Oct. 18.-
Many people in China, especially those of the missionary community, are apt to feel that they get an overdose of committee meetings and to come to the conclusion that the committee} "spirit" is a thing that needs curbing. The endless discussions, the proposals and amendments, the occasional displays of acrid many, all tend to make one wish at times that business could be transacted in some simpler mane ner. Yet this spirit of discussion, this desire to talk over matters in committee, while it is one of the features of modern times, is also, it might almost be said, one of the best features of the! present age, for after all, this, willingness to meet together on common ground and debate matters concerning which there is a difference of opinion is one of the best auguries for future peace, national, industrial and religious. When men with different ideas as to the solution of a problem meet and put before each other: their views, it is usually found that in the mass of varying opinion there are certain fundamentals common to all which may be used as a basis on which a more, lor less satisfactory agreement can be built. By debating, of course, lis not meant mere illogical argu-!
In those last four words lies! ment in which each side tries to drown the other by waves of vociferation and floods of words, but both parties coming together in a spirit of sweet reasonableness" with the honest intention of finding a way out of their difficulties.
Looking at the world situation of the present day we are to come to the conclusion that the men who are or have been responsible for all the unrest that confronts us at every turn are mainly those who are not willing to meet their fellows and discuss in a reasonable spirit the points at issue in other words, they are men who do not in the best sense possess. the committee—spirit The Prussian, the Bolshevik, the anarchist and the Tory autocrat are alike in this respect. They have no wish to discuss their points of view with those who hold opposite opinions. The future peace of the world, international and industrial, depends largely on there being leaders who are willing to discuss all debatable questions with their opponents. Had the Central Powers followed Sir Edward Grey's advice and held with the Allies a conference on the European situation of 1914, and had they attended that conference with the idea of appredating as far' as possible the opinions of their vis-d-vis, the chances are that there would have been no great war. It is the same in China. When the Military Party comes to its senses enough to allow the real representatives of opinion of North and South to confer together, enough agreement on basic principles will be found to bring together in peace and harmony the two parts of this distracted country in a remarkably short time.
In industrial disputes, let the real representatives of capital and labour meet together in a committee and each side state their case fairly and in nine cases out of ten a solution will be reached without the necessity of appealing to the strike argument, a method which economists regard as wasteful and out-of-date manner of settling industrial quarrels. To make the above-mentioned plan of preserving peace effective, however, a most important rule must always be followed, namely, both sides must ''show all their cards.'"
There-must be na keening back of information relevant to the case under consideration, neither must there be mental reservations
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.