When the editor of the "North-
China Daily News" requested me to prepare an article with regard to the possible constructive steps which China might take to achieve that equality which we all seek among the nations of the eartl that is, to correct the errors of a century and to fit ourselves for national greatness, a few sentences, of Confucius presented themselves to me:
"If a superior love propriety, the people will not dare not to be reverent, If he love righteousness the people will not dare not to be sincere."
Under @ monarchical system of government, the superior is the emperor. The people take their tone from him. If he loves propriety and righteousness, the people are reverent and sincere. If he is protigate and unscrupulous, the people follow his example and the country loses its honour and therefore its independence. In a republic, the Government takes the place of the sovereign. As complex and impersonal asa republican government may be, its character leaves its mark upon the whole structure of society, upon the relationship between official and the Government, between official and official, between the government and the people, It even affects the social relationships of individuals, the relationships of parent and child, of husband and wife, of merchant and merchant, of native and foreigner. Some may wuggest that herein lies an exaggeration, that the Government is what the people want it to be, allow it to be; but in China,' we often have to look at things from an angle quite different from other countries, We have the traditions In Asia, China was the first of nations to' attempt this experiment and thus far we have failed. It is often suggested that our failure has been due to an inability of Asiatic peoples to live under a government which is not despotic. I hope that such a suggestion is no more true of us than it would have been of the Germans in the time of Frederick the Great or of the French ander Napoleon. For, where the checks on despotism and tyranny released, usurpation may set Tt may take time to effect a cure, but there is nothing in the history of other nations to lead us to be-Tieve that we shall not ultimately succeed,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.