SHIFTING SCENES ON THE STAGE OF NEW CHINA 



425 



by, observing a strict neutrality, suspi- 

 cious of both sides and apparently help- 

 less. 



To the previously mentioned three 

 classes of people in China, namely, the 

 mandarinate (scholars and gentry), the 

 merchants and farmers, and the younger 

 generation of scholars, who are becom- 

 ing lawyers, teachers, doctors, and engi- 

 neers, there must be added a fourth 

 class, which must be considered in China 

 as well as in every other country. Marx 

 called them the laboring proletariat. In 

 China they are called coolies. They are 

 the ''hewers of wood and drawers of 

 water." Vast numbers of them found 

 employment as porters, muleteers, river 

 boatmen. It was to them at the end of 

 a day of hard toil that opium came as a 

 blessing, affording relief from the grind- 

 ing fatigue and utter exhaustion which 

 their ill-nurtured bodies suffered. 



THE COOLIES PROFOUNDLY AFFECTED BY 

 NEW CONDITIONS ' 



The coolies bad been profoundly af- 

 fected by conditions. In the first place, 

 opium was taken from them, leaving a 

 dissatisfied lot of men who could no 

 longer use it. There were also a few dis- 

 contented opium-growers, who had been 

 thrown out of work by the destruction of 

 their one money crop. 



Then, too, during the past sixty years 

 there has been a great extension of ship- 

 ping along* the coasts, rivers, and canals 

 of China, and many railways have been 

 built. All of these developments have re- 

 sulted in the changing of trade lanes — 

 the abandonment of old routes for new 

 ones. 



For instance, the old highroad that ran 

 from Canton north through Hunan to 

 Hankow was once alive with porters, 

 muleteers, wheelbarrow and chair coolies. 

 As a trade route, it is now dead ; for it is 

 cheaper and quicker to supply the coun- 

 try by steamers from Shanghai. The 

 Grand Canal has been abandoned for the 

 quicker and cheaper avenue of the Tien- 

 tsin-Pukow Railway and the steamers 

 that ply the coast between Shanghai and 

 Tientsin. 



The old caravan route that began at 

 Tientsin, passed through the Great Wall, 

 and ended at Kiahta, in Siberia, over 

 which furs and tea were excbanged, has 



been abandoned for the railways of -Man- 

 churia and the steamers that ply between 

 Shanghai and Vladivostok, 



These changes mean that countless 

 numbers of coolies who formerly found 

 employment in the transportation ot 

 freight and passengers over those ancient 

 routes have been thrown upon a country 

 the ordinary food-producing population of 

 which has been growing constantly. They 

 form a floating labor population now 

 preying upon the landed population. 



THE BACKGROUND FOR TODAY'S EVENTS 



Thus we have our background : 



First. The mandarinate (trained in a 

 school which emphasized the administra- 

 tive side of government, and therefore 

 inheriting no belief in the ability of the 

 people to govern themselves through leg- 

 islation of their own making) struggling 

 to retain control of the administration, 

 inclined toward the monarchical form 

 of government as the one best suited to 

 their needs and the needs of the people,' 

 but too jealous of one another to be able 

 to set up a reigning family chosen from 

 among themselves. 



Second. A peace - loving, unpatriotic 

 merchant and farmer class, w h i c h 

 through the centuries has left matters of 

 government in the hands of the manda- 

 rinate and which has therefore not in- 

 herited any feeling of civic responsibility 

 or patriotism. 



Third. The patriotic scholars of the 

 younger generation, who are impatient to 

 take over the work which thev feel that 

 the mandarinate of the old order is unfit 

 to do, imbued with a belief in a demo- 

 cratic form of government modeled upon 

 that of the United States. 



Fourth. The coolies, discontented, out 

 of work, unpatriotic, ignorant of govern- 

 ment, ready to march and fire a gun for 

 any side that will furnish them food, 

 money, and clothing. 



A further complicating factor in the 

 situation is the fact that among the Chi- 

 nese provincial loyalty has been devel- 

 oped to a very high degree, thus injecting 

 into the struggle an element much akin 

 to our old question of "States* Rights." 



This is the stage setting for today's 

 political drama. 



We are now ready to consider some of 

 the actors. 



