, which Yuan Shih Kai had refurnished with the expectation that some day his tablet would be added to its walls. Now Dr. Wu Lien-tu of the government hospital openly boasts that some day the temple will become an annex to the new hospital. Such a disposal of the sacred building is quite possible. The Chinese are a very practical people and they have very little sentiment about temples. About three years ago the China Medical Board was created, under the auspices of the [132] THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR Rockefeller Foundation, "to promote the gradual and orderly development of a comprehensive and efficient system of medicine in China." While not a denominational enterprise, the work initi- ated and contemplated makes it the most mag- nificent piece of broadly missionary work yet undertaken in the history of the world. The general method for the work is to aid missionary institutions, undertake direct medical education, and supply fellowships and scholarships as may be required. The organization of the Peking Union Medical College, under the China Medical Board, has already been completed and Dr. Franklin C. McLain, formerly of the Rockefeller Institution of Medical Research, is physician in chief. The Peking Union Medical College is really the medical college of the united missions of Peking, taken over and reorganized. In the same way the Red Cross Hospital and the Harvard Med- ical School in Shanghai are becoming the founda- tion of a second medical college, similar to that at Peking. Eventually this system of medical schools will probably be widely extended. The teaching is to be done in English. In addition to these institutions directly under the care of the China Medical Board, liberal subsidies have been made to missionary institutions like the Yale Hospital at Changsha and the Shantung Christian University at Tsinan-fu, and arrange- ments have been made with some others to assist in carrying forward more efficiently the instruc- [133] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA tion of medical students through the medium of the Chinese language. The total appropriation for this work has equalled about $5,000,000. The China Medical Board is setting far higher standards of medical education than the missions have ever been able, with their limited support, to attain. The missions are thereby placed under the necessity of greatly increasing their efficiency. Furthermore, the China Medical Board is very exacting in its requirements as to quality of work done, before it offers any subsidy to the missions. The entrance of the China Medical Board has revealed in a bold way the present inadequacy and inefficiency of existing hospitals and medical schools and is likely to be a great stimulus to the missions in improving the quahty of their service. The most recent mission statistics indicate that there are now over 700 mission hospitals scattered over the world and over 1,200 dis- pensaries. Over 1,000 missionary doctors, a third of whom are women, are ministering to the needs of countless patients. They are as- sisted by more than 500 foreign trained nurses, 230 native physicians, and about 2,000 native assistants, both men and women. Great as is the work already established, the fact that only one missionary in every twenty-five is a doctor shows very clearly that the magnitude of the task of conservation of human life in backward races has not yet fully gripped the imagination of the Christian Chiu'ch. [134] THE MISSIONARY DOCTOR In reality the missionary doctor is an equal copartner with the missionary schoolmaster and the missionary preacher. The work undertaken by the three is a unity. The omission of any one phase of the work means that to that degree the full message of Christianity is undelivered. It is not suflBcient merely to preach the Gospel to peoples who are ignorant. The Gospel must be applied in visual demonstration before the stranger can comprehend the full dimensions of its mean- ing. The missionary doctor is the incorporation of one very essential element in Christianity, the ministry of intelligent mercy. He exemplifies the humanitarian ideal which has been the saving salt in Western civilization. A race of people who lack an appreciation of that ideal as it is applied to the infant, the aged, the de- fective, and the afflicted can make little progress along any intellectual or spiritual line. The new industrialism of the West, which is now invading the backward nations with motor power and labor-saving machinery, creates an addi- tional urgency for the introduction of the humani- tarian ideal. Western civilization, as typified by blast furnaces and cotton mills, without the Christian valuation of human life, would mul- tiply rather than retrieve the present miseries of these races. There are indications that the era following the War will be marked by the greatest mission- ary propaganda among the backward races which the world will ever have known. It is to 1 136 ] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA be hoped that the new program will be marked by no less missionary zeal than has characterized the work in the past, for it is abundantly demon- strated that a man or woman must have the fire of an apostle or his enthusiasm will run cold after a few years in such depressing sur- roundings. On the other hand, it is certain that the work of the missionary will take on a broad- ened purpose and a truer perspective. The mis- sionary has already introduced the humanitarian ideal. Building on that foundation, he has be- fore him the opportunity to render not merely a humanitarian but also an international service in setting standards for the conservation of hu- man Hfe. Meanwhile he is sowing for an im- mense harvest of good will toward the white race, which may yet become a highly valued negotiable commodity in the marts of the world. [136] THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN CHAPTER VII THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN A mass meeting was called in Yokohama in the interests of the Yomig Women's Christian Association. The chairman proved an imfor- tunate selection, his opening remarks being de- cidedly off key. He took the attitude that it is the sole duty of Japanese women to remain in their homes and be obedient to their husbands and fathers as their mothers were. No one who was there will ever forget how Miss Michi Kawaii, recently returned from college in the United States, stepped out to answer him. For thirty- five minutes she gave the chairman a very cour- teous and equally indignant response. "You say that we Japanese women are cute and sweet," she exclaimed. "So are cats and dogs for that matter. But we notice that when American men come over here it is your servants and geishas whom you bring out to entertain them. These men do not see any decent Japanese ladies. Then they go home and tell what kind of women you have in Japan. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves." And from all accounts, the chairman was, for the audience fairly rattled the windows with applause. There is no denying that a spirit of rebellion is moving among Ja-panese women. [139] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA Madam Hiroaka of Osaka, a member of the wealthy Mitsui family, is easily one of the half- dozen leading women of the Orient. She is reported to be the richest woman in Japan, but is more famed for the fact that after her husband's death many years ago she gave herself to the personal management of her large business and property interests. She has been a bank di- rector and one of the organizers of an insurance company. She has coal mines in Japan and also in Korea. Some years ago when the great Mitsui Department Store in Tokyo was going on the rocks she was the one selected to pull the concern off. With her marvelous executive ability and her woman's sense, she overhauled, reorganized, and put it on a paying basis. Now she has turned over her business affairs to her son-in-law and is devoting herself to social re- form and to the spreading of Christianity. Madam Hiroaka is by temperament a reformer, even a radical. One walks straight into the Hiroaka home without having to remove the shoes and is ushered directly into a European drawing-room furnished in brown and yellow plush. Madam Hiroaka enters and greets one with directness. She wears European clothing. We do not sit on the floor. This lady is not to be unnecessarily impeded by any obstacles of dress or of national custom. Indeed it is rumored that she would be more popular among Japanese women if only she would be a little more compromising in her adoption [140] THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN of Western ideas. Madam Hiroaka is not of the compromising sort. "No," she replied, emphatically, "there is no danger in this woman movement. Only a few women are advancing too fast and they are not really advancing. They are going back to the animal stage, free love, and all that sort of non- sense." The week I called upon her all Japan was agog with the scandal of an attempted murder committed by a university girl on her male companion, a freelance journalist of Tokyo. "Of course such women do damage, but the average Japanese does not go to extremes in anything." Then Madam Hiroaka went on to describe how she had become interested in various reform movements for women. "And how did you happen to become a Chris- tian?" "I wanted women to be good and wanted to help them to improve their lot," she replied tersely. "I found that I could not accomplish what I desired without religion. That con- clusion sent me to study religion from the woman's point of view. I found that there is no hope for women in any of the religions of the Orient. They teach that from the cradle to the grave women are inferior to men. They regard women as evil. The Confucian system of ethics, for example, teaches that fools and women cannot be educated. A woman cannot be a 'heavenly creature.' It teaches that it is better to see a [141] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA snake than a woman, for the latter arouses passion. Japanese women have been so long oppressed by this kind of teaching that they no longer stop to ask why. They are afraid, like slaves. "Then I began to read the Bible. I did not like some parts of it any better than I liked the reUgions of the East. I did not see why any woman should call her husband, *Lord and Master.' Saint Paul made me very angry. He was an old bachelor; any one can see that. He didn't know much about women. But Peter? He was fine. He had a wife, he understood women. One can see that from his epistles. When I read the gospels I found that Jesus made no distinction between the sexes. I liked that. We are all, women as well as men, children of God. I came to the conclusion that the only hope for the women of the Orient to attain their true position is through Christianity." For the last three years Madam Hiroaka, accompanied by her valet, has been going up and down the Empire, preaching Christianity, with the zeal of a crusader. She is a most effective campaigner, not merely because of her novel approach to the subject, but because of the innate force and mastery of her personality. The late William Elroy Curtis was fond of saying, after his return from a journalistic tour through Turkey, that the two progressive forces then at work for the opening up of that Empire were Christian missions and French novels in [142] THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN the harems. Likewise it may be said that there are more forces than Christianity at work for the emancipation of Oriental women, but in list- ing those influences one cannot forget that Chris- tianity is first. Professor Nitobe, who has just accepted the presidency of the new Union Christian College for girls in Tokyo, explained to me the relation of the woman movement and Christianity in Japan in this way: "Hitherto in the East personality has received very little emphasis. We have thought in terms of the group. Probably most men would admit that there is such a thing as personaKty, but they would also assert that it is entirely mas- cuKne. Women, they would say, have none. Their place in our economy has been entirely derivative, never independent. They have been merely members of the domestic circle, a daughter, a wife, a mother, a widow. Christianity cuts directly across this idea, laying stress upon indi- vidual responsibility and freedom. Christianity has, therefore, given us a new valuation of women." One has only to go to Manila to see the truth of this statement. In fact, the status of the Filipino woman, although this is not generally recognized, is one of the greatest apologetics for Christianity in the Orient. One often hears people say that the missionary ought to stay at home, that Christianity is not for the Orient. They forget that Christianity is itseK an Oriental religion; they forget also that it has been in the [143] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA Orient for centuries. Francis Xavier carried it out there long before the Mayflower put out from Plymouth. After many vicissitudes Chris- tianity took root in the Philippines and for centuries Manila, in spite of the unprogressive Spanish influence, has been a Christian capital in Asia. The Filipino woman, today, is so far in advance of her other Oriental sisters in freedom, social position, and independence, that she is in a class by herseK. There is some seclusion, but it is that of the convent, not that of the purdah which other Oriental women know. The Filipino woman holds the family purse, but she does more than that: she is the business agent of the family. She keeps the shop, holds the prop- erty, and carries to a very large degree the business responsibiHty of the Islands. Nowhere else in the Orient will one find a woman lawyer practicing at the bar and writing suffrage articles for the daily papers. One cannot account for the Filipino woman on the ground of the racial superiority of the Malay. Ordinarily the Malay is the weakest blood in the Orient, the least progressive. The entrance of the United States into the Islands brought increased liberty and freedom, but the only way to explain the unique place which the Filipino woman occupies in the East is to recognize that for centuries before the American occupation the people were being taught a Christian valuation of womanhood. At the risk of making an odious comparison [144] THIS LITTLE GIRL WAS SOLD BY HER MOTHER INTO SLAVERY. AFTER THE INITIAL PAYMENT HAD BEEN MADE THE FATHER DISCOVERED THE FATE IN PROSPECT FOR THE CHILD, REPAID THE MONEY, AND OBTAINED POSSESSION OP HIS DAUGHTER, WHOM HE PLACED IN A MISSION SCHOOL. THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN I should say that the status of Oriental women is to be graded in the following order: Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Malay, and Indian. At the same time one must remember that the word Indian is too loose a term to apply to the women of India. The Parsee woman, for example, al- though she represents an infinitesimal fraction of the Indian sisterhood, has long held a position quite equal to that of the Filipino, and possibly even superior to it. One must speak with caution of a feminine rebellion outside of the Philippines and Japan. Yet we can notice how in China women are beginning to come into their own. Although the indemnity funds were first applied exclusively to boys, three years ago a group of girls were sent to the United States and the authorities are so satisfied with the experiment that other similar groups will follow. It is interesting to note, by the way, that practically every indemnity girl already sent is a Christian and many of them are daughters of Chinese Christian preach- ers. Aside, however, from the few Chinese women who have been born and reared in the port cities, one will have to travel far in China to find emancipated Chinese women, except as that new liberty has come to them through the missions. But one will find plenty of high-spirited feminists among the returned girl students and in the mission schools. Never have I heard a more brilliant speech from a woman than one made by Mrs. Mei, a graduate of Barnard College, [145] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA at the returned students' banquet in Shanghai last year. Her remarks were addressed largely to her brother returned students, who so quickly forget the high ideals of women's place in so- ciety which they have learned in America. The speech was brilliant, and withering. But China adjusts herseK slowly to new ideals of womanhood. I made it a point, while travel- ing about China, whenever I interviewed a high oflScial, such as a provincial governor or a taotai, to compliment him on the progress that the. Government is making in its program of educa- tion for women. Not once did I meet with an enthusiastic response. I know of one city where a governor paid an official visit to inspect a government girls' school and the next day sent chairs and invitations to some of the more comely girls to bring them to his yamen for no very lovely purpose. Some of the greatest tragedies associated with the spread of Christianity and western ideals in China are due to the fact that the Chinese women move, or are allowed to move, so much more slowly than the men. A brilliant young Chinese student from a distinguished family comes to the United States to finish his education. Ac- cording to Chinese custom he is betrothed, long before he has passed through the Chinese schools, to a girl whom he has never seen. In America he sees the western ideals of marriage, the free choice of bride and groom, the years of acquaint- ance which precede marriage, and comes to the [146] THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN conviction that he cannot marry the fiancee in China. He writes to his father begging that a release be arranged. In old China such action would cause immense scandal, and the father belongs to old China. He cannot accede to the son's request. The son also refuses to yield. At length the father cables that he himself is very ill and wishes to see his son before he dies. The son hastens home, to find not only that the illness has been feigned, but that the plans for the wedding are all made. The whole weight of Chinese social code falls upon the back of the young student and the marriage takes place. The bride is brought to the United States and placed in school, with the hope that she may prepare herself to take her place in a home which will have to adopt Western standards. She fails to realize the gulf which she must cross and in a short time it becomes absolutely evident that the marriage is a sheer impossibility. The groom rebels and refuses to bind himself to partnership with one who is so widely separated from him in ideals and attainments. There is a divorce, a scandal in China, and the young man remarries, this time selecting as the bride of his own choice a girl whose training has been similar to his own. That is a true story. I could tell a dozen similar ones, although in some of the other cases the husband's life is quite ruined when he returns to his affianced bride, only to find that she has absolutely refused to accept education or other [ 147 ] I'HE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA opportunities for improvement and is nothing more than a menial servant. On the other hand I know of a briUiant young man, a Christian, who, finding himself thus unequally yoked with a bride in whose selection he had no choice, accepted the conditions, took his bride to his own European house, and bravely carried out the tragic part assigned to him by a social sys- tem which yields only an inch at a time, always grudgingly. When the Chinese emigrate to the Straits they are likely to relax their loyalty to these old conventions. I attended in Singapore a wed- ding where the groom, a graduate of the Anglo- Chinese College, had so far imbibed Western ideals of women that he had urged his suit for five years, pleading with the girl on his knees before she would accept him. Five