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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 3, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 44.

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China

By R. F. COTTRELL

It is estimated that from the beginning of our work, in 1902, to the close of 1908, the entire circulation of our publications in China was 18,000,000 pages. In 1909 the output was 40,533,400 pages—a very remarkable increase, though an average of only one page to every tenth person. The printing work in Shanghai has been greatly retarded by having no suitable quarters; and to make matters more difficult, half the meager equipment in rented quarters was destroyed by fire last December. The crying need is for means to build a printing-plant to spread the printed page among China’s millions.
The Chinese are pre-eminently a people of books. Buddhism converted them, not by preaching, but by literature. The essay, the pamphlet, the placard, and more recently the newspaper, are the common means of disseminating ideas. Christianity must make a larger use of this method if it is to supersede Buddhism and Confucianism.
R. F. COTTRELL.
Shanghai.