province, lumber boats are made up to carry produce to market, the
boats being broken up at Chungking. Return freight which can not be
tracked through the rapids is portaged. Although the Yellow River is
2,500 miles long, it is only navigable 150 miles from its mouth to
Tsinan City, and in short broken sections in Mongolia and Honan. The
loess silt which it carries, and the porous loess bed through which it
flows, make it only a roaring unmanageable spring and summer drain,
China’s sorrow of flood and famine. Its memorable changing of bed to
mouths 300 miles apart, from Kiangsu to Shangtung province in 1854, and
from banks 100 miles apart in the Gobi Desert, are well known.
Most of the riverine and coast, junk and sanpan sails are square or
oblong, but at Ichang there are strange wupan boats which use the
towering peaked sails seen on the Arab dahabiyehs of Aden and the
Nile, the object being to coax down the high breezes of the difficult
gorges of the Yangtze. This is not the only instance in China of Arab
influence in crafts, arts and blood.
Chinese riverine shipping is growing heavily. All flags are seen on
the Yangtze, and several flags in the lower parts of the Kan and Siang
Rivers. The British and Chinese, and some French flags go up the
West and Yu Rivers to Nanning. Chinese shipping on the Liao River to
Newchwang is heavy in the ice-free season. There are scores of other
rivers which will be dredged so that they may feed the steamship and
railroad lines.
The Chinese have an amusing word for captain. “Lao ta” is literally
“old fellow”; because the captain of the old Yangtze rapids boats was
generally the oldest man on board. The captain of the Hakka sanpans of
Canton is often a woman, but she is humorously called “lao ta” with the
rest! China led in all inventions, including woman’s rights!
In the coming great development of Western China, the one name to
inscribe on the tablets is that of the pioneer merchant writer,
Archibald Little, who, after twenty years of effort, broke the veil
of the Yangtze gorges and took the first steamer to open up the ports
of Ichang and Chungking in 1898. This brought him within beckoning
distance of British Burma and Archibald Colquhoun’s propaganda, and
split China in two with the wedge of commerce, despite the obstructive
Tsung Li Yamen at Manchu Peking. Mr. Little’s three books on Western
China are: _Through the Yangtze Gorges_, _To Omi Mount in Szechuen_,
and _Across Yunnan_; and he wrote, moreover, a very important
geological work which places him high as a prospector and explorer.
VIII
AMERICA IN CHINA
Where the Happy Valley Road branches off, one part leading to the
Royal Golf Club, and the other to the Mohammedan, Parsee and European
cemeteries, and Wong Nei Chong valley, Hongkong, on a spot where
Secretary William Henry Seward stood in 1869, there is a monument which
has particular interest for Americans and Britons, and possibly it is
a prophecy of their united work in the future in developing China. The
monument tells its own story of brothers in arms in the dangers of the
Far Eastern seas in lonely days as follows:
_Erected by the officers and crews of the
United States steam frigate Powhatan
and
H. B. M. steam sloop Rattler,
in memory of
their shipmates who fell in a combined attack on a
fleet of piratical junks off Kuhlan (Kowloon)
August 4, 1855.
Killed in the action:
Powhatan.
John Pepper, seaman.
James A. Halsey, landsman.
Isaac Coe, landsman.
S. Mullard, marine.
B. F. Addamson, marine._
The first American treaty is dated 1844 when Caleb Cushing and Daniel
Webster’s son, Fletcher, went to Hongkong, Canton, Macao, etc.,
but American trade began at a still earlier date, when the _Empress
of China_, Captain Green, Purser Samuel Shaw, sailed from New York
on Washington’s birthday, 1784. The ship _Alliance_ sailed from
Philadelphia in 1788 without charts. The ship _Massachusetts_ sailed
from Boston in 1789, armed with twenty six-pound guns, and half the
cargo being useless furs for the southern Chinese! The old Philadelphia
merchants interested in the China trade were of the Archer, Girard and
Rulon families. The Boston merchants who despatched regular packet
ships to Canton were of the Forbes, Perkins, Cabot, Sturgis, Russell,
Cushing and Coolidge families. The first American consuls lived at
beautiful Macao. Major Shaw, purser of the _Empress of China_ was
consul in 1786, Samuel Snow in 1794, and Edward Carrington in 1804. On
November 16, 1856, just before the “Arrow” war, Captain Armstrong, U.
