University of Wisconsin Superior - Gitche Gumee Yearbook (Superior, WI)

Page 12 text:

G1TCHE GUM EE TLA.TTEVJLLE THE RISING STAR OF THE ORIENT JAMES R. WALLIN HE present industrial stage of the world is the Atlantic and her encircling lands. Her broad expanse of water opens to receive the commerce of the world. She is the highway of the products of industry. Her ships arc the mistresses of the sea. Her people arc the industrial geniuses of the world. But with the cvcr-onward progress of civilization toward the setting sun, transforming desolate plains and stony mountains into beautiful gardens and spacious storehouses, the broad billows of the Pacific open to receive the implements of modern industry and to bear them to a distant land and to place them in the hands of a new people—a people whose industrial genius has not found superior during all time, a people whose inventive ingenuity was the first to assert itself on the face of the earth. The world’s greatest stage of commercial activity in the future will be the Pacific ocean. The people into whose hands the implements of industry arc to be transferred arc the Chinese. The greatest transformation of the twentieth century will be the transformation of China. We of the western world often regard the Chinese as a people unworthy of our thought and consideration, as a people too conservative to progress in civilization. True, they have been conservative in the past. They were proud, and justly proud, of their achievements. They thought their civilization the highest in the world. They refused Western learning; but that learning was presented to them with an air of pride and exultation. The Chinese have at length thrown aside their prejudices, and have opened their doors for the reception of Western culture. So let us throw aside our false ideas and look the Chinese question squarely in the face, and “render unto China what is her due.” The three things on which national existence depends are religion, government, and industry. In order that any people may maintain their existence in our present day civilization, they must keep pace with the ever-changing ideas of religion, government, and industry. Will the Chinese be able to maintain their existence and to take their place in the developed East? Is China able and willing to keep pace with the ever-advancing ideals of civilization? We often regard the Chinese moral code as one founded on superstition, as a code devoid of any virtue. The fact is, they have a moral code which contains many commendable things. This code was expounded by two of the great philosophers of all time, Confucius and Mencius, men whose thoughts arc at least on a level with those of Socrates or any Greek philosopher. This code embodies the Golden Rule, the highest sentiment in our own religion. It exalts intellectual attainment above military attainment. Nowhere in the world has intellectual achievement been held on so high a plane as it is in China. PAGE TEN

Page 11 text:

to these thousands with eager minds and hands, and, emancipated from the drudgery of industrial slavery, they shall enter into the joyous freedom of creation, where each is a god in his sphere, where art and industry arc one; then the works of man in this American nation shall be like the works of God—made with a free purpose and a free hand. Not only to add new elements is the duty of the chemist, but to cast out the worthless, the destructive. We must eliminate the folly of regarding law as the enemy of liberty—a habit formed under despotic rule and unsuited to government by the people. Anarchy must not breed within our borders because of the unjust policy of Old World despots. We must see that political corruptionists shall not long find their supremacy through influencing those yet ignorant of our language, our government, and our social conditions. We must soften the passion of the Mediterranean and let him know the sufficiency of government in the punishment of wrong. Not only should we cast out the hurtful, but we should retain the good. We must recall the best of the foreigner’s past. We must recognize his true heroes as we expect him to recognize ours. For the love of country of Arnold von Winkelricd is as sublime a patriotism as that which beat in the heart of Nathan Hale. Divine heroism and righteousness of deed should find their acknowledgment in nothing less than the universal heart of mankind. And so, filled with the true spirit of democracy, the desire of the more efficient to lift the less efficient into efficiency,” let us enter into the sublime task before us. Recognizing the humanity in these aliens, we must discern its quality, and knowing the potentialities of each, we must aim to develop the good, though buried deep. And forget not the secret of it all. By the sympathy which the Man of Galilee showed in his work among men, he lifted them from the lowest depths of degradation to the heights of nobility of character. By the sympathy which we show toward these strangers in all the activities of life where men meet men, we shall lift them into the exercise of their powers, we shall aid in their assimilation into this American people. And thus, as with all human deeds, the good shall be to the giver as well a«( to the receiver. America shall receive many fold for the w-ork she will have done. The past shall live again in the lives of these ignorant Italians and Poles and Jews and Greeks. Touched by the magic wand of human sympathy, breathing the free air of a new' opportunity, there shall arise a new' Michelangelo to build a new St. Peter’s, a new Moses W'ith a new and finer moral code, a new Homer with a new epic picturing the wanderings of many peoples, a new Beethoven with new sonatas, a new Goethe with new Fausts. And from this crucible of the nations there shall come forth the golden age of this new empire—this Empire of a Free Humanity. GITCHE GUMEE PAGE NINE

Page 13 text:

Yet Confucianism has been China’s curse! One prevailing sentiment has been the banc of China, and that is ancestor worship. It has held dormant the abilities of a great people. It has frozen the stream of China’s progress. The Chinese have at length realized its destructiveness, and, with their great genius in remedying an evil, they have begun to cast it out. In many places in China, that wealth which was wont to be sacrificed to the spirits of ancestors is now given to the spirits of posterity by dedicating it to the erection of schools and churches of a modern type. “The religious change which has come over China since the Boxer Rebellion is nothing less than a revolution,” which would have been characterized in the western world by war and bloodshed. Christianity is fast taking the place of the old “ancestor worship.” The sabbath has been declared by the empress dowager a legal holiday. The Bible is being read in many of the schools of this country as a text-book. Such a revolution of religious ideas could take place only among a thoughtful, considerate, and progressive people. We often look on China as a country of crude laws, or as a country of no laws at all. She has a well-defined code of laws that has stood the test of three thousand years. She has a governmental organization under whose banners kingdoms have been conquered and tribes subdued until the banner of the Dragon floats over one-fourth of the population of the world and over an area far greater than that of the United States. This government has ruled more people, for a greater length of time, under more adverse circumstances, than any other government in the world. Picture with me the great reform in government that has taken place in China. They realize that reform is necessary to meet the existing conditions. Not too proud to learn from their neighbors, the empress sends a committee to Europe and to America to study other governments, in order more intelligently to reform her own. After three years of diligent labor the ambassadors return to their native city. The empress receives their report for a representative form of government. With the power of this government in her hands, she issues an edict delegating much of her power to the people by declaring that China shall have a representative form of government. The news spreads throughout the country. China rejoices! Bells arc rung! Guns boom! and messages of congratulation and good cheer arc sent to the empress dowager. A holiday is celebrated in honor of this great event. This revolution has no parallel in history. One-fourth of the entire population of the world offered their freedom and a voice in their government by a single edict! The freedom of the French is founded on a river of blood; our freedom is founded on a large lapse of time, struggle and conflict; this freedom was obtained by a single stroke of a patriotic and powerful pen. Search where you may on the pages of history, and you will find no event that had such a widespread influence towards peaceful reform. Could such a revolution take place among a conservative people? Could such a reform be accomplished among any people except a patriotic, altruistic, progressive people? A people who have met and solved their political problems for four thousand years have now shown themselves competent to meet every demand of modern progress. The natural resources of China make her the garden spot of the world, the promised land. Her beautiful, navigable rivers flow through valleys of inexhaustible soil. Her broad plains, stretching as far as the eye can see, need only the magic touch of the modern wand of industry to make them spring forth with useful and beautiful vegetation. Her long extent of coast line is decked with the jewels of commerce, harbors of safety for vessels. Her lofty mountains arc filled with treasures, unlimited iron supply, GITCHE GUMEE PACE ELEVEN