| Show T v a tv ai I 1 M t in A chinese dinner of 47 dishes a glimpse in to a chinese theater and a visit to a popular lecture hall the latter not one of the least significant evl dences of a remarkable educational purpose be hind the workings of the chinese government end ed our visit in with an evening of great interest thanks to the constant at and companionship of mr hob ertson Y M C A general secretary in and mr fay a chinese resl dent and a mr A ot yale the most progressive city under chinese adman was opened up to us in a manner that fairly illumined its edu eat lonal social and religious lems and I 1 want to put before you a few facts that group themselves about three things the broad and wise pol icy of the local chinese government under the greatest of its men yuan kal the terrible borderland between the chinese city and the foreign settlements and the strategic position occupied by the Y M C A to bay that china IB awakening or will awaken Is a false statement of the case to say that china has awak ened Is a platitude it Is self evident and stares you in the face on every comer in every block on every street just aa we judge the possibilities and the quality of a mans mind by his lest work so wo must judge of what china not only la capable of doing but will do by what her best men are accomplishing and have accomplished Is the product of one mans mind that roan viceroy yuan kal Is now prime minister or cally that in peking tor the purpose of working out his same plans for the whole empire as he has done tor his own alt therefore what Is today to day china will be and will be very soon tor I 1 believe mr robert con knows what he Is talking about when he says that the conviction that china must have progress and the termination to change has seized yn every official of high from one end of the empire to the other and I 1 believe that every one who knows tho chinese agrees that where the chinaman aas the will he will find the way that china Is progressing by leaps and bounds 18 true but that the came charge of carelessness and super in method may be brought against her that Is brought against the japanese educational leaders Is not true the chinese educators have proven in their work in that they can apprehend the seriousness of a great problem and grapple with it swiftly and strongly kindergarten primary schools middle schools col leges a university and again normal schools for the training of chinese men and women teachers are in opera alon all purely chinese some managed by the government some by private individuals the board of education Is under tearful pressure a great cam palan ot education must be carried through all over china within ten years if the nation la to be saved As a result teachers must be trained in a hurry instead of turning out sec ond grade teachers with superficial training the following method Is adopted to get results quick A normal school for example for women Is established with a complete doral tory system the entire expenses of the scholars Is borne by the govern ment and ten dollars a month Is paid to each student besides her expenses i thus placing a premium upon this method of preparation on the other hand examinations are held in the different provincial centers and those students are selected and admitted to the school who have the highest standing I 1 went through such a school myself and talked to the teachers who were chinese of course but who spoke english there were about girls preparing tor teachers an apparently inexhaustible treasury has been devoted to the equipment of the schools which surpasses anything I 1 have seen in japan in the way of scientific laboratories for chemistry physics biology physiology and engineering with its various branches an industrial school again with a complete dormitory aye tern where some men and boys were hard at work learning trades showed that the interest in academic education had not blinded the department to tuo value of in education we visited bat one industrial school and one establish ment under government supervision tor the promotion of homo industry an iron works but thero are many such enterprises the chinese government ie surely doing its best gambling has been within the city on pain of ten years gambling in af rw ww every form A search for an opium den proved the efficiency ot the law and inspection wiped them out ot ex istance perhaps the least said about the out doings of the foreigners to the better it Is a subject that people do not like to discuss and do not wish to hive brought before them it Is true nevertheless that in the foreign settlements the chinese are finding endless opportunity for the gambling which Is prohibited hy their government in their own city and la nevertheless openly coun ced by several consuls of for plan nations in spite of their agreements with the chinese government the china times a paper Is waging an open war against houses of ill fame and places of amusement of outrageous character which are act bally protected by the representatives of foreign powers the papers are full of it one paragraph I 1 will copy for it Is suggestive and can stand by itself the alhambra its pac tures mr pratt british vice con sul eat in the british consular court on saturday morning to hear a charge against mr A harper of the alhambra russian concession of exposing indecent pictures the consul tor defense the first one he thought was undoubtedly coarse as to the second and third that were called indecent that of course was a matter not of andl vidual opinion so much as ot opan ion of the court trying the case it was rather a stretch of the imag to say that one of the reasons for objecting was that the chinese went there and that it did not look well for chinese to see what foreigners did in this way he had no doubt foreigners did lots of things the chinese did not ap prove of if cheso pictures were permitted in london he did not see why they should not be permitted here people have a may of saying that there aln t no tea command ments beyond and then ing the matter with the feeling that they have made a rather clever and telling observation do they realize I 1 wonder that in some chinese ports the term american woman la synonymous or woman 0 repute or prostitute thank god it Is not so in the american and british governments are acting so far as christian nations la this city even if the individual american men and Britis hers ara showing themselves anything but christians the achl nese government Is not going to stand for this long there will b a day of reckoning if the foreign con sessions cessions ces go on putting a premium on vice as they are doing now men who have lived in tor beira do not hesitate to say that mattera must come to a crisis eoon it li in the interest of the people at home and of the united states it seems tc me to understand what la going on this brings me to my third point which includes a kind of summary ol 01 all the rest namely the important po of the Y M C A in A record of some of the activities ol 01 my very good friend MF robertson will be most conclusive in showing that the Y M CA C A Is a power for edu cation and for righteousness needed and esteemed by the chinese aduca tors on ono side mr robertson comes in contact with a vast gumbei of school boys he has severah classes in various schools in physics and takes his students to all the cen of the city auch as the western telegraph station telephone building power plant etc he also Is manag ing a regular athletic campaign has introduced the games of association football coaches the teams and promotes the truly western idea of being a thorough sport through the efforts and personality ct mr galley and mr robertson the Y M C A Is in a position where it can have a tremendous influence tor sound education and righteousness 11 the wheels can only be oiled with a more money |