S. S. _Portsmouth_, attacked the Canton (Bogue) forts. This was the
only time America attacked China, except at Peking in 1900. When all
Europe hesitated to befriend the northern states, China issued this
edict to viceroys in 1863: “Keep a careful and close oversight, and if
the Confederate steamer _Alabama_, or any other vessel of war, scheming
how it can injure American property, shall approach that part of the
coast of China under your jurisdiction, you are to prevent all such
vessels entering our ports.”
The American representatives in China were first trade commissioners,
and afterward diplomats, and the tendency now, at least with the
British and Germans, is to have both commissioners and diplomats. The
American officials were the following:
Caleb Cushing, commissioner, 1844 (first treaty).
Alex. H. Everett, commissioner, 1846 (died, Canton, 1847).
John W. Davis, commissioner, 1847.
Humphrey Marshall, commissioner, 1852.
Robert M. McLane, commissioner, 1853.
Doctor Parker, commissioner, 1856.
William B. Reed, minister, 1857 (first minister).
John E. Ward, minister, 1859.
Anson Burlingame, minister, 1861 (remarkably brilliant).
Mr. Low, minister, 1870.
J. B. Angell, minister, 1882 (later president University of Michigan).
Charles Denby, minister, 1885.
Mr. E. H. Conger, minister, 1900.
W. W. Rockhill, minister, 1905.
Mr. Calhoun, minister, 1909.
The most famous secretary of the American legation was Samuel Wells
Williams, the author of the _Middle Kingdom_, etc., and editor of the
_Chinese Repository_. His son serves at present in the Peking legation.
It would take a volume to cover Mr. S. W. Williams’ brilliant work as
interpreter of missions and legations, printer at Canton and Macao,
translator, author, lecturer, secretary, dictionary compiler, professor
at Yale, sinologue, money raiser for the causes of missions and
letters, and diplomat.
[Illustration:
Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
Note the use of English signs. These balconied shops and homes have a
Spanish effect.]
[Illustration:
Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
Modern buildings; wider streets. Note woman with deformed feet
being carried on shoulders of servant; also the healthy alert
boyhood of China.
]
[Illustration:
Copyright, 1913, The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
Where the first treaty between America and China was signed. The
Porta Cerco gate between Portuguese and native China. The treaty
was signed by Caleb Cushing and Daniel Webster’s son, Fletcher,
on July 3d, 1844, the tablets on the gate being of a later date,
and commemorating a Portuguese victory.
]
Daniel Webster had not a little to do with America’s relations with
China. He studied the subject deeply. He suggested the first mission
that secured a treaty, and wrote the president’s message of December
30, 1842, to Congress suggesting the mission. Cushing’s letter of
instructions was signed by Webster, and showed deep knowledge of
Chinese affairs. The treaty was signed in a temple at Wanghai, outside
the Porta Cerco stone gate at Macao; and I would recommend the
pilgrimage to the many tourists who visit the picturesque settlement in
South China.
In 1861 an American, Frederick G. Ward, formed the nucleus of the
Manchu imperialist army which finally overcame the Taiping rebels.
Another American took service with Li Hung Chang as secretary. His
name was W. N. Pethick. He had served in the Civil War in America. Mr.
Pethick had considerable influence with Li, assisting him in treaty
making, reading to him reform and economical books, and taking a
part in urging the crusade against opium. Mr. Pethick died from the
hardships of the siege of Peking in 1900.
When John Hay and Philander Knox secured the assent of the nations to
the American and British doctrine of the non-partition of China, they
were repeating the “square deal” terms of the famous treaty of 1868,
which the brilliant American, Anson Burlingame, on behalf of China,
which nation he was then serving as commissioner, secured from America,
stipulating the “territorial integrity of China, and disavowing any
right to interfere with China’s eminent domain”.