hundred women attended the meeting of the Hindu National Congress in Lucknow in 1917. Two hundred women led the singing; Mrs. Naidau, wife of the court physician to His High- ness the Nizam of Hyderabad, a poetess of note, moved the resolution asking the British Govern- ment to rescind its law forbidding Indians to carry firearms. Only ten years ago these things would have been quite impossible. Most amazing of all is the fact that the next Hindu National Congress actually elected a woman, Mrs. Annie Besant, as president. In measuring Mrs. Besant's strange and sinister influence on Indian politics in the Home Rule [148] THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN agitation, one must not overlook the fact that her greatest significance lies in the fact that she, a woman, won a place of superiority and leader- ship among a great number of people who have always assigned woman to a place of inferiority and seclusion. There is a general feeUng in India that the springs of inspiration for the present Home Rule agitation are to be found among the women, even though the purdah hangs between them and the public eye. At any rate it is a well known fact that many of the leading women of India who have renounced the purdah are under police surveillance and their free movement from province to province is proscribed. The most radical sentiments with reference to Home Rule which I have heard uttered were from women. Just how strong the feminist sentiment is in India would be hard to define, for India is the land of the purdah and of mystery. That it grows slowly is evidenced by the following letter recently addressed to the Hindu Social Reformer and published in its columns: "We are and always shall be called a backward race till we properly appreciate the right of Indian womanhood. Till we admit them to their proper position. We deny them the simple rights of human beings and how and when are we going to realize that they are veritable goddesses on earth .f^ It is no use our bragging about our progress till the Indian woman has even a single com- plaint against us to make before God! Brother readers, my dear co-religionists, if you ever wish [149] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA to take your proper place in the committee of nations, stop all the shameful injustice you are dealing out to your noble sisters. For God's sake bestow thought upon the condition of the Hindu widows! Your indulging in political homilies, your assuming airs in the national press, your passing before the world as wronged innocents, all will be of no avail. There is justice in God's Kingdom! And ye shall get it if ye deserve. His mercy endureth forever for those that de- serve it. May you try your best to deserve even a particle of it. Yours truly, S. S. Bhat." The part which the missions are playing in India in the emancipation of women is a brilliant story. Unfortunately few of the incidents which illustrate the character of the influence can be told. I have sat by the hour in breathless interest listening as women missionaries and their assist- ants told of what happens behind the purdah, only to be solemnly sworn at the end of each tale not to divulge enough of the facts to make the story worth repeating. The Indian, whether he be Hindu or Mohammedan, is extremely sensitive on the subject of his treatment of women. He feels that the missionary has mis- represented his case. The missionary knows, on the other hand, that to publish what she knows would immediately close the door of the zenana and make the continuance of her work all but impossible. I have purposely drawn Indian [150] THE SOCIAL ORDER OF THE IN- DIAN VILLAGE 18 REVEALED IN THE STATUS OP ITS WOMEN. THERE ARE INDICATIONS THAT THE CLOSE OF THE WAR WILL MARK THE OPENING OF A NEW ERA FOR THE WOMEN OF THE EAST AS WELL AS OP THE WEST. THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN gentlemen into a discussion of the place of women and argued with them even hotly for the sake of bringing out their best defense. At length one comes to the point where our premises are irreconcilable. The average Indian has the un- shaken conviction that woman is essentially an inferior creature. He is possessor, protector, and lord. It must be admitted that there is a certain basis in truth for his contention, so far as it relates to his race. The Indian woman has been imprisoned for centuries, suppressed, and re- pressed. This heritage from the past has left its mark on the woman of today. The purdah is a protection which, in the present estate of Indian women, it is not very desirable to remove. Before Indian womanhood can be emancipated it must be fortified with education and with new ideals. Only one per cent of the women of all India are literate even in the vernacular. The Government, thus far, has been content to allow the Indian to set the pace in women's education. Consequently the pace is a very slow one. Sir James Meston, Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces, assured me that he, for one, had come now to believe that the Government must change its policy and begin very definitely to promote the education of girls. One who has been out in the Indian villages and observed the low position of women in the average household, and with that fresh in his memory comes to such an institution as the [151] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA Isabella Thobum College for girls in Lucknow, must leave the compound with a feeling of elation. It usually takes about three generations to lift a girl from a village home to the college, but when the pupil arrives she bears little resem- blance to her timid, untidy, ignorant sister. Most of the students there are second or third generation Christians. And yet one also sees girls of high position — the daughters of a court physician who have prevailed upon their father to allow them to prepare themselves to take up his profession, the niece of a Rajah, girls who must observe the purdah while home on vaca- tions but who discard it as the returning train nears Lucknow. Even among the Hindu students there are only three who still insist upon observ- ing caste rules and are therefore willing to eat by themselves, served with food prepared by their own caste cook. It must be agreed that the women of India are quite as much bound by their own ignorance, conservatism, and craving for conformity as they are by any restrictions imposed by the men. The hope of India lies in just such education of girls as the Isabella Thoburn College is demon- strating. I do not attempt to pass on the ques- tion of whether the position of Indian women has been painted worse than it is or not, but I am satisfied that India will never be a very safe place for democracy until these old valuations of womanhood are replaced by others more like those with which we are familiar. [152] THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN "What is the most important question before the women of the Orient?" I asked a Japanese lady whose two daughters are being educated in England. She herself comes of distinguished lineage and is of exceptionally high social position. "The men," she replied, simply. She made a gesture of disgust. I found this lady inclined to idealize American men and was moved there- fore by a sense of fairness to suggest that she was far too generous in her praises. She would not permit me to drag her idol from his pedestal. When I left the room I am told that she exclaimed, "I don't care what he says. I shall never believe that American men are as bad as Japanese men." Not a little of this idealization of the American has come from the fact that Asia has her con- tacts with us through a morally highly selected class of men, the missionaries. The missionary is worth many times what he costs to our country, by the way, just for this good will which he tends to create. It is also this steady pressure of idealism that is carried to the Orient by the missionary which stirs Asia to the emancipation of her women. One goes to China today in a very expectant frame of mind. So much has been said and written in praise of the vitality of an ancient people, who can rise and cast out an antiquated form of government, that one comes to expect that in all respects the people of the new republic have set their feet on the swift road to enlighten- ment. Some of the facts one meets on arrival [163] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA are all the more shocking. No further away from Shanghai than Foochow there are still kept the shelves in the open street where the bodies of girl babies, killed by sanction of the ancient custom of infanticide, are placed to await the rounds of the dead-collector. In those same streets roam the hungry dogs for which China is famed. Yes, and the dogs jump up and pull down from the shelves the little uncollected bodies. A missionary reported recently, that in the course of a walk in a single afternoon he had seen no less than five such bodies being eaten by the dogs. Not pleasant, of course, either to think or write about, but one must remember that this picture belongs in any fair review of the present position of women in China. Foot-binding has not ceased, reports to the contrary notwithstanding. One can hardly escape in any interior city the cries of the little girls who are now having their feet bound for the first time. I have taken a picture of a group of school girls, all of them under eleven years of age, half of whom had had their feet bound be- fore the parents had thought of sending them to the mission school. Of course the mission- aries insisted that the feet be imbandaged before the girls could be admitted, but the damage had been done. In Shanghai, where one expects to find the new ideas most firmly rooted, the mis- sionaries in the fashionable McTyeire School for girls were shocked to discover that the feet of the little daughter of the school gardener were [154] THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN already being put into the bandages. "You can- not remain here," they said to the parents, "if you are going to bind your girl's feet." "Very well," replied the mother, "then we will leave. It is all well enough, for the Shanghai girls to have big feet, but my daughter must some day go back to her village to be married. Who, then, would marry her if she had big feet?" The next day the gardener and his wife departed. In contrast to this incident is the fact that among the pupils in the school itself the senti- ment against bound feet is so strong that it is quite unnecessary for the teachers even to men- tion the subject. These girls are too fond of basket-ball and hiking to accept any such handi- cap as bound feet imposes. Besides, they live in the hope that they may come to America to complete their education. The McTyeire School has "delayed classes" in its lower departments, especially for older women. It is not uncommon at McTyeire for a mother to enter her daughter in the kindergarten and then enter herself in a primary class in order that she may keep pace with her own child. Conditions in Shanghai are exceptional because of the large commercial interests of the city. There are a great many wealthy families there in which the husbands and the brothers have been educated abroad. The effect of this con- dition is to promote the rapid progress of the wives, sisters, and daughters. The demand for girls' schools like McTyeire is, therefore, very [165] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA great. There are always from ten to twenty McTyeire girls at school in the United States and England. In fact, one of the important functions of the school is to prepare girls to go abroad to finish their education. McTyeire has, among other courses, a class in European table manners, a knowledge of which is very important when the girls arrive in the United States. Suppose, for a moment, that a Chinese family had decided to educate its daughters. What are the choices? Only two: either a mission school or a school not under missionary direction. The government or the Chinese private school for girls may be a suitable place for ambitious girls to be baptized into the modernism of the Western world, and then again it may be quite unsuitable. It cannot be denied that there are not a few Chinese girls from progressive families who are acquiring rather alarming ideas of the liberties which belong to emancipated woman- hood. Even when the daughter has been safely graduated from a missionary school where sound ideals of women's place have been planted, the problem is not yet wholly solved. The girls of the Western world inherit a code of conduct which has the support of a very lively public opinion. The Chinese girl, who has discarded the old code of her people and hurled defiance at tradition by acquiring a modern education, finds no new code of conduct waiting to carry her on after she has left the school. She must make 1166] THE HOPE OF NEW CHINA LIES VERY LARGELY IN THE EDUCATION OF THE GIRLS, FOR THE CHINESE WOMEN ARE THE GREAT CONSERVA- TORS OF THE NATIONAL LIFE. TO EDUCATE THE BOYS AND NEGLECT THEIR SISTERS WOULD BE TO INTRO- DUCE DEMORALIZATION AND CHAOS INTO ;rHE NEW REPUBLIC. <» • 1 . • « • '*(■'?•' I THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN er own code and she may draw the materials for it exclusively from French novels. One reads something of the difficulties of the educated Chinese girl in between the lines of the advertise- ment of a Girls' Letter Writer which is published by the Shanghai Commercial Press. It says: "The number of girls who can read and write is now increasing very rapidly and a letter writer suited to the needs of a girl is a necessity. In these two volumes some one hundred and sixty examples are grouped under three heads: letters to members of the family, to relatives, and to schoolmates. Their language is discreet and dignified." There is a very notable list of mission girls' schools and colleges in the Orient. One wishes that there were space in which to note all the fine things they are doing. And yet one finds that out of the total number of mission college students in China only eighteen per cent are girls. Ginling College in Nanking, which has not yet graduated its first class, is the only girls' college to maintain real college standards, and Ginling is having difficulty to secure properly prepared students. One may travel for days in the new republic and not find a single door open where a girl may obtain even a fair degree of western education. To a large extent similar conditions exist throughout the Orient, except in Japan and the Philippines. At present there are not even enough schools to produce the teachers who are needed to staff the primary [ 157 ] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA schools for girls. Asia bears down heavily on any effort of women to better their lot. On the other hand one may see how little it is possible to measure the woman movement in the Orient by statistics. A page from my journal gives a glimpse of the vast ranges of influence now being exercised by the women who have already been emancipated. Miss Laura White, formerly of the Methodist Mission in Nanking, has now undertaken the work of editor for the Christian Literature Society. Among her duties is to edit for Chinese women a magazine similar to our women's journals. She has taken into her office three Chinese girls as editorial assistants. This is what I found them doing: Miss Li, whose mother recently died, is now at work on a translation of Kathleen Norris's "Mother," not merely translating but also trans- posing the plot to Chinese locations and environ- ment, using her own mother as the model for the story. Miss Chen is translating Jacob Abbott's "Gentle Manners for the Training of the Young," also throwing the situations as well as the lan- guage into her mother tongue. Miss Yuan is at work on a temperance play, having recently finished a novel called "The Home-makers." She also adapted "The Bent Wing" to Chinese, laying the plot in Soochow. Miss White, with the help of her able assistants, has recently put out a book, "Looking Motherwards," a manual of instructions for expectant mothers. These women are creating the vehicle, a modern liter- [158] THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN ary form, by which the ideals of the new age are being carried out through the schools and press to the 200,000,000 women of China. Every phase of the feminist movement in the Western world, all its excesses and all its fine constructive measures, are being reflected in miniature in Asia. The next generation in the Orient will differ from the present one in no respect more notably than that the women will have more of justice and equality. India and China, as well as Japan and the Philippines, are undertaking each year larger enterprises for the education of girls. Meanwhile, the missionary and the mission-trained women are quietly lead- ing their sex, helping to steer it into courses where it will avoid the pitfalls and dangers which threaten those who would break with the past too abruptly. [169] REMAKING THE ORIENTAL SOCIAL ORDER 1 CHAPTER VIII REMAKING THE ORIENTAL SOCIAL ORDER The Yangtze Engineering Works are located six miles down the river below Hankow. Some of their larger contracts consist of bridges for the Chinese railways and ships for the Japanese Government; they employ about 1,500 men and are equipped to handle almost everything in the way of large orders for the new China. When Wong Kwong, the president, had finished up his plant and assembled his machinery from England, Germany, and America, he decided to go a step further. Why not erect a model vil- lage for the employes? He was famihar with the most recent experiments of this sort abroad. A settlement of some sort was bound to grow up about the plant, for it had been built in an isolated spot. But the deciding factor in reaching his conclusion was the fact that he was a Chris- tian, and as practical as a man would have to be to create and maintain such a huge modern enterprise in a country where industrial practice has changed little in ten centuries. Having accepted the principle of brotherly love, he felt impelled to apply it with thoroughness. The model village was built, including a swimming pool, a church, a school for the children and [163] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA another one for the apprentices, a park, a tea- house, and a cooperative store. The project did not turn out to be an imme- diate success. Mr. Wong had not figured suffi- ciently on his unknown quantities — the wives. It was not difficult to persuade the families to move into these new, substantial homes, but it was not so simple to get the wives to adopt methods of housekeeping suitable to their new estate. They preferred to do as their mothers did and in their mothers' homes the line between the part of the house which belonged to the family and the part which belonged to the pigs was never very sharply drawn. In a few weeks Wong Kwong was reduced to despair; his fine houses were rapidly becoming pigpens. Up to this point in the story Mr. Wong's experience may have had in it much in common with those who have made similar experiments elsewhere, but we do not recall any other model village enthusiast who has followed him through the next steps in his adventure. The Wongs live in the French Concession in Hankow, in the kind of house which one is likely to find in the better residential district of any French provincial city. Mr. Wong took his troubles home and talked them over with his wife — itself a most unusual proceeding for China. The conclusion of the Wong family council was that, although they could do very little to reach the wives directly, there was a good opportunity for an indirect approach. The Orient is famous [ 164 ] I A CORNER IN THE SHOP OF THE YANGTZE ENGINEERING WORKS AT HANKOW, A THOROUGHLY MODERN INDUSTRIAL PLANT, WHICH IS EN- GAGED IN SHIPPING AND BRIDGE BUILDING ON A LARGE SCALE. REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER for this kind of advance by detours. The obvious trouble with the model