in labor itself. It was for each one to choose whether or not he would work, as it was for him to choose whether he would eat and drink.

Indeed, the Church left economic theories largely alone, if we except her attitude toward interest, and she never explicitly approved or condemned even this during the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, the Latin races have always questioned the justice of taking interest, because they have little conception of the importance of capital as an instrument that multiplies the output of labor when applied to production.

Still another influence determining the attitude of the Latin Americans toward wealth and industry was the fact that their territories were so delightful, so rich, so ample, that it seemed impossible to add appreciably to their beauty, wealth, or greatness by human effort. The very exuberance of Nature subdued the newcomers, who from the first felt themselves incapable of mastering their environment. An identical sentiment explains the stoicism of the Indian, his philosophy of sustine et abstine, of enduring all and dispensing with all.

Europe became known to the Indians, who still form so important an element in Latin America, first through the soldier, the conquistador, who subjugated them. Following him came the encomendero, or royal grantee, and the missionary. The encomendero sought wealth; the missionary preached poverty. The encomendero was more powerful than the missionary, but the native accepted the teaching of the latter. Faced by a choice between the practice of the encomendero and the doctrine of the missionary, and feeling himself able to do without wealth, he elected to embrace the cross of poverty, which he already bore.

Several influences therefore combined to make the Spanish American

look upon money as a mere instrument of pleasure without reproductive value. He has never acquired the capitalist conception of wealth. When the emeralds of Colombia, the sugar of Cuba, the silver of Potosí and Mexico, or the cacao of Venezuela, supplied the Creole with rivers of gold, he spent his money with proverbial prodigality. Let me quote from a description of Good Friday in the Plaza Principal of Mexico in 1840. It is written by Señora Calderón de la Barca, the North American wife of a Spanish gentleman:

'All the plaza, from the Cathedral to the entrance and from the Monte de Piedad to the Palace, was thronged with thousands and tens of thousands of people, all dressed in their finest apparel; and as the sun shone upon the sea of color they seemed like serried ranks of gorgeous tulips. Here was a group of ladies clad in black, with black mantillas. Beyond were others who had already attended Mass. They wore gowns of satin or velvet, and went uncovered. And such a wealth of beautiful hair as they displayed!... All the groups we had seen strolling through the streets on the day before were now gathered here. The wives of the shopkeepers, or even of those of the lower class, wore beautiful gowns embroidered in white, and satin slippers,

although their stockingless feet and ankles were otherwise bare, and brilliant rebozos, or shawls, were thrown over their heads. Country women were also there by thousands, wearing short skirts of two colors, generally red and yellow, for the old traditions persist, - dainty satin slippers, and blouses trimmed and bordered with lace. Then there were groups of brownfaced girls crowned with wreaths of flowers strolling through the admiring crowd playing little guitars. Most striking of all was here and there a dazzling half-caste girl, richly and tastefully dressed, and not infrequently with features of striking beauty. Oftentime her gown would be embroidered with massy gold, and a shawl heavy with gold braid, or else of crêpe de Chine embroidered with brilliant colors, would be coquettishly thrown over her head. I saw many costumes in the crowd that could not have cost less than five hundred dollars.'

The five hundred dollars spent on those costumes, if invested in instruments of production, would have created additional wealth, and would ultimately have given Mexico the capital necessary to attract immigrants, to multiply her population, and to develop with her own resources, independently of Wall Street, her abounding natural wealth.

[THE first of the following articles is from the Peking Leader, an Americanowned daily, of October 10, and was written by Grover Clark, that journal's editor. The second is extracted from a series of articles which appeared in the Manchuria Daily News, an Englishlanguage newspaper published under Japanese auspices at Dairen, Manchuria, between October 5 and 9 of the past year. Its author is Henry W. Kinney, who is also an American.]

I. 1911-1926

On this anniversary of the first open clash in the struggle to establish a republican form of government in China, it is appropriate to ask ourselves what of progress and retrogression the past fifteen years have brought.

There has been a marked falling off of stability and orderliness in the life of the people and in the Government. But there has been an equally marked growth of popular interest in political affairs and a striking increase in the number and variety of efforts to lay the foundations for a new and orderly national life.