In 1900 the American troops found a great store of silver at Tientsin,
but gave it up, as America returned the Boxer indemnity of 1908, and
the abstention of the American troops from looting in Peking in 1900
set the usual high standard of altruism and soldierly honor which Sun
Yat Sen and Wu Ting Fang say China connects with the name America.
In 1901 Mrs. Conger and the other ladies of the American legation began
the work which threw down the zenana bars which held Manchu and Chinese
women in repressive exclusiveness.
Years ago prominent Chinese made some study of American leaders. Seu Ki
Yu, governor of Amoy and member of the Tsung Li Yamen (Foreign Board
at Peking) in 1866, to whom Secretary W. H. Seward sent a picture of
Washington, composed the following essay:
“Washington was a very remarkable man. In advising plans he was more
daring than our heroes, Chin Shing or Han Kwang. In winning a country
he was braver than Tsau or Lin Pi. Wielding his four-foot falchion he
enlarged the frontier myriads of miles, and yet he refused to usurp
regal dignity or even to transmit it to his posterity; but, on the
contrary, first proposed the plan of electing men to office. Where in
the world can be found a mode more equitable? It is the same idea, in
fact, that has been handed down to us from the three reigns of Yau,
Shun and Yu (the immortal reigns of China). In ruling the state he
honored and fostered good usages, and did not exalt military merit, a
principle totally unlike what is found in other kingdoms. I have seen
his portrait. His mien and countenance are grand and impressing in the
highest degree. Who is there that does not call him a hero?” This essay
was reissued by the republicans in 1911 and had a wide influence in
their propaganda.
The American exports to China, including Hongkong, consisting chiefly
of cotton, machinery, oil, flour and tobacco, were as follows: 1908,
$34,000,000; 1909, $28,000,000; 1910, $23,000,000 (exports to China
from all countries, $305,580,000); 1911, $25,000,000.
The American imports were, in their order, chiefly silk, tea, hides,
wool, straw braid, pig iron, musk, hair, raw cotton, albumen, bristles,
and amounted as follows: 1908, $24,000,000; 1909, $31,000,000; 1910,
$38,000,000 (exports by China to all countries, $251,460,000); 1911,
$32,000,000.
This is but a beginning, as it were, “a little cloud out of the sea,
like a man’s hand”.
America should keep stocks in Manila to attack the Chinese market,
where “time is of the essence of importance”. This applies to iron,
hardware, tinware, structural beams, cottons, woolens, yarn, shoes,
machinery, educational and military apparatus, foods, utensils,
pipes, and everything necessary in municipal, industrial and domestic
development. A Cantonese or Shanghai Chinese does not mind the trip
to Manila to inspect, though he would prefer seeing what America has
to offer in Hongkong, Shanghai, Hankau, Tientsin, Mukden, Chingtu and
Yunnan, if America shortly concludes to take advantage of these seven
strategic trade centers. In the meantime full stocks at Manila would
be a good beginning. Even in disturbed years, such as 1911, America’s
imports from China were $32,000,000, and exports $25,000,000. These
figures are small compared to those that will soon obtain, and, of
course, America desires first to increase her exports of machinery,
drugs, novelties, utensils, loom products, tools, etc.
American food and harvester companies will doubtless yet take up land
directly or indirectly in fertile Manchuria, where America must look
for supplies of vegetable oil, wheat, fertilizer, oil cake for milch
cows, lumber and coal, and a market for machinery and manufactures.
There is a virgin territory seven hundred miles by seven hundred miles,
inviting the agriculturist. The American-Chinese Railway planned in
1910, from Chin Wang Tao, the only ice-free port on the Liaotung Gulf,
to Tsitsikar and on to Aigun on the Amur River, was an excellent scheme
and one which may eventually be accomplished.
The Western Electric Company, of America, installed Peking’s telephone
system. The American Banknote Company set up China’s central bank
engraving department. American companies furnished the stamping
machinery for the new mints. American bridges and locomotives are
frequently seen throughout China. American sewing machines, oil cans
and tobacco papers are on view everywhere throughout the twenty-one
provinces, and the American flour bag, when empty, patches the sails
of the southern junks. Some American presses have come over, but they
do not as yet compete strongly with the British and German presses.