village was that the people who lived there did not know any better. The Wongs drew up a guest list and invited some of the key husbands in groups to come up to Hankow to eat at the Wong table, sleep in the Wong beds, and observe the new styles in living. The experiment was a huge success. The hus- bands went back to their families and, by what means we know not, explained to their wives that if they were to live in model villages they would have to brace up and become model house- keepers. China, Japan, and India are now beginning to pass in their industrial development from household, hand production to big factories and power machinery. In the next century one of the most marked changes in the Orient will be the growth of large industrial cities. Hankow, for example, may possibly become one of the greatest and most highly congested industrial centers of the world. At present the population of Asia is eighty or ninety per cent rural, resem- bling the Western world before the introduction of labor-saving machinery. It is often predicted that this industrial development in Asia will certainly be accompanied by the creation of new horrors of economic, industrial, and social mal- adjustment similar to, but far greater than, those which followed the same kind of growth in the Western world. It is quite probable that the exploitation of child and woman labor in [165] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA the weaving industry in Japan, China, and India, the atrocious hours of labor in China and Japan, the disreputable housing conditions, congestion of population, growth of slums, development of large bodies of migratory laborers, already in evidence, are but the preface to some very un- lovely chapters about to be written in the develop- ment of Asia. The missionary sees that he has come to the Orient for just such a time as this. It is of the highest importance that he should be there. It cannot be recalled too often that Christianity and Western civilization are not at all identical. The missionary goes, the trader follows. They do not carry the same set of purposes, or the same stock of ideals. One carries power ma- chinery, capital, and the impulse to increased and effective production; the other carries the human- itarian ideals without which the mechanics of civilization become more of a menace than a benefit. Christianity in the Orient is laying an increas- ing stress upon the social implications of the Christian religion. Perhaps there is no other phase of the Christian movement in Asia which so completely demonstrates the value and ne- cessity of Christian ideals for the Eastern nations. As the propaganda reaches up more and more into the governing classes of society, it seems likely that one's fears for the future industrial life of the Orient may be happily disappointed. One sees evidences of this both in the very prac- [166] REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER tical way in which Christian manufacturers are applying their religion in the management of their business, and also in the emulation aroused among their competitors. A real public sentiment is being created to deal with these grave prob- lems which are already in view. A very romantic biographical sketch from Japan may serve to illustrate these statements. One wishes that there were space for the in- clusion of other stories of a similar nature. Mr. Tsurukichi Hatano, of the Gunsei Silk Filature Company, Ayabe, describes himself as the Japanese Prodigal Son. And he is only an adopted son at that. As a young boy he was taken by a family which had no male heir, and in due time he married a daughter of the family. He plunged into riotous living with a vengeance and eventually the family decided to take legal measures to prevent the adopted heir from squan- dering the entire family fortune. Before they had time to act he scooped up all the money and valuables in sight and fled to Kyoto. Having reduced himself to the gutter by a life of the wildest extravagance, he stumbled one day into a Christian Rescue Hall in Kobe and was even- tually converted to Christianity. The prodigal returned to his native village, effected a reconciliation with his wife and family, and accepted the only position open to him, that of teacher in the grammar school at four yen a month. For a long time his fellow-towns- men stood aloof and he had a difficult time. [167] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA Hatano was not discouraged. He noticed that the farmers in that region were trying to raise cotton, although the soil was unsuited to the crop, whereas the eggs of uncultivated silk cocoons were commanding excellent prices. He tried to persuade the farmers to undertake silk growing, but most of them refused to heed his advice. Was it not given by one who had brought disgrace upon his family and his village.'^ At length the schoolteacher found one farmer who would listen and even put up some money for an investigation. Starting with this slight assist- ance, Mr. Hatano began a study of the silk industry and in time made himself an expert in every phase of it. Today the county in which Ayabe is situated produces the best silk thread in Japan and Mr. Hatano has a silk filature which employs 3,000 workers. The company is an adventure in the Christian organization of indus- try, paying fifteen or twenty per cent dividends each year. So well established is the Gunsei Company that when, at the outbreak of the War, it became necessary to secure additional capital and 9,000 new shares of stock were offered at par there were immediate applications for 18,000. It is a pity that the tourist seldom gets nearer to Ayabe than the Kodzu rapids up the river from Kyoto. If one will only continue on the train for another fifty miles he will not only find himself in a charming, unspoiled Japanese vil- lage, but will also see modem Japanese industry from an angle which ought never to be forgotten [168] REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER when drawing conclusions about the future of Japan. One will better understand the Ayabe silk filatures and appreciate Mr. Hatano if one first has some comprehension of the deplorable con- ditions which have accompanied the development of modern industries in many other places in the Empire. The Japan Year Book for 1916 is authority for the statement that more than half a million women, three-fifths of whom are under twenty years of age, are employed in factories. In sericulture and silk reeling nine in every ten employes are women or girls. It is estimated that four out of every five women factory workers leave the factories each year. Two hundred thousand new women workers are recruited an- nually and out of this number 120,000 never return to their homes. About one fourth of those who do go back have tuberculosis. Long hours — as many as sixteen in a day seven days in the week — bad housing, tuberculosis, yes, and prostitution, travel together in the East as well as in the West. Japan is slowly awakening to the dangers to health and morality which menace the Empire because of these growing evils. A new public sentiment on the subject of the exploitation of women and children in factories is marked by the new factory law which went into effect in 1917. But the law has so many exceptions written into it that it will accomplish very little. Public sentiment is still largely apathetic, and this [169] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA makes Mr. Hatano's enterprises all the more remarkable. The Ayabe factory is liberally furnished with mottoes such as: "Love transforms the world"; "Holiness is the foundation of all things"; "Sin- cerity to God." The Silk Workers' Training School has for its very practical motto: "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." But these lofty themes are not limited to verbal expression. They are also worked out in sanitary baths for the employes, beautiful dormitories, school rooms, and shorter hours of labor. There are a night school for employes, a day school for apprentices, a spotlessly clean hospital, a holiday every ten days for the girls, and religious services twice a month. When I expressed to Mr. Hatano my surprise that he was able to do so much for his employes and still compete successfully with other filatures, he assured me that his principles had proved to be good business policy. The employes turn out the best silk in Japan, be- cause they are so much interested in their work and so loyal to the factory. Unfortunately Japan is entering upon her industrial age with a very large proportion of her large employers of labor not believing in the principles which Mr. Hatano practices, but it ought to be noted that there are at least a score of them, most of whom are Christians, who do believe in Mr. Hatano's ideas and are working along similar lines. At present industrial organ- [170] REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER ization and trade unions are sternly forbidden. The movement for the betterment of labor con- ditions is almost entirely limited to the efforts of these few men who have gained their sense of social responsibility from the West and from Christianity. The industrial revolution will come very much more rapidly in Asia than it came in the West. The Orient is now being presented with the accumulated fund of automatic devices for ma- chine production which it has taken the Western world more than a century to develop. Hitherto it has been assumed that the Asiatic is too in- exact and careless in his mechanical processes to produce a high grade of finished product. Every factory in the Orient starts with a large proportion of Europeans on its staff to direct, supervise, and perfect the work turned out by the native workman. The disturbance of labor conditions due to the outbreak of the War has resulted in the subtraction of most of the for- eigners from these Asiatic manufacturing con- cerns. Formerly British and Continental machinery was generally used. It has now been discovered that the introduction of the most modern automatic machinery from America suffi- ciently supplements the ineptitude of the native workman, so that in the future the services of foreigners will be very largely dispensed with. The Tata Iron and Steel Company of India, for example, now has only a meager half dozen Americans employed, although at the outbreak [HI] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA of the War there were forty Americans in the blast furnace department alone, and a large number of British and German employes in other departments. The industrial evils which follow large scale production, although already existing in Asia, are not yet sufficiently widespread so that one may speak of industrial reform. The present movement is directed largely toward the pre- venting of conditions which may some day de- mand reform. The missionary is the guest of the country in which he lives, and is almost certain to render himself unacceptable sooner or later if he personally and actively agitates for reform. His influence for social reform is nearly always indirect, through the converts who look to him for instruction and leadership. It will always be very difficult, except perhaps in China, to point directly to a single missionary and assert that he is responsible for a certain reform. On the other hand, it is equally certain that the sum total of the missionary influence through- out the Orient is a powerful leaven in moving for every modification of bad practices. The indirect influence of the missionary on social evils is nowhere more marked than in India. There are today no less than a dozen active agencies for social reform which, while not Christian, some of them being even violently anti-Christian, can be traced directly to the influence of the missionaries. The Brahmo Samaj is a Hindu reform sect [172] THIS EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL, A WIDOW AND THE DAUGHTER OF THE HEADMAN, HAS THE PROUD DISTINCTION OF BEING THE ONLY GIRL IN HER VILLAGE WHO CAN- READ. SHE IS AN EXCELLENT EX- AMPLE OF WHAT EVEN A VERY CRUDE MISSIONARY SCHOOL CAN ACCOMP1.ISH IN A FEW YEARS. REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER which occupies something of the same relation toward orthodox Hinduism which the Unitarian and UniversaHst churches of the West occupy toward orthodox Christianity. The Brahmo Samaj owes its existence directly to Christianity, for it was an effort to stop the propagation of Christianity by reforming Hinduism. Its program includes the emancipation of women and the abolition of caste. Its founder, Rajah Ram Mohun Roy, was all but a Christian; he wrote an essay on "The Precepts of Jesus, the Way of Peace and Happiness," even accepting many of the miracles of Jesus. He describes Christ as intercessor and final judge of the world. After his death the father of Rabindranath Tagore, the poet, became the leader of the Brahmo. He believed in caste and gave the movement a strongly anti-Christian flavor. The result was a split in the ranks, at which Keshub Chun- der Sen led out a faction which was strongly Christian. Keshub baptized himself in a tank and then baptized his disciples. On his death bed he called his singing apostle and asked him to sing an old Bengali hymn written by a Baptist missionary portraying the Gethsemane scene of the gospels. The apostle could not recall it and so improvised a new hymn on the theme: "Let this cup pass from me." There are now three sects of the Brahmo Samaj and most of the members would endorse a strictly Christian code of social ethics. Christian books of devotion are [173] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA freely used by them. Their religious services and their churches are closely modeled after Christian styles. The Arya Samaj, a much larger and more aggressive Hindu reform sect, is violently anti- Christian and its members are responsible for some of the bitterest persecution which the Christian converts have to endure, and yet the movement aims at a purification of the Hindu religion which will separate it from some of the grosser and more cruel practices. The Arya teaches monotheism and the Fatherhood of God, and enjoins the education of girls, postponement of marriage, and abolition of hereditary caste. Back of the Arya movement lies the fear that the Christianizing of the people will denationalize them. The Arya draws to itself many of the political progressives and even the malcontents, although it cannot be classified as a political party. Most of its purposes for social reform are in substantial accord with Christianity. Another movement, closely associated with the Brahmo and more particularly with the Arya Samaj, is the work for the depressed classes and untouchables. Ram Baj Dutt of Lahore, a Brahmin land owner and a graduate of Forman Christian College, is one of the most active in this work. His purpose is to persuade the caste people to modify their rules with regard to the untouchables, of whom there are no less than forty millions in India, so that the outcastes may be readmitted to the caste order. He has [ 174 ] REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER a well-established ritual that includes baptism in which, with that show of ceremony which the Indian loves, he gathers the people of the village together and has the outcaste people, whose lot is ordinarily more miserable than that of slaves, formally received back into the caste. "I tell them," said Ram Baj Dutt, speaking of the outcastes, " *Your blood is the same as that of a rajah. You are not a high-caste man simply because you have not been educated, but your children can go as high as they de- serve. If the high-caste people still lay upon you these menial tasks, tell them to do their own dirty work!' Then I lead the whole crowd. Brahmins, Hindus, Mussulmans, and outcastes, to the village well and there we have a sort of communion service, each taking a drink from the common vessel." Probably at least 100,000 out- castes in the Punjab alone have been taken back into the castes as a result of the Arya Samaj and this Purification Society. There are several other similar societies of greater or less extent at work for the amelioration of the outcaste people. It is probably not unfair to say that not one of them would have been started had it not been for the aggressive propaganda of the missionaries. The editor of The Indian Social Reformer f K. Natarajan, said to me: "The fear of the missionary has been the be- ginning of much social wisdom in India. The missions have interpreted the spiritual side of Western civihzation to us, whereas without their [175] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA presence we would have seen only its material expressions. I know from personal experience that the reading of the Bible has greatly in- fluenced modern social thought in this country. Generally speaking there is a great reverence for Christ. The missionaries are our friends. On the other hand, social reform receives only slight support from the Indian Christians." This last statement, in so far as it is true, is notable. The Indian Christian is very fond of the theological end of Christianity. "Why are you Christians?" I have asked many con- verts. The answer is almost always the same: "Because I believe that Jesus Christ is the in- carnate Son of God and the only sufficient Saviom* from sin." If one were to ask a Chinese convert why he is a Christian he would probably reply, "Because I wish to help my country." At the present moment it is probably fortunate for Christianity in India that the converts have not been too much attracted to the subject of social reform, for it is nearly always traveling along the edge of political propaganda. With the present excited condition of the educated Indian mind, a pronounced patriotic, nationalist. Christian movement might be very destructive to church and state alike. It must be remem- bered, however, that while the Indian convert does not join the Hindu social reform move- ments, he himself is, above all, the great apostle of reform, for he goes back to his village, sets his own house in order, opens a school, starts a [176] REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER church, and practices every one of the reforms which the reformers agitate to accomplish. It is mifortunate that the Hmits of space do not permit the extended treatment of some special reforms like the temperance, opium, and morphine agitations, which in all countries from India to Japan are now receiving great attention from the Christian leaders. Japan has never permitted the importation of opium for general use and China has effectually stamped out the smoking habit among all save the official classes, but the opium business still has its roots deep in Malaysia and in other more remote regions. It was asserted, not without a good show of authority, at the recent China Medical Congress at Canton that morphine imported from Japan is rapidly taking the place of opium. It is re- ported that not less than sixteen tons of morphine were imported into China in a single year. The extension of the Japanese Post Office and the laws of extra-territoriality in China greatly facil- itate this traffic. The use of liquor is also spread- ing with alarming rapidity in Asia as well as in Africa. Both the missionaries and the native converts are, however, alert to these dangers, and many interesting stories might be told illustrating how Christianity is rendering an effective service in the protection of the Eastern races from the evils which have followed the introduction of Western civilization. The storm center of social reform in Asia for the next quarter of a century is likely to be over [177] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA the relation of the sexes. This movement I will describe more in detail. If any statement of the menace of polygamy were necessary to bring home to American readers the immediacy of the subject, some recent statements from the editorial columns of The Far Eastern Review would seem to be suitable. The Caucasian population of the world is doubling its numbers once in a hundred