4o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ister military significance. Nobody fears lest in a stand-up fight Chin- 

 ese troops could whip an equal number of well-conditioned white 

 troops. But few battles are fought by men fresh from tent and mess. 

 In the course of a prolonged campaign involving irregular provision- 

 ing, bad drinking water, lying out, loss of sleep, exhausting marches, 

 exposure, excitement and anxiety, it may be that the white soldiers 

 would be worn down worse than the yellow soldiers. In that case the 

 hardier men with less of the martial spirit might in the closing grapple 

 beat the better fighters with the less endurance. 



In view of what has been shown the competition of white laborers 

 and yellow is not so simple a test of human worth as some may imag- 

 ine. Under good conditions the white man can best the yellow man in 

 turning off work. But under bad conditions the yellow man can best 

 the white man, because he can better endure spoiled food, poor cloth- 

 ing, foul air, noise, heat, dirt, discomfort and microbes. Beilly can 

 outdo Ah San, but Ah San can underlive Beilly. Ah San can not take 

 away Beilly's job as being a better workman; but, because he can live 

 and do some work at a wage on which Beilly can not keep himself fit 

 to work at all, three or four Ah Sans can take Beilly's job from him. 

 And they will do it too, unless they are barred out of the market where 

 Beilly is selling his labor. Beilly's endeavor to exclude Ah San from 

 his labor market is not the case of a man dreading to pit himself on 

 equal terms against a better man. Indeed, it is not quite so simple and 

 selfish and narrow-minded as all that. It is a case of a man fitted to 

 get the most out of good conditions refusing to yield his place to a 

 weaker man able to withstand bad conditions. 



Of course, with the coming in of western sanitation, the terrible 

 selective process by which Chinese toughness has been built up will 

 come to an end, and this property will gradually fade out of the race 

 physique. But for our time at least it is a serious and pregnant fact. 

 It will take some generations of exposure to the relaxing effects of 

 drains, ventilation, doctors, district nurses, food inspectors, pure water, 

 open spaces and out-of-door sports to eradicate the peculiar vital- 

 ity which the yellow race has acquired. During the interim the chief 

 effect of freely admitting coolies to the labor markets of the west would 

 be the substitution of low wages, bad living conditions and the increase 

 of the yellow race for high wages, good living conditions and the in- 

 crease of the white race. 