American hotel and kitchen utensils would compete were it not that
the palatial treaty port hotels are controlled as yet by British and
German shareholders. American mining, gas, electric, cranes, sawmill,
cement, flourmill and pumping machinery are coming in, excepting where
foreign contractors and bankers interpose. British shipyard machinery
is still ahead. American protective paints for steel are holding their
own in competition with the British and German paints, especially in
the Yangtze valley. American turbines are slightly ahead, but American
pipes, dynamos, stationary engines, winches, heating plants, dredgers,
condensers, cables, electric fans, bleaching and cotton machinery,
refrigerating machinery, wood-working machinery, water meters, hauling
plants, lamps, etc., are still behind the British and German article,
the British trade exceeding the American four to one. American
machinery, with its generally nicer finish and greater adaptation and
efficiency, has a vast field. In sugar machinery, Japan leads, but
America will pass her. In car wheels, rails, and in simple foundry and
rolling mill output, China can not be competed with for any length
of time. In shovels, ballast unloaders, coal and ore hoists, America
will lead, as she leads in locomotives. In the immense telegraph
development, Britain leads. In water-tube boilers, America leads.
In couplers, roofing, steam hammers and drilling machinery, America
has a fair chance. In military supplies, Germany and Japan lead. In
motor-boats, America will lead, although if time is not important, the
Chinese dockyards can not be competed with in steam launches, which are
now used very largely to tow the cargo junks. In automobiles, America
leads. In family hardware, America and Britain lead. In lubricating
oils, America meets some competition from the Dutch and Russians, but
in illuminating oils, America leads. In fuel oils, the Dutch probably
lead at present, the Shell Company having tanks of Sumatra oil at the
ports. One of them was dramatically punctured with a shell in the
recent revolution. In brakes, Britain and America share the field. In
elevators, America will win. In reinforcing steel, America will lead.
In typewriters, she long ago won the field. In sanitary hardware,
scales, safes, rubber goods, America has an excellent chance. In
phonographs, she has won, but in amusement films, France is ahead. In
milks, Switzerland leads, and France leads in candies. In extensive
systems of harbor improvements, sewerage, water supply, municipal
improvements, power and light plants, institutions, mill erecting,
etc., America will win as soon as the banking department is attached
to the erecting and contracting department. At present the British
and Germans lead, as they have done in South America, because of the
banking department being attached to the constructive and diplomatic.
In sporting goods, drugs, book supplies and school furniture, America
will soon close up on Britain’s lead. In jewelry and fancy goods,
France, Japan, Britain, Germany and America divide the field, in which
there is a fighting chance, with the Chinese themselves as apt pupils
in the competition. In brewery machinery, Japan and Germany lead. In
canning equipment, America could easily seize the kingdom, and give the
world added table necessities and delights from a new realm of sunshine
and warmth. In leather, felt and underwear, America could lead. In
special pianos for the moist climate, Britain leads, but she could be
outplayed. In types, America could win. The field is not for war, but
tournament, and the most efficient should and will win the joust! There
are enough events to provide honors and rewards for each and all. Those
nations which have had high tariffs will suffer most at the beginning
of the competition, because while a high tariff may be the mother
of the trusts, it is seldom the mother of a prodigy in competitive
efficiency.
America’s and Britain’s recognition of the Chinese republic might
naturally raise a temporary discontent in the Philippines, India
and Egypt, but in homogeneity and responsibility these patronized
people can not compare with the Chinese. If it should turn out that
China, like Russia and Japan, is not yet ready for republican or
constitutional self-government, much less is the non-fusible muddle
of Viscayan, Tagalog, Ilocano and Moro, in the lovely summer islands;
Mohammedan and Bengalese and Copt, Fellahin and Sudanese. Altruism is a
sane creature, walking steadily on two legs, and is not going to lose
its head and permit anarchy anywhere just to humor sentimentalism.