years, states the editor; the dark-skinned races, which now outnumber the white population two to one, are doubling their numbers every twenty-five years — at least such is the case in Korea where the most recent figures are available. The editor of The Far Eastern Review figures out that at the present rate of increase the Caucasian ele- ment in the world's population will have shrunk in a hundred years to scarcely five per cent. The Oriental demands male children, as many of them as he can produce. The editorial goes on to state: "So long as the Oriental man is able to arrogate to himself the right to possess plural wives, just so long will polygamy prevail. But there is a way out and one which is becoming broader and more easy to tread each year. Easier for the new woman at least, for marriages among the returned girl students take place soon after they reach China again and scarcely one nuptial contract is drawn between two foreign-educated Chinese that does not contain an agreement, either in black and white or tacit at least, that this wife shall be the only wife so long as shi [178] ONE CAN BEAD IN THE FACE OF THIS COTTON OPERATIVE IN SHANGHAI THE IMPENDING TRAG- EDY WHERE WESTERN CIVILIZA- TION AS REPRESENTED BY MODERN INDUSTRIALISM IS INTRODUCED INTO THE EAST. THE EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN, THE GROWTH OF CONGESTED CITIES, LONG HOURS, UNSANITARY CONDITIONS OF EM- PLOYMENT, AND KINDRED EVILS, ARE CREATING A NEW SET OF SO- CIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS WHICH THE EAST IS QUITE UNPRE- PARED TO SOLVE WITHOUT HELP, REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER shall live. The wife with foreign education is a precious thing in China in the eyes of the returned student, since she is one of a few women of his own race who reaHze and understand his peculiar aspirations. Rubies are as nothing compared to her, and her slightest prenuptial wish is law. She has it in her hands to be the one and only wife and if the few examples that have come under the writer's notice are any criterion, she will exert that power to the utmost." It should be added that, while the influence of the returned girl students is undoubtedly being exerted to that end, their influence is small in comparison with that of the girl graduates of missionary schools within the country. The number of returned students is, as yet, relatively small, while the missionary girls' schools of secondary and college grade, alone, have an annual enrolment of 10,822 pupils. Another phase of this question of polygamy appears from an interview which I had in Peking with Yung Tao, the wealthy Chinese philan- thropist and social reformer. I called on him on the day when the Chang Hsun revolution was just breaking over the city. "Just look at China," he exclaimed, "see all these troubles she is in; the future is very dark. Her heart is spoiled — all be- cause she has no religion. The worst trouble in China is concubinage. The men have so many wives and play with them so much that they must all 'squeeze.' Look at our great men like Yuan Shih Kai and President Li, and even our [179] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA returned students. They have so many wives all their cleverness is gone. They cannot think. I have watched it often among my friends. So long as they are contented with one wife they do very well. When they acquire concubines they begin to weaken and become flabby. Many na- tions want China to be good, but it is useless; there are so many bad customs. China's great weakness is in her family life." *T am so proud of my country," went on Yung, "its ancient history, its big, good land, its milKons of people. I believe the common folks are as good as .in any nation. Only the upper classes are bad: they are thieves and robbers. Men, to preserve the peace of their own house- holds, learn to speak Kes and deceive. They do not know real love." Yung Tao has the strength of his convictions. In addition to financing many private philan- thropies, he is promoting a Social Reform Asso- ciation which aheady has 17,000 members. When I saw him he was drafting a bill to be presented to Parliament to forbid the continuance of the concubinage system. Some years ago this same gentleman, when not a Christian, purchased and distributed several thousand copies of the Bible in a specially bound form to his friends. It is not merely China which suffers from the enervating effects of polygamy. It is the com- mon practice, in one form or another, through- out the Orient. When I went to Madam Yajami in Tokyo and [180] REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER asked her what she considered the next step to be taken by the women of Japan, she repHed m her simple, quaint English, "One man, one woman, one home." As President of the Jap- anese Woman's Christian Temperance Union she is actively pushing for this reform, and meeting with no little success, too. Aided by some other very energetic women and by some men, under the encouragement of the missionaries, she has helped to create a substantial new sentiment against the yoshiwaras, the segregated districts of which every Japanese city was formerly more or less proud. Until recently the city of Osaka has been publishing an official guide map of the city for visitors in which the segregated districts were especially designated as places of attraction. Now Osaka has practically abolished her yoshi- ivarasy and one of the leading newspapers of the city, and of the Empire for that matter, has opened its columns to a series of articles on social purity by Colonel Yamamura of the Sal- vation Army. It would be impossible to prove the statement that the most heavily capitalized export business in Japan is the exportation of girls for immoral purposes, but the statement has been made with some authority. The Japanese prostitute is sent into every country in Asia and to the Islands of the Sea. Dr. George E. Morrison of Peking told me that for a long time the only Japanese women ever seen in Australia were prostitutes. They are peddled in groups of three and four [181] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA with a male manager through the villages of Mongolia; one finds them by the hundreds in the mining towns of the Malay Peninsula. They have gone even to India. These girls are moved about with obvious business direction and no small amount of capital must be involved in the business. Perhaps the women of the West could make no finer contribution to the women of Asia than to lend the force of their organized opposition to this business. At the coming peace conference every question relating to the welfare of the Orient will be up for discussion. Japan is pre- pared to make representations that she be per- mitted special privileges and rights of leadership. She is also very sensitive to the approval of public opinion in the West. It might be quite possible for the women of the United States to join with the women of Japan in demanding that the Empire prohibit a practice which is doing much to discredit her moral influence among the races of Asia. The Japanese Government is already beginning to feel the pressure of public opinion on the subject from within the Empire. Some years ago I visited the hospital of Dr. Frank Van Allen of the American Board in Madura, South India. "What are the chief diseases which you have to fight.?" I asked. "Tuberculosis, malaria, and venereal disease." Any mission doctor in Asia will bear out the statement that the blood of Asia has been very badly poisoned with venereal taint. Among the [182] REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER most frequently advertised patent medicines on the Oriental bill-board are those which promise a cm'e for syphilis. The statement is sometimes made that polyg- amy prevents prostitution. The statement is not borne out by the facts. Every city in Asia has its segregated districts. One has but to glance at the reports of "The Door of Hope" of Shanghai to see how extensive is the evil in China. "The Door of Hope" was started by a group of mis- sionary ladies and is still directed by them, but now receives generous subsidies from the mu- nicipal government. Little girls are often sold even by their parents into slavery, which fre- quently leads to prostitution. I have a picture of one girl who was sold for $500, although the price is usually much less than that. Strangely enough, the "Door of Hope" girls, after they have been in the institution a year or more, are largely in demand as Chinese preach- ers' wives. There is little stigma attached to their previous occupation in the eyes of the Chinese, for most of the girls were first placed in houses of ill fame without their consent. While there they receive special training in the social graces and become far more accomplished, so- cially, than is the average Chinese girl. Hardly a week goes by but that some young Chinese preacher comes to "The Door of Hope," by pre- arrangement with the matron, and takes away a bride for the most exacting duties of a min- ister's wife. [183] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA The relation between this movement against prostitution and polygamy in the Orient and Christianity is obvious. The missionary not merely establishes the rescue home, but also imparts a new set of ideals for family life and for the treatment of women. Meanwhile the women themselves are beginning to rise and assert their rights. The missionary is not always the leader. Often the missions exercise a conservative in- fluence which is very much needed at present. The currents of social reform more and more reach down to the family life and their initial influence is often destructive. Before a new code of conduct and etiquette can be created, the old code has disappeared, and the girls, thrust out of their homes into school, shop, or mill, will have no established social order on which to lean. The steadying influence of the mission- aries is important, not merely in reforms relating to women, but in all of the social reform movements. There is a tremendous capacity for radical thought and action being created through the missions. Every convert to Christianity must, of necessity, be a radical. He has to repudiate almost an entire social order before he can be baptized. Were the missionary unable to exer- cise also a conservative influence over the new lives of his converts, the results might often be alarming. As it is, there is being steadily created an increasing number of people in every race in Asia whose faces are resolutely set toward social reform. [184] REMAKING THE SOCIAL ORDER When one finishes a study of these social re- form movements, he sees as never before how utterly statistics fail to convey adequate notions of the extent of missionary achievement in the Orient. In the new social order one everywhere sees a process of restratification in which each nation is being divided into two sections, the one English-speaking and the other non-English- speaking. The people who speak English are the leaders of public opinion. These leaders, almost without exception, although they are not Chris- tians in any theological or ecclesiastical sense, and perhaps never will be, have already adopted heartily as their ideal a Christianized social order. [185] NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY IN ASIA CHAPTER IX NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY IN ASIA One of the marked expressions of the grow- ing national and racial self-consciousness of Asia is the development of independent Chris- tian churches. The Christian communities respond more quickly to the fresh intellectual and spiritual breezes now blowing across the ancient East because Christian converts are more literate, and the most stirring appeal now being made to the peoples of the Orient is that of nationalism. Furthermore, in the mission school and in their experiments with ecclesiastical organization the Christians acquire self-confidence. Have they not already broken with their racial past, re- pudiating the traditions of their elders? What could be more natural than that they should also become impatient to declare their entire independ- ence in church as well as in state? The Christian missions of Asia are cradles of patriotism. There is little basis for the fear that the mis- sions are creating groups of permanently de- pendent and non-self-supporting churches. In- deed, the missionary will usually tell one that one of his most difficult problems is to restrain, without discouraging, his people in their desires [189] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA to accept greater responsibilities than they are able to discharge creditably. On the other hand, the native Christians often complain with even a trace of bitterness of the paternalism of the mis- sionary. Today nationalism and ecclesiastical inde- pendence are traveling hand in hand in the Orient. When the Filipinos became separated from Spain, the Independent Filipino Catholic Church came into being under the leadership of Arch- bishop Aglipay. Although this church has now largely lost its vitality, its history illustrates a spirit which is more or less characteristic of the entire East. It will be recalled that the American occupa- tion of the Philippines came at a time of internal revolution. For more than two years the Filipinos had been in rebellion against Spain. This move- ment had been religious as well as economic and political. The Filipinos felt that the Spanish friars had taken sides against the people and had become oppressors rather than spiritual guides. Aglipay had been trained for the priest- hood and had held several important positions in the Roman Catholic Church before the revolu- tion came. Eventually he cast in his lot with the rebels and after the American occupation joined the insurrectos. He gathered two score or more of spirits as untamed as himself, and became a very effectual thorn in the side of the^ Government for months. His band of outlaw led the United States troops many an exciting chase into the hills before it was scattered. [190] ARCHBISHOP AGLIPAY, OF THE INDEPENDENT FILIPINO CATHOLIC CHURCH, WAS FORMERLY AN OFFI- CER IN THE INSURRECTO ARMY AND GAVE THE AMERICAN TROOPS A GREAT DEAL OF TROUBLE. LATER HIS PATRIOTIC IMPULSES WERE DIVERTED TO THE LEADER- SHIP OF A FILIPINO CHURCH EX- CLUSIVELY UNDER NATIVE CONTROL. NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY The insurrection having been abandoned, Agli- pay joined hands with a most enterprising press agent by the name of Prousch and lifted the standard of rebeUion against the friars. Prousch had drifted into the Islands by way of India, where he had developed a most uncompromising antipathy to the Roman Catholic Church, dab- bled in missionary work, and polished off an amazing vocabulary of American slang. Prousch backed Aglipay to be a second Martin Luther and placed his diversified talents entirely at the insurrecto-priest's disposal. As press agent (I have the story from his own lips) he made a tour of the provincial towns, telling of the exploits of his patron, and securing permission from the authorities for Aglipay to come and celebrate mass in the plaza on some Sunday morning. Then he went back to Manila, placed a miter on the head of Aglipay, pronounced him Archbishop of the Independent Catholic Church, and led him forth to fill the engagements. The Filipinos flocked to the new leader in great numbers. There were sometimes as many as 10,000 people at these open-air masses. The archbishop proclaimed a reformation and fol- lowed up his promises by writing a new creed, in which Unitarianism ran rampant, and by de- vising a ritual in which most of the forms familiar to the Filipinos were retained. It was the spirit of nationalism and independence which gave the new institution its wings. The movement began to number its adherents [191 ] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA by the hundreds of thousands and at one time claimed between four and five million people. Then came a series of reverses. It was impossible to find adequately trained priests to shepherd the new parishes. The courts decided that dissenting congregations could not hold titles to the old church properties. The new archbishop did not develop the qualities of leadership which his press agent had hoped to find. The Roman Catholic Church, freed from a measure of Spanish influence and placed under American leadership, made many concessions and in time the Inde- pendent Filipino Catholic Church, which had always been less a church than a movement, collapsed, although the venerable archbishop still boasts of its extent and influence. The signifi- cance of the adventure lay in the fact that it was, and still is, an expression of national self- consciousness. It illustrates at once both the ease with which Oriental peoples may be stampeded by an appeal to freedom and also the peculiar difficulties of the missionary, as he continually nourishes among his followers a patriotic sense which may easily get out of hand and be turned into abortive action. Independent Protestant churches in Asia have usually met with greater success than the Aglipay movement in the Philippines. Indeed, the funda- mental purpose of Protestant missionary work is the creation of self-supporting, self-propagating, self-governing churches. Already, after less than half a century of missionary work in Japan, [192] NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY there are several independent Japanese denom- inations. One will look in vain in the Japanese church directory for the names Presbyterian and Congregational. Many years ago the Congre- gational Christians of the Empire were organized into what are known as the Kumaii churches and went on their way with the blessing of the missionaries. Many thought at the time that these converts were departing from the fold too soon and later developments appear to have justified that conviction, but nevertheless the Kumaii churches are now well on their feet and prospering. Similarly the Presbyterian and the Methodist converts have formed themselves into denominations and maintain their own com- pletely independent institutions. One remarkable feature of the independent national churches is that they often represent not merely independence but inter-church union as well. The Church of Christ in Japan is com- posed of the members from the American, the Canadian, and the Australian Presbyterian mis- sions. There is a Presbyterian Church similarly formed in Korea. The Methodist Church of Japan, which has its own bishop, creed, and ritual, was made up from the missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Epis- copal Church, South, and the Canadian Method- ist Church. In each case where a national church has been formed, the original missions out of which the church came still continue their work; the new churches are by no means yet able to [193] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA undertake the support of all necessary missionary work. For example, it is estimated that only twenty per cent of the population of Japan has yet been offered the Christian faith in any effec- tive effort. The mission boards even arranged to give these independent churches a fixed amount of financial assistance on a scale which decreases year by year. The United Church of South India is the most recent independent church to be thus formed. This was organized from the converts of Con- gregational, Presbyterian, and Dutch Reformed missions and is, therefore, unique in having made a combination which would be altogether impossible even in the enlightened United States. Within a few months a still more extensive movement toward church union has been in- augurated in China. All its Presbyterian churches have been joined in a Federal Council of Pres- byterian churches for all China, in which Presby- terian North, Presbyterian South, Dutch Re- formed, and German Reformed, from the United States; English, two Scotch, and Irish Presby- terian from Great Britain; Canadian Presbyterian, and New Zealand, are represented. At the same time many