A Chinese Socialist

Maoriland Worker, Volume 5, Issue 180, 15 July 1914, Page 6

A Chinese Socialist

By M. E. PUMPHREY,

'The "Open Court" for January. 1914, has a very interesting account; of -\fyu_g ~ an - Ship,- ' '.•: Chinese- Socialist -statesman of the eleventh century."

Perhaps there is no age and'country to which we should have been less likely to look for'similar ideals to those which* actuate us to-day. To quote the writer, Mr. Gowen,,-' !'The China of' -the eleventh century was composed, as throughout most centuries, of ' tha proud, overbearing, official classes and the toiling—for the fost part silent— masses. The relation between the two has been compared by an old 1 poet as that of the beanstalks which were used as fuel for the beans cooking in the pot: | A kettle had beans inside; And stalks of the beans made tha fire; . And the beans to their brother stalks cried, "We spring from one root, why bucK iraP'» ' 7 ~ In, this , unlikely environment a,rosfl a man who "inaugurated j a series of reforms,';which, -if undertaken to-day, would cause/Mr. jLloyd George squith t oeb relegated to the ranks of timid and cautious conservatives." Besides startling changes in- the way of a more, practical system of education, the following; principles of government: "The staie," he said;- ''should "tfcl«/ the" entire man-agement...of.-commerce,- industry *a«d inso its own-hands, with • view of succouring the 'working classei and. pi"eventin_wtheir'..being ground to the dust by the rich./.m.^.'.Again; "The ' poorj!as-fftr,as possible/ were to ba exempt'from all taxation,' but the pros-, sure on the rich was to be Made, respondingly severe." ;././'.''?/.'/ It. is not strange thdt ,thowhol« prograrae was never carried out."what is remarkable is that for "ten year* Wang-an-Shih kfcpt the position con- ... responding to that of our Prime Minister, in face of an opposition which the modern Socialist has' no" difficulty iv imagining ,and that he was , able to , bri-fag'about'some p of-' the of which, he had dreamed. It is " ! not strange'either, that "the Chinese,attached too blindly to their ancient customs, have not knowit'how to recognise him ,and' do not tender him t_« ju6t3ce that de desefves."

We, too, have to admit that the satnt thing happens with us; yet it is goodwhen the names of those who haTe Ia« boured for the people are brought beforo vs v an .dperhaps the thought of our Chinese comrade of long ago may yet , stir our .hearts.- and thoso t)f hii countrymen and utge us on towards the goal which wa shis .and is ours.