Disruption has shown itself in many ways. The militarists and corrupt politicians have bled the national treasury dry, and have wrought such increasing havoc throughout the country that order and security of life and property seem almost to have ceased to exist and there is little authority except that which each petty commander chooses to exercise where his armies give him power.

In the early years of the Republic the railways were extended. They have since been almost ruined, and have become channels for spreading warfare instead of arteries to carry the commercial lifeblood of the nation.

Government schools for a time prospered. But of late they have gone the way of most of the other proper constructive undertakings of the Government through abject poverty, close to complete annihilation.

Trade for a time boomed. But the quarrels and exactions of the militarists have made of commerce little more than the most strenuous efforts to supply the barest necessities.

These things have been glaringly in men's eyes. Yet they fall far short of telling the whole story of the fifteen years.

Instead of a few who were directly concerned because they were or hoped to be officials, hundreds of thousands now are beginning to take an interest in political affairs. Not the students only, but the merchants and the gentry also, are showing their growing feeling of responsibility by giving public expression to their views on many political questions.

Their voices frequently are hesitating and feeble, or loud in unwise ways. But they do speak, and what they say already has had noticeable effect in some cases in influencing the actions of officials and militarists. This popular interest in and sense of responsibility for the management of the Government must grow much beyond its present stage before anything like a real republic will be possible. But it already has grown to important proportions and there can be no popular government without popular interest in governmental affairs.

One element in the growth of popular interest in politics has been the enormous increase in the number of newspapers, magazines, and periodicals of all kinds. Many of these are corrupt or childish, or both. But year by year the standard has risen. Each year, too, has seen more periodicals which are unbuyable and which exercise sane and constructive leadership. Much remains to be done. But a beginning has been made.

The foundations of better things also are being laid in the field of education. Thousands of men have been content to drudge away at inconspicuous and poorly paid work - and as a result millions more can read than ever before. Through various associations, much already has been done to lay the foundations for a primary and middle

school system suited to China's needs. Already a single spoken as well as written language is being taught throughout the country. The private schools of all grades are growing in number, in attendance, and in efficiency. In education only a bare beginning has been made. But more and more men and women of the country are realizing that education is essential. Instead of leaving everything to the Government, they are putting their own time and money into educational development.

The merchants are beginning to develop group self-consciousness and solidarity. They are beginning to see that the common prosperity of all depends on the prosperity of each line of business. So they are uniting in Chambers of Commerce instead of remaining disunited in separate guilds. They are realizing that the interests which bind them together throughout the whole country are much more important than the geographical or other divisions. So the National Chamber of Commerce and the National Bankers Association are gaining steadily in coherence and effectiveness. Here and there the merchants are beginning to refuse to submit unquestioningly to the demands of the militarists. Much development still is needed along these lines. But the development has begun. Along with all these things as both their cause and their effect - has come a truly notable growth of national self-consciousness. The increasing nationalist enthusiasm frequently has expressed itself unwisely. But the unwisdom has been mainly that of immaturity and lack of experience, not of selfishness or personal greed.

No people ever has reconstructed its political and social life or put its own house in order until the separate individuals awoke to group self-consciousness. If there had been in the Chinese character neither seed nor soil from which national self-consciousness could spring, then the outlook would have been dark indeed; there would have been no hope of a great and useful future for China. But the seeds were there, and the soil in which they could grow.

The young sprouts of the new life cause disturbance and confusion as they break through the crust made hard by centuries of quiescence. That is to be expected. But the onlooker who would see the whole picture should keep his eyes free enough from the dust of the disturbances to see that the new plant is there and growing.

No man can say what the immediate future will bring in China, nor what ultimate form her reborn life will take. But the developments of the past fifteen years considering those which have gone on inconspicuously but no less steadily as well as those which have stormed across the surface reasonable promise for the future.

give

Meanwhile patience is needed patience and untiring effort to encourage those movements which are constructive, and to help direct the vigor of the new life into useful channels.

