Greater Shanghai much real work, as we are assured by those who have had an opportunity to examine it, is being undertaken. In Nanking itself General Chiang Kai-shek upbraids the lethargy of the departments, and he certainly secs more than any outsider can. Yet what, perhaps, most i presses a visitor to the capital is the spirit of enthusiasm he finds. Everyone he talks to seems quite resolved that things shall come right in time. Why, then, it! must be asked is so much failure visible and disappointment? Why does not China, in the common phrase, "get a move on"? The answer lies partly in the system, partly in the colossal of the task which has been too lightly undertaken, The Committee system of government is not more criticized by foreigners than it is by Chinese. It is alien to China and as such would be unsuited to her needs; and in almost all cases, where it has been tried it has' proved cumbrous, dilatory, obstructive and particularly to break down precisely where it is supposed to be efficacious, namely in coordinating effort. Departments and officials, with perhaps the best intentions, pull in different directions, for lack of explicit orders how to pull together. But more important is the size of the country with which Nanking is attempting to grapple. 'There is a limit to every man's capacities, and to try to legislate uniformly' and simultaneously for the whole of China is a sheer impossibility. It would be 50, even if all the machinery of centralized government which existed in a loose form under the Empire had not been so com: pletely smashed as it has been in recent years. The only solution is to take one area at a time and put that in order. It is not heroic, it is a confession of limitations; but of that no one need be ashamed. The method is practical, there are plenty of practical men to help in it, and the results are sure.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.