PRESENT CONDITIONS IN CHINA 
anced, and so in this general pictorial 
gloominess of mind is associated such 
hope as can be packed into nine cartoons 
picturing China’s triumph over her evils 
and dangers. Five of these nine refer 
to the educational and moral reawaken- 
ing of women and the importance of 
their reawakened influence. The small 
residue of the 300 devoted to other topics 
are of such a miscellaneous nature as to 
emphasize, more than anything else, per- 
haps, the importance of the revolution in 
the mind of the reformer. 
The keenest Chinese intellect is dis. 
played in the making of these cartoons. 
Their acuteness may be seen in one 
where “parliament” is a word written in 
the moon, whose reflection entertains a 
crowd of Chinese on the shore of a lake. 
There is no inscription whatever, but the 
obvious meaning, seen at a glance by a 
Chinese, is, “Io China parliament is like 
the moon’s reflection in water—not a 
thing to be got actually.” Another rep- 
resents parliament, as it was offered to 
the nation, as only a plaything like a 
kite. 
What could be more exquisite in its 
bite than a crab, and a mandarin repre- 
sented as doing a “buck-and-wing” dance, 
together with the inscription, ‘Side- 
steppers’? 
China’s plight as a nation is the inspi- 
ration of every kind of cartoon, one of 
the most forcible of which shows an old 
man standing on the stern of a vessel in 
a desolate stream of idle craft, with this 
inscription: “China is like a sorrowful 
man standing on the deck of a vessel, 
anchored, with no one who can work the 
sail.” 
THE DISLIKE OF THE CHINESE FOR A 
CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT 
CAUSED REVOLT 
The existence of war, however, has 
doubled all the suffering in China which 
the cartoons have hitherto pictured as 
burdens of the unhappy Chinese. Per- 
haps nowhere in the world are the evils 
of war so terrible as in China. 
China’s constitutional assemblies have 
snatched the government from China’s 
rulers and have been unable to manage 
it by themselves. They have substituted 
in many places anarchy for order, and 
they are on trial regarding their ability 
to create modern government. They are 
engaged in the greatest attempt at consti- 
tutional government in the history of 
man. The Manchu has disappeared. 
This is significant as showing that it was 
only necessary for the Chinese to speal< 
loud enough in order to drive the Man- 
chu from his throne. 
Thus, as was stated at the beginning 
of this paper, China has struck the Man- 
chu dynasty at its unlucky hour, when 
weakest, when at the lowest ebb of its 
imperial vitality, relative race strength, 
wealth, and influence. It has been slowly 
strangled by the Chinese giant, enchained 
by the immemorial Chinese. system and 
dependent for power and succor upon the 
Chinese race. Nevertheless the record 
of its 271 years is a famous one, and if 
it dies, it dies fighting for the principle 
of a strong centralized government—the 
sole principle which the best friends of 
China support. 
China is what and where she is because 
she is Chinese. Although the latter-day 
Chinese have vaulted over the heads of 
the progressive Manchus, their record, 
compared with that of the Manchus, is 
damaging. For 260 years they have beeu 
more Manchu than the Manchus, and 
they can never escape the indictment that 
up to this hour they have missed the 
principle, clearly seen by the Manchus, 
that the Chinese Empire, in order to sur-. 
vive her struggle with the powers, must 
have a strongly centralized if not im- 
perialistic government. 
The causes of the revolution are easily 
understood. Although the war-cry of 
the seceders has been “Down with the 
Manchus,” this is nc new war-cry. There 
are no new war-cries in China but that 
of the foreign idea. That has caused the 
revolution. But the thing that precipi- 
tated the revolution was the Manchu 
policy of a centralized government, to 
achieve which the cooperation of the 
finance and industry of outside powers 
was essential. And it is here that the 