leading American and English Con- gregationalists have expressed a desire to join forces with these Presbyterians in a Federal Council of Churches for China, which in the minds of the Chinese will not be very sharply distinguished from complete church union. When one remembers that in our own country [194] NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY there are no less than twelve kinds of Presby- terians and sixteen kinds of Methodists, not to mention other illustrations of a similar diversity of ecclesiastical opinion, he realizes to what an extent the leadership in church union has already passed to the mission field. While the churches in the United States are talking about church union, the mission churches, under the spur of patriotism, are accomplishing it. Notwithstanding the one remarkable national church of South India, it must be noted that both church union and missionary cooperation in India lag behind the pace set elsewhere in Asia. Generally speaking, Indian missionary work is older and, for that reason among others, more bound by tradition than is the work in China or Japan. It must be admitted that the older type of missionary work did not look toward church union, and often not even toward cooperation. On the other hand, the rise of nationalism is already exercising an influence on the Indian Christians which is bound to have a wholesome effect. Home Rule aspirations are as rife in rehgious as in political circles. Ecclesiastical independence always looks toward consolidation and church union, just as it did when the South India United Church was formed. Many English missionaries have confessed to me that they are having difficulty in keeping their converts impressed with the necessities of their own peculiar creed. American mission- aries, though not regretting them, have told [195] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA me of similar diflSculties. The next decade will doubtless record a great advance for the Indian Christians along the line of independence. Al- ready the Anghcan Church has elected Azariah, born an outcaste, to the high office of bishop. The one charge most frequently brought by the Indian critic of the missions is that the missionary has so placed himself in partnership with the Government that he is unable to be an impartial friend of the native in his struggles for Home Rule. There is at least a slight basis for the charge. Practically all missions, if they can get it, accept grant-in-aid funds from the Government for educational work. I have heard Indians argue that this system makes of the missionary practically a government servant. It certainly does impose obligations which may appear to range the missionary on the side of the Government. For example, the missionary teacher is expected by the police to see that his pupils do not have in their possession litera- ture which has been placed on the government index. The teacher may be quite in accord with the Government as to the unwisdom of per- mitting certain literature to circulate among immature students, but it is unfortunate that the missionary schools have been so related to the Government that when the teacher approaches the students on the subject of seditious literature he appears less as a friend than as a Government employe. A complete separation of church an state in India would mean the withdrawal o: [196] It 1 NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY hundreds of thousands of dollars from the support of missionary schools. No mission board is now prepared to make proportionate increases in appro- priations, but the losses resulting from complete separation of the missionaries from the Govern- ment would have their compensations. There is now a movement of growing propor- tions which demands that the study of the Bible and attendance upon chapel exercises shall be voluntary in all mission schools which receive government aid. If this agitation ever achieves its object, many of the missions will doubtless return to their old status as they were before the grant-in-aid system was offered. In other words, the missions will go on to a basis similar to that in China, Japan, and the Philippines, where the governments offer no direct assistance except the maintenance of religious liberty. Meanwhile, the Indian missions unfortunately are not in a position to maintain a strict neutrality between the Government and the people in the Home Rule strife. This existing condition is grist for the mill of the Indian Christian who is not at all contented to belong to a foreign- ruled church. Another influence which is tending to bring the Indian converts together is the fear, which is more or less general, that the Christianizing of a convert is equivalent to denationalizing him. It has often been the custom in missions when a new convert is baptized to give him a new name. This has frequently been really necessary in view [197] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA of the fact that many Oriental names verge on the obscene. In such cases it is customary to name the convert after some substantial Biblical character, the result being that the convert loses whatever national or racial character a name may ordinarily give. Orphans have often been named after donors who have agreed to support them in mission orphanages. Critics of the mis- sionary work look upon such a policy with great disfavor. Any missionary policy of the future which does not tend to make the convert a more ardent and stable patriot will be working against the tide. In Japan and in China the old national re- ligions have been closely identified with patriot- ism. The establishment of national Christian churches in Japan has done much to free the Christians in that country from the suspicion of lack of patriotism. China also is now realizing that its people do not become any less patriotic by being baptized. When Admiral Li Ho be- came Vice-Minister of the Chinese Navy under Yuan Shih Kai, the latter ordered him to go to the temple of the War-god and swear allegiance to his new chief. The admiral, being a Christian and yet fully measuring the consequences of insubordination, refused to obey on the grounds of religious scruples. For a little while it looked as though the admiral might lose not only his new post, but also his head. General Li Yuan Hung became the mediator, and the affair was settled in a manner which established a precedent _ [198] I THIS BUDDHIST MONK OF PEKING 18 ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE QUALITY OF THE CHINESE SPIRITUAL LEADER- SHIP WHICH HAS BEEN PRODUCED UNDER THE DECADENT RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE NATION. THERE 18 NO MORE HOPE FOR CHINA IN SUCH MEN AS THESE THAN IN THE IRRE- SPONSIBLE MILITARY LEADERS WHO ARE NOW IN POWER. '- o c" ♦■ ' fc '- i NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY that a Christian may take his oath of allegiance in a Christian manner. The new spirit of nationalism is only one of several forces which are operating to promote Christian unity in the Orient. As has already been suggested, the missionary himself is often one of the most active factors. Sometimes his fear that the converts are ill prepared for greater responsibilities puts him in the awkward position of appearing to oppose a movement which is nationalistic in its aspiration. The Oriental is inclined even more perhaps than the Occidental to draw the color line. He is, therefore, very quick to detect whatever may appear as a dis- crimination against him or an understatement of his ability. The missionary lives in very intimate relations with the native. He sees him at his worst as well as at his best. Sometimes his affec- tion for his converts undoubtedly leads him to an exaggerated estimate of their ability. I be- lieve it is not unfair to say that the Chinese conditions of the last decade have been too favorably presented to the Western public. We have sometimes been led thereby to expect too much from China in ability to manage her diffi- cult affairs. On the other hand, it is not at all unlikely that the missionary is sometimes too close to the racial defects of his charges to ap- praise fully their better qualities. However, it is plain that a people is hardly better able to support self-government in the church than it is to support it in the state. Only the Japanese [199] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA have yet demonstrated that they can do the latter. There appears to be very little founda- tion for the charge that the missionary adopts too paternalistic an attitude toward his converts and that he fails to realize and utilize whatever degree of ability they may have in self-government. Although the convert himself is usually very loyal to his new faith, often proving this by great sacrifice and severe suffering, one will find very little sectarian loyalty in the Orient. Western denominational traditions do not hold him. A Chinese clergyman is reported to have risen in a recent union meeting of the churches in Nanking and said, pointing in turn to several of the mis- sionaries, "You are an American Presbyterian: you can't help it, for you were brought up that way. You are a Canadian Methodist, and you can't help it either, for a similar reason. You are an Anglican Churchman, and we can't blame you for that. But we are Chinese Christians and we do not propose that you men from abroad shall keep us apart." The defiance was more playful than real earnest, for there was probably no desire whatever on the part of the mission- aries assembled to propagate among the Chinese the denominational divisions which prove so damaging at home. China is preeminent in the extent to which the spirit of church union and inter-church co- operation has been carried. This is due, one may state it humbly, in large measure to the fact that in China the missionary leadership is [ WO ] NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY most frequently in the hands of Americans. New methods of work are also easier in China because the work itself is often newer than elsewhere. Some of the more recently established mission stations have been definitely planned with a view to fostering a spirit of church union and independence. I have sometimes so shown my amazement at the spirit of the missionaries, in contrast to the apathetic attitude of the denom- inations in the West towards church union, as to draw forth this statement: "Out here we are moving toward church unity just as rapidly as our denominations at home will permit us to move." While the non-Christian world has yet to see such a demonstration of Christian unity as there would be if the various missionary boards would agree to organize a definitely interdenominational mission to be jointly supported among them, the number of union educational, medical, and ad- ministrative institutions already established is truly amazing. The new missionary arriving in China, for example, goes first to a Union Lan- guage School which is supported by a group of missions. There he not only learns the language according to the most approved linguistic methods under competent teachers, but he also learns to know the other missionaries who later on will labor in neighboring fields for other denomina- tions. His first contacts with the missionary problem are therefore those in which sectarianism has little part. [ ^01 ] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA As the children of the native Christians pass on up from the lower schools they enter union universities. They prepare for their professions frequently in union medical schools and union theological seminaries. The converts of widely differing denominations meet together in the classroom and on the athletic field. When the provincial governor comes to visit the West China Union University, the students turn out with an American brass band and march past him sing- ing with a zeal which is Methodist, Baptist, or Quaker, "The bull-dog on the bank and the bull- frog in the pool." In China and Korea together there are no less than fifty -four union educational institutions, of which nine are medical schools, ten are colleges, and fifteen are theological sem- inaries. There are thirty-eight different societies cooperating in one or more of these schools, twenty-two of the denominations being Amer- ican. The present tendency throughout the mission fields is to perfect comity agreements, according to which the various missions operating in a single area agree to definite assignments of terri- tory to prevent overlapping and competition. The public opinion on this subject is now so well formed that few missions dare to disregard these agreements. The mission fields are all far in advance of the churches at home in this regard. In marked contrast to religious conditions in the United States, one cannot point to a single foreign missionary area which, with reference to the size [202] 1 1 1 ■J ■ THE INTRODUCTION OP SCIEN- TIFIC EDUCATION INTO INDIA HAS RESULTED IN A NEW TYPE OF GRAD- UATE, WHO IS PREPARED TO LEAD HIS PEOPLE IN A MORE EFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR IMMENSE NATIONAL RESOURCES. t ■ < c ° *■ r t. »■!' ; i NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY of the population, can be said to be "over- churched." Aside from the spirit of the missionaries them- selves, the definite union undertakings, and the comity agreements, the other great forces work- ing for Christian unity within the missionary circle are the Young Men's Christian Association, the Young Women's Christian Association, the Bible and Christian Literature Societies, and the various Continuation Committees of the Edin- burgh Conference of 1910. The Young Men's Christian Association goes into a city at the invitation of the missionaries, gathers up the leading laymen from all the mis- sions, brings them together around a table, gives them large responsibilities, and thus welds the Christian forces into a substantial unity. Its building provides an assembly room for union Christian meetings, and its secretaries, by virtue of the fact of their sectarian neutrality, become convenient leaders for union movements. The Young Women's Christian Association, while by no means as extensively or adequately repre- sented as its older brother, performs a similar service in its own way. The great harmonizing and unifymg power of the Edinburgh Conference in 1910, bringing to- gether as it did representatives not only from all the mission fields but from all the different denominations, has not been dissipated. Each missionary area like China, India, and Japan has its Continuation Committee, its offices, and [203] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA executive secretaries. There is nothing compulsory about the decisions of these committees, but by means of wise leadership and great tact their decisions are coming to have the force of law. These offices are also of inestimable value in promoting the adoption of new methods of work. No treatment of the union movement in Asia is complete without reference to some of the new non-sectarian institutions such as Yale in China at Changsha, the Harvard Medical School at Shanghai, and the Canton Christian College. The two former institutions are, as their names imply, missionary enterprises undertaken by universities and quite separated from any sectarian control. The college at Canton, which is sometimes known among the Chinese as "The Man Factory," works in hearty cooperation with all the missions centering in Canton, and yet is governed by a board of trustees quite independent of the mission boards. Pennsylvania State College, Teachers' College (Columbia), University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburg, and Vassar, through their student associations, are carrying the ex- penses of members of the faculty, and the London Missionary Society is contributing one missionary. The Yale Mission in Changsha was the out- growth of a movement among the Student Volun- teers of Yale, especially those of the class of 1898. Through both the educational work and the hos- pital an unmistakable "Yale spirit" has been carried through the entire province of Hunan. It is difficult to estimate too highly the im- [^04] p NATIONALISM AND CHURCH UNITY portance of this enterprise, which has long since ceased to be an experiment. Under an agree- ment with the Hunan Educational Association, a board of ten Chinese and ten American members join in the general direction of the work. This agreement, which is sanctioned by the Peking Government, provides that the school and hos- pital shall receive annual appropriations of govern- ment funds up to $50,000, Mex. Such an arrange- ment is unprecedented in China, and would be quite impossible were the enterprise under sec- tarian control. The founding and development of "Ya-li" has been surrounded by romantic, pathetic, and picturesque incidents which give the work unique traditions and personality. Another notable union school recently started at Nanking is Ginling College for Girls. Mrs. Thiu-ston, widow of J. Lawrence Thurston, who went to China to found the Yale Mission at Changsha, but whose health failed him before the purpose could be accomplished, is the first pres- ident of Ginling. While this' new college^is more closely related to the denominational mission boards than is "Ya-li," it is pioneering in a new field and setting standards of academic work for girls which are unique yet greatly needed in China. The great barrier to church union in Asia is the fact that as yet the native churches are usually quite unable to become self-supporting. While one is amazed that the mission fields have already developed so far toward self-support, it [^05] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA must be recognized that so long as a mission church requires financial assistance it must assent to a proportionate amount of supervision from the missionaries and that means that any given church must remain a denominational church of some sort. Unless present indications are mis- leading, when the churches in Asia have fully reached the goal of self-support they will quietly set themselves free from the sectarian spirit of the West and take the matter of church unity into their own hands. There may then still re- main divisions in the Christian forces, but instead of being such as have been passed on from Occi- dental church history they will be such as different Oriental temperaments by nature require. Meanwhile, probably the most effective force now operating to bring together the divided churches of the West is the growing demand for Christian unity in the East. [206] THE BUSINESS SIDE OF FOREIGN MISSIONS CHAPTER X THE BUSINESS SIDE OF FOREIGN MISSIONS According to the best available figures, a little less than $40,000,000 is being spent annually in the propagation of Protestant Christianity in non- Christian lands and among the backward races. The total revenues of all the missionary so- cieties and boards of the United States and Canada have been increased at the rate of more than a million dollars each year since 1910. The average increase for the years 1916 and 1917 was more than $1,700,000 a year. Germany's annual pre-war contributions, a little over $2,- 000,000, are now entirely made up by the in- creased contributions of the Allied countries so that, in spite of the War, the world's foreign mis- sionary work goes on with no net reduction of program. In the year 1917 the United States and Canada contributed more than half of the entire fund for the Protestant foreign missionary work of the world. Present indications are that the next decade will witness such a rapid extension of the work as will be quite unprecedented in the history of Christianity. The Methodist Episcopal Church is now engaged in a campaign which contemplates as one of its objects the raising of $8,000,000 a [209] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA year for a period of five years for foreign mission- ary work, a proposed annual increase of $5,- 000,000 a year, aside from $1,000,000 which is raised each year by its Woman's Foreign Mission- ary Society. