Apr. 3.
Tue World's Student Christian Federation opens its eleventh Conference at Peking to-morrow. The Conference was to have met in China in. 1917 but was _postponed on account of the war. The Federation is a worldwide organization and the gathering in Peking is of'its usual representative character. Thirty to forty nations have sent delegates and, probably, between four and five hundred delegates will foregather at Tsinghua College and will have as exhilarating a holiday as exuberant youth usually manages to get out of a summer camp no matter how stolid the mental bill of fare prescribed for discussion may be.
Tt is an event of some importance to China, this meeting of students from all the world within her gates. Only within very recent years has China had a student body that could extend a fraternal welcome to fellow students from other lands. The former Chinese scholars were literati but not students. They knew much ancient history but were untouched by modern thought. They were familiar with the arguments of Mencius and Micius for and against the doctrine that "man by nature is radically good'' but had never heard of Karl Marx and were unaware that there was any conflict between the privileges of capital and the rights of labour. The old time student dwelt much on the mysterious influences of feng-shui which hindered so long the progress and development of the country. The modern student has coined a new phrase ''American wind and European rain'' to denote the all pervading influence of world thought on the national consciousness. The economic spectras that disturb the dreams statesmen in London and ington are beginning to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.