Theodore Roosevelt made this plain in his Guildhall speech at London,
which landed Kitchener in Egypt again to finish his work, and it
would apply as well to-day when certain overanxious Filipinos compare
their organization, temperament and constitution with the superior
Chinese. America, like Britain, can strike with the same hand with
which she shakes hands. The civil service and a host of foreign
school-teachers in the Philippines and India is the shaking of hands.
Let the Philippines and India appreciate it in that way. It would
be quite different for them if monarchical Germany, Japan or Russia
controlled. We shall recognize the republican trial in China because
we believe China is homogeneous, educated and patient enough to make
that trial safely, but neither America nor Britain will for a long
time yet permit the trial in the Philippines, India or Egypt. If those
countries ask the Anglo-Saxon why, we have but one answer; “Look at
your history until we managed your interests, and look at our history.”
In recognition of Japan’s power, America has dropped her first line
of defense back to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In a new understanding of
Britain’s oneness with us; of the Philippines linking Australia, India
and Canada; of China’s welcome of our style of government and altruism,
let us, when we have the docks, move our advance line back to the
Philippines; for we mean to have as much to say in protecting China as
any other power, which policy does not involve annoying illustrious
Japan. But we are going to be on the ground, for as far as Russia
and Japan and some others are concerned, they have a land-grabbing
appetite and tendency which is not calculated to give China fair
play in bringing out the great possibilities which are in her, if we
respect her most majestic history. If the complaint is listened to,
and America and Britain should withdraw, consider the kind of liberty
our successors would deal out: the oligarchic rule of Russia, and the
Satsuma and Choshiu nepotism of Japan.
Japan, in traditional Oriental style, has been on occasions alert to
play one nation against another, with the view of gaining an advantage
of slow prodigious China. When the treaty with America was to expire
one year ahead of the termination of treaties with other nations,
Japan extended the latter treaties one year, so that her treaties
with all the powers might expire together. The obnoxious emigration
clause in all these treaties would mainly be taken advantage of,
however, in America’s case, and we should have, if the treaty was
insisted on by a sudden opposition which gained power, the constant
strife of the Japanese labor question in Hawaii, the Philippines and
the Pacific coast states, which strife served the deep purpose that
America, being technically in the wrong, might neglect to press Japan
on greater matters where Japan was taking advantage of treaties, as in
Manchuria and Korea. Some of the adroit Japanese statesmen, instead
of being wounded at our attitude, really enjoy it in secret. Certain
Jingo Japanese, however, would have liked, with this excuse, to have
tried America’s naval strength on the Pacific in 1908, and attempted
the capture of Manchuria, Fukien province, the Philippines and Hawaii,
which test was probably avoided by the dramatic master stroke in
sending America’s great fleet of battleships across the Pacific as
an object lesson to the Nipponite chauvinist. Japan should for the
future be reasonable enough to assent sincerely to an interpretative
emendation of the “most favored nation clause”, so that it will really
mean the “most favored Oriental nation”, as far as the emigration of
laborers is concerned. This will put Japan on a par with China. America
sends no laborers to Japan; Japan has discharged American professors
in Japan and Korea the very moment the Oriental understudy reported
that he was ready to assume charge; America has bought from Japan
vastly more than she has sold to her; the timely loans of America to
Japan, as Mr. Jacob H. Schiff has said in his notable speech of 1910,
enabled Japan to continue the war with Russia until victory was won;
American friendship for Japan enabled that nation to secure larger
treaty stipulations from Russia at Portsmouth than any other host of
the negotiators would have encouraged, and above all, the tactful
American, Perry, opened up Japan to modernity in 1854. Japan’s vaunted
Confucian and Shinto manners should teach her to protect the blood
of her historic friend in his own house, and to respect the greater
expense the American laborer nobly goes to in providing, under greater
difficulties, for the living and education of his family. There should
be no more emigration to the American mainland or Hawaii of Japanese
labor than there is of Chinese. Let the Japanese laborers go to Formosa
and Korea, where there are wide enough opportunities and where their
own government, customs and language rule.