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is similarly planning for increasing its gifts for five years at the rate of more than $1,- 500,000 a year. The Presbyterian, Disciples, Con- gregationalist, and Baptist denominations have under consideration similar special campaigns. One of the most remarkable facts with ref- erence to the present status of foreign missionary work is that the native constituencies on the various fields give annually about one dollar for every five, four, or even less, which is contributed by the churches in the home lands. For example, while the various societies of the United States and Canada contributed in 1917 $20,405,493, these same organizations collected not less than $4,740,141 on the fields in which they were work- ing. In order to appreciate the full force of this comparison, one must remember that a dollar in the mission fields represents from five to twenty times as much labor as it does in America. Four million, seven hundred thousand dollars con- tributed in the non-Christian world is easily equivalent to fifty million dollars collected in the United States or Canada. There could hardly be a more sufficient proof than this, that the foreign missionary is genuinely welcomed in the countries to which he goes. The contributions to missionary work collected [210] THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS on the fields are constantly increasing. Three or four years ago a young contract teacher went out to take charge of a large Chinese school for boys. In a short time the school had become so large that an additional building was necessary. He assumed the responsibility of securing a building fund of $20,000 from the native con- stituency. One of the first men to whom he went said, "I am not interested in this project, but if you will start a fund for a college to be placed by the side of the school, I will give you $50,000 and I think I can lead you to a man who will give more than that." The friend actually subscribed $100,000 and another Chinese gentleman put his name down for $100,000 more. In a few weeks the young teacher found himself carrying around a subscription list which showed signatures to the value of nearly $600,000, gold, and gifts of land which are conservatively valued at more than three times that amount. For the new college there is to be a board of directors in which the mission appoints the majority of the members, and the institution will be dis- tinctly a missionary enterprise. The Chinese Young Men's Christian Associa- tion has for years paid its own expenses. Money has been contributed from the United States for new property only when the Chinese themselves had secured sufiicient funds to erect the buildings. All current expenses and the salaries of the Chinese workers have been carried by the Chinese. Only salaries for the secretaries appointed by the [211] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA International Committee have been contributed from abroad. At least one missionary board is proposing to make all contributions for property in China contingent upon the amounts contributed by the Chinese constituency. Because of the large sums of money involved, the business side of foreign missions becomes a subject of general financial interest. The mis- sionary as a business man is an important repre- sentative abroad of American business life. The many millions which the American missionary spends in Asia each year become a factor in international credits, and the fact that a great deal of this money is spent on American-made goods is an item not to be overlooked in inter- national trade. It is of immediate interest to know in what degree the missionary is a worthy representative of American business in his com- mercial dealings with peoples whose judgments of America are becoming of daily increasing im- portance to our commercial and political welfare. Mission drafts are sent to the various fields in small denominations, because they are imme- diately sold and become a commercial commodity which may be handled most easily in small sums. In Liberia, West Africa, where the state currency system is neither very stable nor elastic, it has been the custom of one board for many years to send its drafts in twenty-five and fifty-cent denominations. These pieces of paper are used very widely as currency and often circulate for several years before they are returned to the THE MISSIONARY HAS ADDED TO HIS NUMBERLESS OTHER TASKS THAT OF THE BUSINESS MAN TO WHOM VERY LARGE PROPERTY AND FINANCIAL INTERESTS ARE IN- TRUSTED. THE WORLD IS NOW SPENDING NEARLY FORTY MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR ON FOREIGN MIS- SIONS. THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS New York oflBce for collection. Not long ago a twenty-five-cent bill was returned which had been out about thirty years. It is interesting to note that during that entire time the negotiable value of that paper rested solely on the credit of the missionary society. Throughout the mis- sion fields the drafts of the mission boards are well known in banking circles and among the money changers. In such a country as China, where the national currency is chaotic, these drafts are a much more satisfactory form of money than many of the bills which have been endorsed by the local banks or by the state. When the War broke out, as every one remem- bers, foreign exchange was badly demoralized. I was in India at the time and recall a certain hot Sunday which, but for the mercy of a British railway officer at a small station, would have been meatless, wheatless, and even entirely eatless, because my only negotiable paper hap- pened to be an American draft, the like of which no one had ever seen before and which everyone was therefore afraid to honor. Woe unto the man in those days who was away from estab- lished bank communications and without the universal medium of an English sovereign. For some months after the War began the missionaries were in much the same precarious financial condition as I was for the single day. American exchange, which at normal is better than 300 rupees for 100 gold dollars, dropped down to 247 rupees. Nevertheless, mission bills [213] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA had to be honored promptly. The result was that those missions which lacked well-fortified bank credits or which were under standing orders from home to sell their drafts without delay, were compelled to turn in their dollars and receive in exchange the equivalent of about eighty-three cents. Dr. Rockwell Clancy, treasurer of one of the largest American missions in North India, had for several years, all unknowingly, been prepar- ing for such a day of reckoning. His maneuvers during those first trying months not only illustrate some of the duties of a mission treasurer, but also reveal something of the skill with which those duties may be discharged. When Dr. Clancy first took hold of the finances for his mission he found many difficulties con- fronting him. During an earlier period of mis- sionary history the individual missionary had been allowed no little freedom in the manage- ment of the affairs of his institutions. As a result many of the mission properties were heavily mortgaged at high rates of interest. Again, al- though there were large sums of money flowing into the various missions each year, no effort had been made to build up a centralized credit in which the resources of the group could be pooled for the common good. As rapidly as possible Dr. Clancy established a strong credit with one of the banks. Then he began the refunding of mortgages by the simple process of going to each creditor, with the money in his [ 214 ] THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS hand, the day a loan fell due and offering either to pay up the mortgage with money he had borrowed from the bank or to renew it at a lower rate. Eight per cent interest was cut to seven, and seven to six and one half. Having been around the circle and effected a first reduction, he went around again the next year and cut the interest another one-half per cent. At length he reached rock bottom, but meanwhile he had drawn the attention of the banks to his methods and won their confidence. In time he was able to clear nearly all the mission property and then to secure a credit of several himdred thousand rupees. When the outbreak of the War demoralized the exchange rate, Dr. Clancy was able to hold his drafts and borrow at the bank to meet his regular expenditures. Many other missions were compelled to offer their drafts for sale and take whatever was offered. In a few months trade began to flow in from across the Pacific, the demand for and respect for American paper in the Indian market increased proportionately, and when the exchange reached par Dr. Clancy sold his drafts without loss. A few months ago I cashed a draft with him at the rate of 310. The next week in Bombay I offered a similar draft to one of the largest banks in India and received only 305. I protested, re- marking that Clancy of Delhi had given me the better rate. The cashier looked incredulous. The next day the manager of the bank invited me [215] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA into his private office and put me through some questions. Was I sure that Clancy was selling his drafts for 310? Yes, he had made an arrange- ment with one bank to handle all his drafts at that rate for the next three months. The manager knew Clancy and thought he knew the Indian banks, but the high rate was mystifying. At length he confessed to me that the best his bank was able to get for these same drafts was 308. The volume of mission business in Shanghai is so large that it has been found profitable for six of the larger organizations, the Baptist For- eign Missionary Society, the Boards of Foreign Missions of both the Northern and the Southern Presbyterian, the Northern and Southern Meth- odist Episcopal Churches, and the London Mis- sionary Society, to establish joint offices in which different departments are created to handle specialized kinds of work. While there is no actual consolidation such as would be involved in the actual pooling of credit, one man takes entire charge of the selling of drafts for all the boards; another has charge of transportation. This office is also being used by some of the smaller missions which are not definitely repre- sented in the offices. The next step in Shanghai would seem to be the establishment of a joint purchasing agency for all of the missions. The obstacle to be met in such a venture is one which frequently crops up as the missionary organiza- tions seek to develop further efficiency and econ- omy in management: mission work is carried on [216] THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS without capital other than property investments. The money is contributed from year to year for immediate use. It is difficult to create capital funds which may be carried over from one year to another, and used as seems wise to take ad- vantage of the opportunities which arise in the transaction of so large a business. The distribution of American-made goods through the missionaries reaches proportions which few people realize. The total foreign staff of missionaries from the United States and Canada is now over 11,000 and is increasing at the rate of 700 a year. The foreign community thus created, including wives and children, is much larger than that. In addition to the per- sonal wants of these people, there are the de- mands for equipment for their work. The missionary is therefore a buyer of every conceiv- able commodity, from needles to musical instru- ments and traction engines. One mission board a few years ago sent an entire shipload of Oregon pine to Shanghai. Hardware for buildings is purchased almost entirely in America. Rice-mills are sent to China, portable saw-mills to Africa, and electrical apparatus goes everywhere. Not long ago an American doctor found him- self commissioned to depart into one of the waste spaces of Korea and build a hospital. He was in urgent need of a larger water supply. Turning to his mail-order catalogue, which in most missionary homes shares the most con- venient shelf with the Bible, he found a picture [217] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA of a windmill which would exactly answer his purpose. He sent in his order, and received the windmill just as he might have received a pair of shoes or a baby carriage. The instructions were so complete that with the aid of native assistants he was able to assemble the parts and erect his mill without difficulty. Now the natives come many miles to see the example of Yankee ingenuity which draws and distributes water without the aid of human labor. Incidentally it may be noted that the increased earning power of mission school graduates is developing immense sources of new wealth in Asia and is increasing the purchasing power of the natives to a very marked degree. A mission- ary at Penang, on the Malay Peninsula, has estimated that the earning capacity of his school graduates has increased on the average from twenty-five dollars a month to seventy-five. At that rate the 8,000 boys who pass through the schools of that region in a generation have a total increased earning capacity of nearly $5,000,- 000 a year. When one remembers that every educated Chinese boy in that country insists on wearing European style clothes and foot-wear, and carries not only a watch but also a fountain pen, one realizes how very great is the influence of the missions in developing new markets in Asia. Another interesting phase of foreign missionary business is printing and publishing. The mis- sionary introduced the modern printing press into Asia and Africa to supply the printed matter [ai8] THE SPIRIT OP NEW CHINA 18 NOWHERE MORE IN EVIDENCE THAN ON THE NEW ATHLETIC FIELDS WHICH WERE FIRST INTRODUCED BY THE MISSION SCHOOLS AND WHICH ARE NOW BEING MULTIPLIED AMONG THE GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS. THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS necessary for the propagation of the work. At first the chief output was Bibles, tracts, and school books. The business has constantly ex- panded until it now includes as wide a variety of jobs as will be found in many publishing houses in the United States. I have in mind one such house, in Singapore, which did a business last year of $80,000, and showed a profit of over $10,000, all of which was used to extend the less remunerative evangelistic work. This estab- lishment is the largest educational supply house in the Straits Settlements, and publishes more books each year than all of the other printers put together. There are about eighty employes, only three of whom are Europeans. Eight or ten languages are spoken in the shop and literature is published in eight languages. Last year this house put out, in addition to its regular run of religious literature, three geographies, as well as a dictionary of the Malay language. Most missions are now finding it more profit- able to let out their printing to native establish- ments, many of which owe their origin to the training offered in the mission press. It is doubt- ful whether there will ever be a greater extension of the mission printing business, but the work of publishing will probably assume much greater proportions. There is now no new opportunity open to the missionary which promises better rewards for the effort than the creation of new national literatures. The property holdings of the various American [219] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA mission boards are probably in excess of $150,- 000,000. It is utterly impossible to know what proportion of this amount represents original in- vestment and what ought to be charged as appreciation in value. There is no form of real estate investment which is more sure to show large appreciation than that spent on mission property and buildings for missions. Mission property, because of its well-kept appearance, the quality of the buildings, and the improve- ment of sanitation, almost always attracts the better class of native property owners, the result being the development of a select community and large increases in values. The relatively low cost of land and of building, and the large gifts from the native constituency mean that mission properties acquire a value all out of proportion to what similar investments at home would amount to. Mission organizations do not escape the vague charge that is some time or other brought against most philanthropic societies, that their overhead expenses are so large as to eat up most of the funds contributed before they actually reach the fields. A brief description of the channels through which missionary money travels between the time when it leaves the contributor's pocket and when it is applied to the work will show how baseless is the suspicion. The constituency from which the money is collected is the membership of the denomination. That membership may be less than 1,000,000 [220] 1 THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS people represented by 5,000 congregations, or it may be 4,000,000 in 30,000 different churches. The average contributions of these constituents do not equal a penny a day. The problem of collecting that money closely parallels that of an insurance company which collects its pre- miums in small weekly payments. The overhead expenses for such forms of insurance are notori- ously high, but in the collection of missionary funds there is relatively little expense, because every church organization, every Sunday school, and every local missionary society acts as a collection agency, sending in one hundred cents of every dollar to the treasurer. The cultivation of this constituency is done largely by the oflScers of the various missionary organizations in the local church and by the minister. All of this service also is without cost to the missionary administration. The only out- side help which the local church receives usually comes from the missionary who is home on furlough once in six or seven years. The expense of the missionary's furlough salary is relatively small, so small that many missionaries complain bitterly about it, and in any case the mission boards would be compelled to bear this charge whether the missionary were engaged in stim- ulating contributions or not. The bulk of the expense involved in gathering the money which is sent to the fields is in the production of literature and other publicity material such as lantern slides. The overhead charges for administrative [ 221 ] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA work are almost exclusively for the maintenance of a single office, where the complex work of collection and distribution of funds, education, selection of missionaries, and direction of the work in foreign lands is centrahzed. The total overhead expenses of the various boards fluctuate from year to year between five and ten per cent, the average being about seven. In view of the very high quality of ability de- manded in missionary administration, both in the direction of work on the various fields and also in the cultivation of the churches at home, it is a question whether the usual overhead charges could not be greatly increased, with a proportionate increase in the extent and efficiency of the entire work. One of the most serious defects in present missionary organization lies in the custom of depending upon the missionary himself to finance large parts of his own work, through the cultiva- tion of special gifts. As indicated in a previous chapter, a missionary is frequently sent to a station where the appropriations from home do not cover more than one half or even a third of the budget for current expenses. He is expected to secure the balance of the money from individuals at home whom he may be able to interest. While these fimds are usually handled by the boards treasurers and are noted in the annual reports,* they represent a most costly method of financing work. At least a half-dozen years are required for a i [ ^^^ ] I THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS missionary to learn the language and accumulate sufficient experience to prepare him for maximum usefulness in the work. By that time he has become a highly trained specialist, whose capabil- ities cannot be duplicated except by a similar process of selection, training, and experience. Many of these men tell me that they are now compelled to spend more than half of their time in writing letters and in the preparation of re- ports for their own personal constituency. It is probably not an overestimate to say that the potential efficiency of the present missionary force is not over fifty per cent of what it would be if all the money for the work could be raised without the necessity of the direct personal solicitation of the missionary. Again, the person who is most successful in raising money may not be the most effective missionary on the field. In such cases there is a great tendency for the money to be apportioned not so much with reference to the proportionate needs of the entire work as to the location of the missionary who secures the gifts. A still more serious defect of this condition is that when the missionary is at home on furlough he is per- mitted practically no time for rest or for such further technical study as his special tasks on the field may demand. The missionary now has to specialize in the educational and medical fields to such an extent that it is absolutely necessary that he have opportunities for post- graduate studies, such as are possible only when THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA he is on furlough. Thus, in at least three differ- ent ways the missionary work abroad is heavily taxed in eflSciency, because the mission boards at home have never effectively organized to take over completely the work of securing the in- creasing contributions which the growing work requires. The problem of securing contributions to foreign missions may be considered essentially a problem in advertising. There is a select constituency which in the United States amounts to about 25,000,000 people, namely, the Protestant church membership. The existing ecclesiastical organ- izations are in direct contact with this great mass of people and are channels of effective communication with the membership. This con- stituency is already partially sold to the idea of foreign missions. It is committed to the work to the extent of approximately eighty cents a per- son annually. Certainly there are few advertis- ing propositions possible today which would start with so many conditions in their favor. A closer examination of the figures reveals the fact that the constituency is cultivated very unevenly and that it responds not at all in pro-# portion to the wealth. The per capita contribu-"^ tions to foreign missions vary among the larger denominations from ninety cents a member to a little less than two dollars and twenty cents. In general, the larger the denomination, the|^ smaller the per capita contribution. The United Presbyterian Church, which has a membership ; [224] I r. 1 -.JmK ^S ^ IT IS ESTIMATED THAT THE RICH PLAIN OF WHICH THESE PADDY FIELDS ARE A PART HAS SUPPORTED A POPULATION OF MORE THAN FIVE THOUSAND PEOPLE TO THE SQUARE MILE. MORE RECENTLY THERE HAVE BEEN LARGE EMIGRATIONS TO BORNEO AND MALAYSIA. PRIMITIVE INDUSTRIAL METHODS ARE STILL ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY EMPLOYED. • .* I Loot THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS of only about 160,000, contributes nearly four dollars a year for each member. The Presby- terians, with 1,500,000 members, give about a dollar and a quarter; the Methodist Episcopal Church, with nearly 4,000,000, gives only a dollar and six cents. It is a matter of common knowl- edge that when this $20,000,000 a year which is contributed from all the churches is viewed from the angle of the individual church, it is found that it is practically all being given by less than a third of the church members. Two-thirds of the Protestant church members give almost nothing to foreign missions. The development of contributions in this vast constituency ought to prove increasingly easy. The War, in which so many of the backward races are freely and eagerly participating, is creating a new sense of friendliness among the white race for peoples with a tinted skin. The War is also widening the horizons of people who have hitherto had only a parochial outlook. The coming peace conference will be face to face with the question of how to apply the principle of self-determination to races which are obviously not yet prepared to determine matters for them- selves. It ought to be very easy to urge the value and the necessity of foreign missions in these days which are just ahead of us. President Wil- son recently said in a letter to a missionary now home on furlough: *T entirely agree with you in regard to the missionary work. I think it would be a real [225] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA misfortune, a misfortune of lasting consequence, if the missionary program for the world should be interrupted. That the work undertaken should be continued and continued ... at its full force, seems to me of capital necessity, and I hope for one that there may be no slackening or re- cession of any sort. I wish that I had time to write you as fully as this great subject demands, but I have put my whole thought into these few sentences and I hope you will feel at liberty to use this expression of opinion in any way that you think best." As a matter of fact, the subject of foreign missions has not always been presented in terms to which the average church member will re- spond. He has not seen in it a world movement in which humanitarian purposes are mingled with those of self-preservation for civiHzation itself. The facts as to the moral and spiritual impover- ishment of the non-Christian races are unchanged and must be as potent an argument as ever to those who support foreign missions because of its evangelistic purpose. On the other hand, for those who have dismissed the older mission- ary appeal with the answer, uttered or unex- pressed, that "their religion is good enough for them," there is the challenge of the new world which the War is creating, a world of freedom and democracy. To quote President Wilson, again: "Religion is the only force in the worl< that I have ever heard of that does actualb transform the life; and the proof of the tranS' [226] THE BUSINESS SIDE OF MISSIONS formation is to be found all over the world, and is multiplied and repeated as Christianity gains fresh territory in the heathen world." The facts to support this statement are ample and easily available. The increase of gifts for foreign missionary work is largely a matter of setting these facts before the people. The fact that contributions in the United States, and with some exceptions in England, have not only held their own during the period of the War, but have actually increased, would seem to indi- cate that the Protestant Church has already begun to respond to the new appeal. [227] FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD-WIDE DEMOCRACY CHAPTER XI FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD-WIDE DEMOCRACY Permit us to introduce Mr. Hoong, the $50,000 senator from Chung-chung. That is not his name and that isn't the place he comes from, but it is what he paid for his seat at Peking. Mr. Hoong lives in a magnificent house in one of the provincial capitals of China. The street which leads past it is wide, at least twenty- five feet wide, and it is paved with long slippery flag stones. Opposite the entrance is a high wall, with sides bent in like a barricade. This wall is a part of the house architecturally, although on the opposite side of the street and necessarily detached. The purpose is to thwart the ingress of the evil spirits who can fly only in straight lines. They are diverted from entering the door because they have either already smashed their heads, like bats, against the wall, or have had to tiu-n around it, and then, when they got under way again, found themselves headed up the street. Also, that wall opposite the door, in direct proportion to its width, height, and dis- tance from the house, measures the degree of social altitude of the family. We pass in turn another sharp corner, also arranged for the confusion of the evil spirits, [ 231 ] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA and find ourselves in the first courtyard. The servant takes our cards, bows, arranges them like a fan with the most honored card closest to him, holds them up over his left shoulder, then faces towards us, and we follow him through some more courtyards, around some more angular spiritual barricades, and at length are shown into the reception room. We take seats in lowly places at the side; at our elbows are little square inlaid tables such as those with which China- town restaurants have made us familiar. The servants bring steaming perfumed towels with which to wipe our faces, and then tea. The wives, or perhaps just the women-folks, begin to peek in at the side door in the rear, like chil- dren from the nursery. Mr. Hoong enters. As he approaches he puts his hands together in his long sleeves, making a muff, bows many times, and draws in his breath continuously through his teeth with a sharp hissing sound. He is glad to see us. Those seats are not suffi- ciently honorable for such distinguished guests. Almost before we know it we are escorted to the end of the room, to a dais, back of which hang some beautifully lettered scrolls and a painting, and are seated in magnificently carved chairs which would be the envy of the Metropolitan Mu- seum. "Servant, bring some better tea for these honorable guests from Across-the-Ocean-Land." Mr. Hoong speaks no English, but he is par- ticularly appreciative of the honor we have done him in calling. He is soon to go to Peking and [232] EVER SINCE THE BOXER UPRIS- ING, THE FOREIGN LEGATIONS HAVE MAINTAINED SUFFICIENT TROOPS WITHIN THE LEGATION QUARTERS AT PEKING TO AFFORD TEMPORARY DEFENSE, AND AT TIENTSIN VERY MUCH LARGER NUMBERS OF TROOPS HAVE BEEN ASSEMBLED. THESE ARE MOUNTED AMERICAN MARINES GAL- LOPING THROUGH A PEKING STREET. I FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY wishes to confer with us to obtain our advice as to what can be done for China. If it is con- venient he will call upon us tomorrow at ten o'clock. Yes, he is honored that we wish to take a picture of his humble self seated there on the dais with the other honored guest in his miserable house. Thus Senator Hoong pays his tribute to Western civilization and to Christianity. I was intro- duced by a missionary. He knew nothing of me personally. To him I was merely the repre- sentative of those vaguely outlined lands in the West whence come great new ideas of which he knows little. He lives in a city, half a million large, which was opened to foreigners only a score of years ago; there are not twenty -five Europeans in the city even now. In this spirit China is opening its doors to the West, particularly to Americans. The Chinese are predisposed to accept and honor every American as an ambassa- dor. They come to him in representative capac- ities. Any American who goes to China today, in business, as a tourist, or as a missionary, whether his talents be small or great, finds that his immediate world is increased a hundred fold. He is himself, plus all that Uncle Sam is in gen- erosity, justice, and character. Senator Hoong called as agreed, the following morning, bringing with him two tins of tea, bound together with paper string and decorated with roses. The bowing, hissing, and other formalities finished, I began to make compli- ments and ask questions. £233] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA "It is a very distinguished honor you do me, to make this call." The senator made another muff, hissed and bowed three times. "You are about to undertake grave respon- sibilities in Peking," I suggested. More hissing and bowing. "What about the machinery of elections?" I asked. "How is a senator elected in China.'^" "By the provincial assembly," he explained. "Each senator is elected for a term of six years. There are three classes, so that one-third of the membership of the Senate is changed each two years. The provincial assembly is made up of four hundred representatives who have been elected directly by the citizens. Each citizen must possess $5,000 as a qualification for voting. In some districts forty voters elect a representative to the provincial assembly." "Is there no demand for the extension of this rather limited electorate.'^" I asked. "How about the $2,000 man?" "Oh, that matter of a voter's qualifications is all left to the election board. The $5,000 limit is not always enforced. The officials use their discretion." Shades of Tammany ! Would we not do him the honor to come with him to the best restaurant in town and have a feast .f^ — some other callers, meanwhile, having arrived. Of course, we would accept with pleasure. We got under way, the senator bringing up in the rear with the missionary. "See that man in the ricksha?" called the [234] FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY missionary to me as we strolled along. **He is the head of the electric lighting plant." "He doesn't look the part. Does he know anything about electricity?" "Not the slightest," he replied. "Neither does his first assistant, nor his second assistant, nor his third. Probably the tenth man down the ladder does the work. America has nothing on us when it comes to government jobs." This is a glimpse of China as it is today. I pass over the details of the feast. The menu contained no sea-slugs and no pig's stomach. In addition, each guest confined himself fairly well to that arc of the central dish which was tangent to his side of the table. We had some more talk about the condition of China. "Is China on the up or down grade?" I asked. "Conditions are very bad," they all agreed. This was just before the outbreak of the recent revolution. The military were becoming oppres- sive. The soldiers, men from other provinces, recruited from the lowest classes, were terrorizing the civilians. Only the day before some of them had assaulted some women teachers just outside the city wall. "How, then, is China going to pull out of this hole?" I asked. "She must borrow some more money," replied the Senator. "Can you not help China to borrow some more money from America?" "But timt dpe^ not seem to reach the heart [^35] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA of your difficulties," I suggested. "What about the character of your government?" There was a moment of silence. Then one of the guests spoke up, very earnestly, "There is no hope for China until we are able to elect a few more honest officials like Mr. Hoong." And Senator Hoong paid $50,000 for his seat. Meanwhile, the revolution came and went and there was no longer even a Senate for Mr. Hoong to sit in. This story illuminates the subject of democracy in Asia. That the scene happens to be China is incidental. One might have experiences from which similar conclusions can be drawn almost anywhere in the East. The events of the last few years have been teaching us that democracy is not safe at any single point around the world until it is safe at every point. So long as any one unit is out of step, the entire league of nations is imperiled. We must look far beyond the present conflict to weigh the full measure of this fact. Suppose, for the moment, that what we so much desire has already been accomplished: assume that the War has been won, and the peace settlements determined which will, so far as is possible, safe- guard the world from a recurrence of so great a calamity. Will the world then be safe for democracy .f^ One has but to glance at the map to see that fully two-thirds of the earth's surface, and an equal proportion of the population, lie quite [236] FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY outside the primary concerns of the European conflict. We may be fully resolved to enforce a settlement which will protect the weak and backward nations and races from aggression, but we must realize that no victory of arms can protect this two-thirds of the world from its internal weakness and disorder. We must go back to the word with which this book began: Democracy is not merely a catch- word of the War; it has become the watchword of the world. The War has accentuated the ideal and accelerated its growth; but long before the War began, the ideal had thrust down its roots in many soils where republican institutions were plants of exotic growth. Portugal and China became nominally republics; Mexico was in an uproar; the Philippines and Java were restless; the blacks of South Africa were threatening to debate the question of whether they must give way to a "white man's country"; and many a South American government tottered on a foundation that claimed the name, and yet lacked the con- tent of liberty, equality, and brotherhood. Merely to review the world's unrest of the last decade is to have revealed how great is the task to which the world has roused itself. It is evident that one must look elsewhere than to the camps and courts of Europe for the leader- ship, methods, and resources to make the world safe for democracy. One may reach this con- clusion without underestimating the stakes of the present conflict, and without undervaluing [237] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA the quality of the heroism which it has en- listed. If the world is to become safe for democracy, every nation must not only be safeguarded from invasion and spoliation, but also must be made strong enough internally to maintain for itself justice and liberty. Until that day shall come in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, as well as in many parts of Europe, the world cannot be safe. One of the great movements with which the statesmen will have to reckon immediately after the close of the War is the democratic drift of the Orient. The American policy in the Philip- pines, followed by the proclamation of Allied principles to fight for the protection of weak nations, has stimulated the imaginations and ambitions of the Asiatic races mightily. Not long ago a delegation of Dutch officials visited the Philippines. They were lavishly entertained, and one day went to see that great American institution, a baseball game. The contestants were some American soldiers and a nine drawn from the native constabulary. It happened that the latter won, whereupon the soldiers gave the Filipinos a cheer. "Do Americans take off their hats to Filipinos and cheer them.f^" asked the astonished visitors. "Certainly, when they win; why not?" was the reply. Shortly after that, the Dutch Government made an additional appropriation of $5,000,000 for popular education in Java. [ 238 ] MANUEL QUEZON, FIRST PRESI- DENT OF THE FILIPINO SENATE IN THE GOVERNMENT OF ONE OF THE FILIPINO PROVINCES. QUEZON IS GENERALLY REGARDED AS THE MOST INFLUENTIAL FILIPINO AS WELL AS ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR. THE ELEVATION OF SUCH MEN TO HIGH OFFICE UNDER A REPUBLICAN SYS- TEM OF GOVERNMENT HAS GREATLY STIMULATED THE DEMOCRATIC MOVE- MENT IN ASIA. FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY The entrance of the United States into the War was hailed with jubilation. The leaders in India and China feel that the Americans will be their steadfast friends in the coming peace conferences, holding out for the application to Asia as well as to Europe of the doctrine of the rights of weak nations. China seeks protection from aggression; she wishes to be permitted to manage her own affairs. India is insistently de- manding that she be granted great extensions in the privileges of autonomy, and these demands are already being met in a spirit of great gen- erosity by the British Government. There is little doubt that the Netherlands East Indies will also share in the benefits of a democratic peace. The entire Orient is beginning to stir with self- consciousness. The Pan-Asia Movement, though small, perhaps too small