Your ShelfYour Projects

PARTITION OF CHINA

3%

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 1, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 31.

Read the full edition

PARTITION OF CHINA.

WASHINGTON advices state that the partition of China is inevitable, and "the Powers" have tacitly agreed that it shall not continue as an independent, autonomous empire. The nations involved in the present embroglio have decided that steps must be taken, making impossible the recurrence of existing conditions. And each nation will insist upon money indemnity averaging $300,000,000 each; of course this is based on the confirmation of present reports, and a speedy victory for the allies. "Diplomatically, up to date, this country's demands are limited to a money indemnity and to the making of a treaty which will insure the open door in China and continue the commercial rights guaranteed to this country in Chinese treaty ports. Any changes in this program will be due to circumstances and the attitude of the other Powers. It is suggested that if the treaty asked for by this government should not be obtainable, a territorial indemnity may be forced upon the United States. The experts in the State, War, and Navy Departments began to-day [July 7] the preparation of the cases against China so far as the money question is concerned, and are basing their figures on the continuance of the trouble for one year, from May, 1900, to May, 1901. The Chinese custom-houses will be seized and held by the allied forces until each nation's bill is collected in full."
THE worst reports that had been received from China, seemingly confirmed, had not been after all even fully surmised. All the foreign consuls and missionaries, including their women and children, have been ruthlessly butchered. After enduring several days of bombardment and starvation, they made a sortie at night. The women and children were placed in the center of a hollow square, and the guards fought desperately. Finding escape impossible, the men killed their own women and children to save them from torture. Then they fought to the bitter end, which meant death and horrible mutilation. All the native Christians were also murdered, and "the streets ran red with blood." At Tien-Tsin, the foreign portion of the city has been besieged and bombarded. The British Admiral Seymour, who has been in command of all the foreign defense force, being compelled to retreat, killed all his wounded to save them being tortured. This was done, however, at the request of the victims themselves, who knew what had been done to some of their comrades who had been wounded and captured. And the end of the terrible situation is not even in sight.
A LATE press despatch from Shanghai says: "All China is now aflame with revolt against foreigners. Only in the extreme West is there quiet. Every port, even Shanghai, is menaced. In the provinces of Hu-Pe and Hu-Nan thousands of native Christians have been mutilated and tortured, the women being first assaulted and then massacred." Yet this is simply that sentiment called "patriotism" gone mad. Webster defines patriotism as "the passion which aims to serve one's country," and this is all that the poor, deluded Chinamen mean. With them, as with many so-called "civilized" and "Christian" people, "the end justifies the means." What the world calls patriotism knows no limit but the limit of power.
AN exchange says: "Seventeen good sober boys went from an Illinois town as soldiers to Manila. One was killed; the other sixteen met with a worse fate; they came home confirmed drunkards—army canteen drunkards."
CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN MARSHALL said in a judicial case of the term "United States" in the Federal Constitution:—
" 'The United States' is the name given to our great republic which is composed of States and Territories. The District of Columbia, or the territory west of the Missouri, is not less within the United States than Maryland or Pennsylvania; and it is no less necessary, on the principles of our Constitution, that uniformity in the imposition of imposts, duties and excises should be observed in the one than in the other."
And in the Dred Scott decision the majority of the Supreme Court held that "a power in the general government to obtain and hold colonies and dependent territories, over which they might legislate without restriction, would be inconsistent with its own existence in its present form." What would the Supreme Court decide now?
IN notifying President McKinley of his renomination, Senator Lodge said: "THE PEACE YOU HAD TO MAKE ALONE. Cuba, Porto Rico, the Philippines, you had to assume alone the responsibility of taking them from Spain. Alone, and weighted with the terrible responsibility of the unchecked war powers of the Constitution, you were obliged to govern these islands and to repress rebellion and disorder in the Philippines. No party creed defined the course you were to follow. . . . Thus you framed and put in operation this great new policy, which has made us at once masters of the Antilles and a great Eastern power, holding firmly our possessions on both sides of the Pacific."
UP to July 1 the total fire loss in the United States for 1900 was $103,000,000 against $65,000,000 for the corresponding period last year. There have been no less than fifteen fires with losses of over $500,000 each since January 1 last, and five of them have destroyed property reckoned by millions, the Ottawa conflagration heading the list with a loss of $12,000,000. Among the recent ones is the Standard Oil fire of $3,000,000; the Hoboken steamship fire of $5,350,000; and the Prescott (Arizona) fire of over $1,000,000; Newcastle, Cal., nearly the whole business portion, estimate not given. This shows the greater carelessness and recklessness of men.
A WASHINGTON, D. C., despatch says that "Secretary Root is preparing a bill for the reorganization of the regular army even more radical in its nature than the one submitted in the last session. It seems to be his opinion that the cavalry should be increased from ten to twelve regiments, in order not only to give a larger mounted force, but to make promotions faster among officials. An official in close touch with the secretary says it is the intention of the department to ask Congress for a standing army of not less than 75,000 men. An army of this size, it is estimated, will be needed to cope successfully with the situation in the Philippines."
WHETHER the uprising against foreigners in China has the sympathy of the government is uncertain. It is given out to the world as a revolution, but it is well known that the Dowager Empress is a foe to foreign influence and modern progress, and that Li Hung Chang was under the ban because of his progressive ideas. Rev. W. P. Chalfant, a prominent missionary, says that for two years the legations have been warned by the missionaries of the coming crisis; but they, in return, have been told by the government that the sentiment complained of was only local, and would be managed by provincial authorities.