II. WAITING FOR THE EXPLOSION

THE public overseas has not awakened to a realization of actual conditions in China, of the chaos of warfare between rival militarists, of the uncontrolled ravages by those whose swords prevail over civil codes. They have no conception of the pathetic inadequacy of the shadow government in Peking, of the wholesale killing and burning and outrage that have become the order of the day, of the destruction of railways and other means of transportation so that at present no mail can be sent to seven of the twenty-two provinces, of the fantastic fiat currencies issued by

the military leaders, of China's amazingly rapid descent to a level below that of any other civilized country.

Therefore foreign residents in China feel that they can induce the Powers to change their present ineffective policy of laissez faire only by convincing the world that China's troubles are due almost entirely to internal causes, and that the Chinese themselves are doing nothing to correct them, but are merely trying to confuse opinion abroad by insisting that oppressive and unequal treaties are responsible for all their difficulties. Whenever some major outrage occurred, like the indiscriminate firing on foreign vessels by Chinese troops along the Yangtze, these foreign residents fancied that the last straw had been piled upon the back of the long-suffering camel, and that a point had been reached when something more practical than filing notes of protest at Peking would be done to remedy the situation.

If such a change of policy occurs, Great Britain will take the first step. Her interests in China are mainly commercial, and they are of great, though perhaps not vital, importance to her. She has been the principal sufferer of late from Chinese enmity; she has patiently endured boycotts and strikes, and submitted to affronts that she would have resented instantly twenty years ago. The reason for this is obvious. She feared that if she took strong action against Canton, she would lose what trade remained to her in the rest of China. Now, however, that the Cantonese are beginning to extend their control over the whole country, Britain no longer has a motive for such restraint. Her adoption of a stronger policy toward China promises to be the logical consequence of these changing conditions. What that policy will consist of remains problematical at present. Nevertheless, she has made two points very plain - she will protect her nationals and their property from Chinese attack, and she will act alone and not ask the other Powers for help.

Japan, on the other hand, persists in her attitude of watchful waiting. Some time ago she suffered several injuries and affronts from the Chinese, such as the murder of Sergeant Namba by the Kuomingchun forces and the firing on her warships at Taku Bay. But this was at a time when the Powers had agreed to stretch their patience to the utmost in order to ensure, if possible, some measure of success for the conferences then being held at Peking. Since then Japanese nationals and property have not been appreciably affected; and Japan is doubtless wise not to cry out before she is hurt. Furthermore, she has more at stake in China than any other Power. Were Great Britain to lose her Chinese market entirely, it would be a serious blow to her industries, but not a fatal one; for Japan to do so would spell national disaster. Consequently, while we may expect Japan to protect the interests of her nationals in China, she is hardly ready to coöperate in a strong policy against that country.

None of the Powers is more explicit in its attitude toward China than the United States. The Washington State Department has hastened to announce that it will not go beyond its present policy of filing notes of protest in case of injuries inflicted upon its citizens and their property, unless serious hostile measures are taken specifically against them. We take this to mean that unless the American residents in China can manage to be massacred en masse and to confine that experience exclusively

to themselves they can expect little aid from their Government. Apparently the State Department is intent upon pursuing a policy like that of Nelson at Copenhagen, when he put his spyglass to his blind eye so that he might remain comfortably unaware of the portents which should alarm him.

American opinion in China is divided into two distinct camps. A large section of the missionaries and others engaged in welfare work have conducted a vast campaign of propaganda in the United States to show that the Chinese are quite right in their conduct, however outrageous it may appear at times to the untutored mind; while practically the entire American business community in China, and a silent minority of the missionaries, take precisely the opposite view. But since America's eleemosynary interests here are far greater than her business interests, the opinion of the former prevails.

It seems not impossible, therefore, that a situation may arise where Great Britain, Japan, and perhaps other Powers, will reach the conclusion that their present policy of meekness must be replaced by sterner and more energetic measures. If so, they will certainly ask the United States to join them, though making it plain that if she does not choose to do so they will act without her. America has hitherto taken a leading position in the Far East, but while her intentions have been the best and her ideals the highest, they can hardly be considered, in the light of present events, to have borne much fruit. So the time approaches when Washington must accept its responsibilities and adopt more positive policies or see its influence in China rapidly decline.