148 RUDOLPH M. BINDER 



whatever he undertook but took little part in the life of China except to 

 convert as many people to Christianity as he could; and if China had con- 

 tinued to be controlled by the old Manchu dynasty perhaps little would 

 have been heard of him or his family, because neither he nor his wife be- 

 longed to the ruling class. His opportunity came in 191 1 after the establish- 

 ment of the republic. He became acquainted with Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, and 

 this acquaintance soon ripened into an intimate personal and political 

 friendship. Mr. Soong had, among other things, engaged in business and, 

 with his persistence and capacity, made considerable money. He supported 

 the revolution both with his money and services, as treasurer and secretary 

 to Sun Yat-Sen, and had to flee twice to Japan to protect his life. His 

 principal service to the cause of the revolution during the six years before 

 his death consisted in organizing its finances as much as was possible under 

 the trying conditions which he had to face. One of his sons inherited this 

 ability for financial management and has been, as will be presently shown, 

 of great service to China. 



THE SOONG CHILDREN 



The crowning glory of Charles Jones Soong's life are his six children, 

 three sons and three daughters, each of them possessing great talent, verging 

 in two cases close to genius. When the unknown Chinese sailor landed on 

 the shores of America at the age of twenty-four, he certainly never dreamed 

 that he was to be the founder of such an important family, nicknamed by 

 their enemies the "Soong Dynasty"; for today, and for the past ten years or 

 so, this family has controlled China, not so much by force as by the integrity 

 of its character, its high ideals, and the honesty of its administration. 



The oldest son is Soong Tse-Ven, generally referred to as T. V. He was 

 educated at St. John's University, Shanghai; came to America and grad- 

 uated from the Harvard School of Business Administration in 1915. He 

 came to New York and took courses in the Graduate School of Columbia 

 University while working in different banks. On returning to China he 

 entered various commercial enterprises, organized a department of com- 

 merce and the Chinese Central Government Bank under the National 

 Government. He is a member of the Central Committee of the Kuomin- 

 tang and has been Minister of Finance since 1926. 



Mr. George E. Sokolsky in an article in the New York Times (November 

 15, 1931) says of him: "T. V. Soong ... is generally regarded as the most 

 competent administrative official that China has produced since Marquis 

 Tseng Kuo-Fang, who reorganized the nation for the suppression of the 

 Taiping rebellion." And a writer in Asia (October, 1927, p. 814} says: 