to be worthy of serious attention at present, is indicative of a new life and vitality that hitherto have been quite un- known in Asia outside of Japan. After the War is won, we shall have to solve the other prob- lem of conserving the results of the victory to those neglected and restless areas of the East. One has not to look farther than to our neigh- bor, Mexico, to see how the weakness of a weak nation may threaten the well-being, and prac- tically the peace, of even her strongest neighbor. China affords another illustration. Japan claims, and with justice, that the disorganization of China is a menace to the security of her Empire. [239] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA She does not, perhaps, reaHze so clearly that the instability of the Chinese Republic is a very disturbing factor in the American experiment in the Philippines. The United States has dared to lift a small, weak, and neglected race of people almost to the point of self-government. The experiment gives promise of success, but that success is dependent, not only on the peace of the Orient, but also on the safety of the Orient for democracy. Let us turn to India. The movement for Home Rule is no slight affair. The British Government is recognizing its sweep and force by changes in administrative policies that are almost revolutionary. India is demanding full autonomy in the management of internal affairs. She has asked that four-fifths of the members of the provincial legislative councils, and an equal part of the Imperial Council, shall be elective. But India, neither internally nor externally, is safe for democracy. She has no unity of language, race, or religion; her social system is aristocratic and divisive. Looking forward into the next century, one must see that the destiny of India is bound up with the settlement of the entire Oriental question. England must keep her hand on India, just as we must watch over the Philip- pines, until such a time as the Orient becomes safe for weak races, until the weakness to which republican governments are liable will not expose her to the aggressions of some covetous and efficient neighbor; or, until India herself has been [240] FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY able to underlay her republican institutions with substantial foundations. Since the War began, I have visited every continent save one; I have been within sound of the guns on each side of the firing line in Europe; I was in Peking when the waves of the newest revolution broke in China. It is my observation that the War has accentuated pride of race, desire for complete self-government, and the establishment of democratic institutions around the world. The demands which have been made upon the backward races and the non- Christian nations to join in the struggle, have greatly exalted these peoples in their own estima- tion and in the regard of the whole world. This very fact increases the difficulty of the problem which we shall have to face in the very near future. There is not a non-Christian nation to- day in which democracy is safe; and there are several so-called Christian nations, in which the form of Christianity has been so constrained and perverted that democracy is hardly secure. Without wishing in any way to displace the soldier in the affection and loyal support of all lovers of justice and right, I would place beside him the foreign missionary as equally worthy of the confidence and support of those who are truly determined to safeguard the democracy of the world. I quite realize that the foreign missionary has never won his way to popular enthusiasm. He has been dismissed as a visionary and a bother. [241 ] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA His work has seemed to many both unnecessary and prosaic. Even the Church, which sent him to his task and maintained him there, has never, perhaps, taken him quite so seriously as she now takes her other sons who go to France. The Church at large has known little more than the general public of what the foreign missionary is really doing. To many, his task has seemed like a rather hopeless race with death to save a few thousand souls from hell. Indeed, the missionary himself, lost in the immediate duty, has not always been able to measure the full circle of his influence. It is only within the last few years that the dimensions of the work of Christianizing the world have come to appear in their full proportions. And yet it is true, to a very large degree, that the missionary has been the carrier of the dem- ocratic ideal to the four corners of the earth. He has preceded the explorer and the trader in opening up the highways of commerce. It was through the missionary, and those who came in his train, that the vague forces, which taken together we call Western civilization, began to impinge upon the barriers erected by backward races. Others in more recent years have carried in the trade and the devices of civilization, but it has been left largely to the missionary to carry the idealism out of which civilization itself has come. The Bible has gone out to the ends of the earth. None of us stopped for the moment to [242] FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY remember the political, economic, and social consequences that have always followed the circulation of the Bible. Now we find the back- ward races in commotion. They follow the open Bible, as harvest follows seedtime. The missionary first asks for religious liberty, and then proclaims the inclusive and sweeping doctrines of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. He establishes schools which not only teach the elementary branches, but set the example of equality by opening their doors to the poorest and most oppressed. The missionary hospital places a new value on the human body and sets standards for the con- servation of life. It teaches charity and mercy. Through these channels go out the very influences which create the ideals of brotherhood and democracy. The missionary does not force conflicts with existing laws. He appeals to something far more fundamental and persuasive — to public opinion; and, just in proportion as he gains the support of public opinion, the old order begins to crumble. When the missionary makes a convert, he makes a radical. With all the tact he possesses, and he usually has a good deal, he says in effect: The religion of your father and mother was wrong. When the convert accepts baptism he must, as it always has been, forsake his father and his mother. He must also repudiate the entire social system which has been the meat and [ 243 ] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA I drink of his family, clan, nation, and race. What wonder, then, that the Christian convert is a man with capacities for radical thought and action? The young men and women then enter the missionary school, and there fashion and sharpen the weapons that become their superior equip- ment for the spreading of the new ideas they have acquired. The student learns to care properly for his body, thus finding an effective instrument to support his new convictions. His mind is trained and disciplined, so that he goes back to his people better able than they to think clearly, and to reach sound conclusions. He carries with him a vast fund of idealism drawn Trom all the deposits of a more ejQficient civiliza-< tion. His very presence and superior accom- plishments are sources of worthy discontent among his less-favored brothers. "Every church in Asia," said Bishop W. S. Lewis of the Methodist Episcopal missions the other day, "is a miniature republic. The only trial by jury which the Chinese know, is that which is practiced in the discipline of the Church." The missionary is, without doubt, the chief cause of the fact that America has come to a place of such influence among the Asiatics. Pe»j haps it is partly because of the democratic naturf of that influence, that Japan views with occasional alarm the approach of the United States m\ Eastern Asia. It is evident that the missionary commands [244)] I FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY he approach to the backward races. The Bishop 4 of Calcutta said to me not long ago, when we were discussing the unrest in India: "For thirty years I taught Green's English History to stu- dents in a mission college. I always said to myself, after finishing the course, *If these boys don't appropriate some of these ideals, it will not be my fault.' " Today India is beginning to be vibrant with the ideals, the development of which Professor Green recorded. Equally evident is the fact, that in the future the missionary must carry forward the work to make these ideals safe for the peoples who have adopted them. Until they are safe in Asia, they will not be secure in Europe or in America, for this modern globe is each year becoming smaller. From the beginning most missionaries have realized that their work looked two ways. They were engaged in an effort to bring the individual soul to an experience of personal religion. They have also been laying the foundations of a new social order, remaking a civilization, or even building a new one. Certainly men like Living- stone and Carey saw this. However, early missionary work had, per- force, to confine itseK to the intensive cultivation of a very few people. Usually the first converts were drawn from the servant, outcaste, and coolie classes, or from other low social orders. The upper strata, the literati, the leaders of public opinion, the men well versed in their own native culture, were not attracted. As the £245] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA lower and oppressed classes responded more and more to the Gospel, the upper classes removed themselves farther and farther from it. It was not their habit to join in with the coolie and call him "Brother." The printing press was employed to print tracts, Scripture portions, and Bibles; the hospital was introduced to draw a crowd; and the school was a card of introduction to the home, or a hothouse for intensive spiritual cultivation. The less inclusive definitions of the doctrine of salvation inclined everyone to measure the progress of the work solely by the number of baptisms. When attention was drawn to the fact that among the converts not many wise and not many mighty were called, comfort was found in the fact that Christianity has always first prospered among the lowly. The day of those humble beginnings is past. Christianity is now being carried along on two tides: on the one side, there are masses of people from the lower classes seeking for the Gospel; and, on the other, there are increasing numbers of the educated and influential turning to it. The missionary purpose has not changed, but it has extended itself. It now includes tens of thousands of people where formerly it reached only to tens. It embraces work among all classes instead of being limited to a single group. In addition, it now includes responsibilities for social leadership, of which none of the pioneers could have even dreamed. The work of evangelism still goes on with [246] FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY daily marked acceleration. There are several denominations now at work in Asia, any one of which baptizes in a single year more converts probably than there were Christians at the time of the death of the Apostle Paul. Among these converts the outcastes and lower classes are still largely in the majority. A notable illustration of this fact is seen in the mass movements of India. These move- ments represent, excepting possibly those of Russia, the greatest social phenomenon of the century. They look toward real democracy. Hinduism, the social structure of more than 200,000,000 people, is, to borrow a figure of speech of Bishop W. F. Oldham, a pyramid. At the top are the few Brahmins; at the bottom are forty or fifty million outcastes. They live by themselves in the least desirable part of the village, doing the most menial work; they are regarded by the caste people as literally the scum of the earth, and are treated as such. Their lot is more pitiable than that of slaves. Large portions of this Hindu outcaste population are fairly stampeding toward Christianity, coming to the missionary in groups, even by villages, to seek baptism. It would probably not be a very difficult matter, if it were wise, to baptize in the near future five, perhaps ten million outcastes. They are the foundation of Hinduism. They carry the load. When they move out from under, the entire social structure must topple. The Bishop of Madras, who has been, in India THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA thirty years and who has made a careful study of the subject, said to me: "The outcastes, considered as material on which to work, are not inferior to the Brahmins. When the two classes are received into the same school and given equal opportunities, they do equally well. In fact, one cannot tell them apart after a few years of education. The educated outcaste can enter government service or the Church, and hold his own with any one. There is no reason why the Church cannot make con- verts among the outcastes at the rate of a million a year. That means, that, in forty or fifty years, the entire outcaste population will be Christian. India would then have a Christian population nearly as large as the present Mohammedan section, but far stronger and more influential." But missions have not merely to deal with out- caste Hindus. They have also to reckon with other and quite different people. I searched out the leaders of Mohammedanism in India. At Lucknow I had an interview with the Secretary of the All-India Moslem League, a political organization now seeking to lead the Mohammedans to unite with the Hindus. "What do the Moslems propose to do for India in the matter of religion?" I asked. He looked at me a moment, smiled a little, and said: "We Mohammedans cannot close our eyes to the fact that Islam is a decaying and diminishing institution." At Aligarh, the city of the great Mohammedan [ M8 ] i THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT FINDS IT WISE TO ESTABLISH A QUARAN- TINE FOR ALL RETURNING EMI- GRANTS, WHERE EVERYONE IS CARE- FULLY SCRUTINIZED FOR POSSIBLE DISLOYALTY. DURING THE WAR MANILA HAS BEEN A POPULAR RE- SORT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE PLOTTED TO STIR UP REVOLUTION IN INDIA. FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY university of India, I went to the leading pro- fessors and asked, "How do you state your personal religious faith? What have you, as a Mussulman, to offer to India?" Their replies were almost uniformly the same: "We are not religious men. Islam is not a vital spiritual force in India, and never will be." These men are all of them cultured and well educated; many of them are graduates of English universities. They are practically without re- ligious faith; and, by their own statements, their attachment to Islam is by the slenderest of threads. It is largely fraternal. In Japan I said to a prominent Christian lay- man in whom the pride of race and sense of nationalism run strong: "Do you need any more American missionaries in Japan?" I expected him to assert his national pride, and assure me that Japanese Christianity is quite prepared to assume the responsibility for completing the evangelization of the Empire. To my surprise, he replied: "Yes, we do need American missionaries. We need them for work among our educated and wealthy classes. Our ministers often lack the social qualities and the financial support which would make it possible for them to meet these classes on a footing of social equality." One of the most vigorous manifestations of Christianity in Japan today is that men of great national influence and leadership are studying the Bible and the Christian faith. Hardly a month [249] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA passes without the announcement that some conspicuous Japanese leader has been baptized. The missionary formerly worked months, and even long years, for a single convert, and, when he had secured him, had only a single illiterate man from the lower classes. Now he has access- ible, on the one hand, millions of lower class people; and, on the other, an increasing number of men and women who are already the great leaders among their countrymen. The present mission staff and equipment is adapted largely for dealing with the man of the lower classes, and for dealing with him individually. Slowly the skeleton organization has been expanded and partially filled out; but no church has yet grasped these larger opportunities for personal evangelism, which the last few years and decades have brought. The missionary has been trained and developed primarily for the older work — that among the lower classes. As the opportunity has grown, schools, hospitals, and publishing houses have been added — these also being designed to care for work already under way. Now, with few exceptions, the missionaries on the field are tied down to the direction of these institutions. They must supervise the churches and the native pastors; run the hospital; manage the printing press; keep accounts; and, in the greater pro- portion of fields, cultivate an American con- stituency to meet their increasing needs for more money. Many missionaries are now compelled, [250] FOREIGN MISSIONS AND DEMOCRACY aside from their own salaries, to finance the greater part of their work. There is a man in India whose mission expenses run from 1,200 to 1,500 rupees a month. He receives 300 by appro- priation; the remainder he must raise as best he can. More extraordinary still, is the fact that he actually raises it. I know of relatively few missionaries who are prepared and free to undertake the new work among the upper classes. There is an urgent need in the Orient for highly trained and cul- tured men to meet on common ground the grad- uate of Oxford or Cambridge, the graduate and Doctor of Philosophy from Yale or Columbia. These men, fresh from their studies, often have better and more up-to-date libraries than the missionary could afford to possess. One cannot fairly expect these men to join enthusiastically in the work of a church where practically all the other members are barely literate. Nor are such converts likely to enjoy the ministrations of a preacher with less than a high school edu- cation. The missionary task is so little finished that its present state is precarious. The first impact of Christianity, as well as of Western civilization, is more destructive than constructive. Its in- direct and more extended influence is to destroy or weaken old sanctions before it can create new ones. In the wake of the missionary comes a flood of influences that tend to demoralize. To pry loose from age-long conservatism these [251] THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ASIA peoples of Asia, and then to leave them without adequate leadership before they are able to care for themselves, would be nothing less than perfidy. To relax for one moment the steadying, guiding, inspiring leadership of Christian mis- sions in Asia, while Eastern civilization is in chaos, would be only to permit the present chaos to extend itself. The energetic prosecution of the foreign missionary enterprise is a duty as much as is the prosecution of the War. The world cannot exist half slave and half free, even when the slavery is but the bondage of illiteracy, ignorance, and superstition. We embarked upon a war to safeguard democracy. By the same logic are we impelled to continue the task, both now and after the War be over, of underwriting a world democracy with a world Christianity. There is at hand no other proposal by which the results of the War may be per- manently conserved to the backward races. [262] 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 2 g'iil'64SWr MAY 19 1988 ^ REC'D LD m JUL 2 5 '64-121* l7N!ar'6&AA — REC'D LD m |\PR191988 MAR 5 -es-lZ I FEB 81966 6 Ct^^ Ag'C^^ ^X5'66-3Bi LD 21A-60m-4,'64 (E45558l0)476B General Library University of California VA 038S9 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES CDDtatiboa