The respective duties of father and son used to be clearly defined and now become interesting topics for debating societies. Marriage which had been known for centuries as a religious institution and a matter of family concern, is now interpreted in divers ways: according to individual preference. To one it is 'a religious sacrament, to another it is a legal institution and. to yet another marriage is free love. What was one time accepted as being right and proper is now considered to be immoral and wrong. Girl slavery and concubinage were widely practised not s0 long ago now condemned and become alleg: The old contempt in which the profession of warriors was held in this country has passed away. of the opinion that militarism is the first thing necessary to the upbuilding. and preservation of a nation," so says the opening sentence of the edict of 1911. All social and moral ideas and standards seem to be upside down, The ordinary man in his bewilders perplexity asks: "To whom shall we go?" This is where the foreign critics have so many faults to find. They can condemn the people degenerates when judged by -the "good old-style honest Chinaman." They can also find plenty to ridicule when they bring the idealism of the West and put it side by side with the failures of pathetic imitations of things foreign.
In public life we see the glaring want of ce-operation and disciple of this as the operation and discipline form the cornerstone of the national life of great democracies of the world today.
Every Chinese who has had anything to do with corporate activity will bear me out that the spirit of ce-operation is sadly Jacking among our people. We need to inculcate esprit de corps into every Chinese boy and girl. If we take the trouble to inquire into the cause of failure of many public undertakings—b 'a school, a partnership, a corpor tion, a university, a hospital, a government office, a parliament, a cabinet,—this lack of e9-operation pol inability of the leaders to ce-operate. This failing is really due to the over-emphasis of the personal aspect of things. Chinese people take everything in the personal light. The Chinese has been taught to hi loyal to a person, his friend or his master. Thus we find the four cardinal virtues are filial piety (to his parents), brotherly love (to his brothers and sisters), loyalty (to his master and king), and faithfulness (to his friends). Each has a Person as its object. And on the other hand he finds it much more dificult to understand that we should ce-operate, even with un-cause. known persons, for the cake of a
Take a ceriman illustration. When two military or political leaders have a clash and one is outwitted. third party, if he happens to be 'a friend of-the defeated, will secret-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.