THE continued seige of Tien-Tsin, occupied by allied troops, and the battles connected therewith have proved that the Chinese are not the insignificant warriors that they have been represented to be, and that their equipments include the most improved arms. Such conditions render their immense numbers an item of no small consideration. Heretofore they have been deemed unworthy of computation as opponents of "civilized" powers. From Tien-Tsin the Chinese are said to be rendering it difficult to navigate the river, by diverting its waters.
THE Kansas City Star notes that the Barton County, Kansas, poorhouse has been abandoned, as a result of prohibition of the liquor traffic. "The waving wheat grows up to the walls of the abandoned poorhouse and the empty jail." Prohibition is the only species of temperance legislation that is worthy the name. Sunday-closing never yet has accomplished anything practical as a temperance measure, and it never can be anything but a factor in enforced Sunday observance.
A BOSTON despatch of the 10th inst. says: "Francis Truth, who advertised himself as a 'divine healer,' appeared in the United States Circuit Court to-day, withdrew his previous plea of not guilty, pleaded guilty and was fined $2,500, which he paid. He pleaded guilty to seven indictments accusing him of using the mails to further a scheme to defraud, which involved his divine healing methods, and on five charges he was fined the maximum penalty, $500 each."
THE governor of Bombay telegraphs to the British home government that "there were 10,320 deaths from cholera and 6,502 other fatalities in the famine district during the last week in June. The total deaths among the number on the relief works in the British district were 5,324. The number on the relief works is increasing rapidly in consequence of the drought. The number on gratuitous relief is increasing throughout the infected districts."
THE Hotel Rowardennan, at Ben Lomond, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California, draws the line on Jewish patronage. To all applicants of the Semitic race for accommodations the lessee says, "Owing to the terms of my lease, I am prevented from catering to members of the Hebrew persuasion." This is explained by the fact that many patrons of such summer resorts object to association with Jews.
THE idea of official service of the public has come to be in practise the veriest irony. Office is now most generally deemed an opportunity to serve self. A prominent example is the ice trust in New York City—an illegal combination by which ice was advanced 25 per cent. The World publishes a list of seven city officials who held about three million dollars' worth of the stock.
A LETTER from Atrato, Colombia, says Bocas del Toro has been visited by a terrific gale, which destroyed many buildings and banana plantations. Immediately after the gale a fearful fire swept the town, destroying its finest buildings. The situation is said to be desperate, the people being demoralized. The fire originated through carelessness in the Chinese quarter.
IT ought not to be possible to record acts of violent retaliation on innocent Chinamen in this country; but a press despatch says that a mob attacked a Chinese laundry in Kansas City on the 15th inst., on hearing the news of outrages on foreigners in the Chinese capital. The police were compelled to guard the place during the night.
IT is now asserted that old Li Hung Chang, who has for years been playing friendship for foreigners and modern progress, is really in sympathy with the Chinese uprising against everything foreign. His favor toward progress has been to learn and have his people taught how to use modern tactics against foreign aggression in the empire.
BRIGHAM H. ROBERTS, of Utah, who was denied a seat in the U. S. Senate because he is a practical polygamist, has been convicted in a Utah State court of violating the Anti-polygamy law. His sentence was a fine of $600 or six months' imprisonment. He hopes to escape on a technicality, and has appealed to the Supreme Court.
LATE advices state that "all the foreigners and missionaries have evacuated Wen Chau and have arrived at Ning Po. Large bodies of Boxers appeared at Wen Chau and threatened to exterminate the foreigners and Christians. They also distributed banners, badges and inflammatory anti-foreign appeals."
THE Salvation Army has started a competition in New York against the ice trust by supplying ice in the tenement district in one-cent quantities and disposing of it from handcarts at the rate of fifteen pounds for five cents. The trust decree that only ten-cent lumps should be sold has thus been smashed.
A MONTH ago the number of foreign war vessels of all classes in Chinese waters was given out as follows: Japan, 21; Russia, 20; Great Britain, 23; United States, 18; Germany, 9; France, 5. These carried 32,614 men and 2,034 guns. This naval force has been largely augmented since that time.
THE steamer Garoune, which arrived at Port Townsend, Wash., on the 16th inst., brings a report that smallpox is epidemic at Cape Nome. Consequently many will leave there as soon as possible, but thousands have not the means to get away.
AT Coleman, Texas, on the 16th inst., fifteen persons were drowned and much property destroyed by a cloudburst. On the same day a cyclone struck the town of Llano, in that State, doing much damage to property and injuring a number of people.
ITALY is also in the Chinese fray. A contingent of troops left on the 18th inst., says a press despatch, and the Tribuna says a second expedition is to go, raising the number to 5,000 in all. This makes eight nations pitted against one.
YOUNG Cornelius Vanderbilt figures as an inventor. He has succeeded in applying the principle of the marine boiler to the locomotive engine, a device which promises greatly to lessen the expense of running the locomotive.
THE Transvaal war is not over yet, the few Boers being still able to worry British outposts to a considerable extent, and escape capture. The British loss, in killed and disabled men, during the war foots up, at last account, 48,188.
THE town of Newcastle, Placer County, Cal., was almost entirely destroyed by fire on the 15th inst. The town is the center of a rich fruit region and a prominent interior fruit shipping point.
ON the night of the 14th inst., the city of Prescott, A. T., was visited by a destructive fire. The principal business portion of the city is in ruins, the loss being estimated at $1,000,000.
AFTER several years of diplomacy, Germany and the United States have agreed upon a reciprocity treaty, each granting to the other the "most favored nation" tariff rates.
THE strike of street-car employees in St. Louis is on again, accompanied by the boycott in the localities where the laboring classes mostly reside.
THE President has ordered two regiments—one infantry and one artillery—from Manila to China.