China and the Far East ...

Preface

The following chapters were first delivered as addresses during the recent second decennial celebration of the founding of Clark University. Under the general direction of the President, Dr. G. Stanley Hall, each Department arranged for a gathering of specialists who should give a series of lectures upon topics of present interest in its special field. The Department of History held a conference upon China and the Far East. The aim was two-fold: first, to emphasize the importance of presenting in school and college work the leading features of the development of the Eastern world — a subject that better illustrates the working of the laws of history, and is of more vital importance to the civilization of to-day, than much that forms the subject matter of the usual history courses ; second, to do its part in furthering a more general and accurate knowledge of Far Eastern conditions.

During the nineteen sessions of the conference, the lectures and papers of the forty-five authorities who took part in the meetings covered nearly every aspect of the situation in the Orient — political, social, economic, military, educational and religious. It was the original intention to publish all of the proceedings in a single volume, but as this would make the work of unwieldy size, it was decided to exclude the shorter addresses, together with all the material upon the Philippines and India, and to publish only certain of the more formal papers upon China, Japan and Korea. Each of the present chapters deals with a distinct topic ; together they cover progressively the field of what is both most interiv PREFACE

esting and most vital in the situation of China and Korea at least. Several of the addresses upon the Philippines and India will be published in the early numbers of a new journal soon to be issued at Clark University, which will deal with the problems connected with the attempts to extend western civilization to peoples less highly developed.

The Department wishes to express its grateful recognition of the kindness of those who, by their papers and lectures, made the conference a success. It is believed that the interest in these meetings upon the Far East has been so genuine that it will warrant the University in holding a similar conference each succeeding autumn.

" The Problem of the Pacific," said President Taft this summer, " is the greatest problem now before the American people." This volume is given to the public in the hope that it may be of some service in helping to present the facts, in accordance with which America must attempt to do her part in solving this problem. It is, too, our most earnest and sincere wish, that these chapters may help to bring about a more sympathetic understanding of Far Eastern peoples; an appreciation that, after all, in the essentials of Hfe, in their faults and their virtues, they are much like ourselves ; and a recognition that, with all of their other qualities, they have much of strength and manliness and nobility.

George H. Blakeslee.

Clark University^ Worcester Massachusetts, January 5, 1910.

CONTENTS I

PAGE

Introduction xi

Dr. George H. Blakeslee.

The Position of China in World Politics .

Dr. Archibald C. Coolidge, Professor of History in Harvard University, Vice-President of the East Asiatic Club, and author of " The United States as a World Power."

II "^A Sketch of the Relations between China

and the Western World 21

Hon. Chester Holcombe, formerly Acting Minister to China, and author of " The Real Chinaman " and " The Real Chinese Question."

Ill

\A. Sketch of the Relations between the United States and China 47

Dr. F. W. Williams, Professor of Modern Oriental History in Yale University, author (v^^ith S. W. Williams) of " The Middle Kingdom " and " China and Japan."

vi CONTENTS

IV

. PAGE

The Need of a Distinctive American Policy IN China 83

Mr. T. F. Millard, author of "The New Far East" and " America and the Far Eastern Question."

V

The History and the Economics of the Foreign Trade of China 95

Mr. H. B. Morse, formerly of the Imperial Chinese Customs Service, decorated by the Chinese Emperor, author of " The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire."

VI ■^America's Trade Relations with China . . 109

Mr. John Foord, Secretary of the American Asiatic Association.

VII Monetary Conditions in China 121

Dr. J W. Jenks, Professor of Political Economy in Cornell University, Special Commissioner of the War Department, United States, to Investigate Chinese Finance.

CONTENTS vii

VIII > Page

'^ The Present SituatioiNt in Manchuria — Commerce, Trade, and International Politics , 133

Mr. Willard Straight, recently Consul-General at Mukden.

IX The Opium Problem — Its History and Present Condition 149

Dr. Hamilton Wright, Representative of the United States at the recent International Opium Conference at Shanghai.

X

The Chinese Army — Its Development and Present Strength 177

Major Eben Swift, General Stafif, United States Army.

XI Conditions, Favorable and Otherwise, in China's Development 187

Dr. Amos P. Wilder, Consul-General at Shanghai.

XII The Chinese Student in America .... 197

Mr. H. F. Merrill, of the Imperial Chinese Customs Service, Supervisor of the Chinese Students in the United States, decorated by the Chinese Emperor.

viii CONTENTS

XIII The New Learning of China — Its Status and Outlook 223

Dr. D. Z. Sheffield, President of Union College, Tungchou, North China.

XI\^

The History of Christian Missions in China 245

Professor Harlan P. Beach, of Yale University, author of " Dawn on the Hills of T'ang " and " Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions."

Hon. Horace N. Allen, formerly Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States to the Kingdom of Korea, decorated by the Korean Emperor, author of " Foreign Relations of Korea " and " Korea, Fact and Fancy."

XXI The Japanese Administration in Korea . . 397

Professor George Trumbull Ladd, LL. D., Yale University, decorated by the Japanese Emperor, author of " In Korea with Marquis Ito."

X CONTENTS

XXII Religious Conditions in Korea . . . . . 437

Rev. Ernest F. Hall, of the Presbyterian Mission, Korea.

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