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The Green Bag

recognition of the Chinese republic, a recognition that may be considered pre mature, by its withdrawal from the Chinese loan on account of the condi tions annexed to participation in it, and by Secretary Bryan's striking proposal of a plan for peace. Were the Administration later to feel itself compelled to take a strong antiJapanese attitude on the question of immigration or of naturalization, if such a question should be forced to the front, it would be yielding to influences at home which imperil a friendly under standing with Japan, but we are reluc tant to think that it would participate in such a movement except with great reluctance, as the result of conditions fixing upon it only a small share of the responsibility for such a course. Mr. Wilson and Mr. Bryan are friends of labor, but they are also friends of hu manity, and that humanitarian idealism which loves the freedom of wide spaces is not likely to be content with the lesser to the exclusion of the greater good when there appears to be any con flict between the interests of labor and those of humanity. To take the case of China, there can be no question that the action of the Administration in prematurely recognizing the Chinese republic and in withdrawing from the Chinese loan was inspired by a spirit of pure generosity and was absolutely disinterested. Such an action was the reductio ad absurdum of the McKinleyHay idea of non-participation in a European protectorate of China based on the claims of indemnity for the Boxer rebellion, and of a progressive China awaking by commercial intercourse with the rest of the world to a sense of the rights of foreign nations. Our impetu ous eagerness to display our friendship for China has placed us in a position in which we can be of slight assistance to

her in lightening the load of the Boxer indemnity and in developing her com merce by financing her railways by a method as little burdensome to her as possible. If the republic is not to be permanent our faith is misplaced and we are in a position to lose far more than we could ever gain. This faith is purely a matter of idealism, and reveals the absence of any calculating foresight — it in no way masks a design to secure any kind of concession from China. The repeal of the Chinese exclusion act would be a necessary consequence of that faith carried to a logical extreme. It is not to be supposed that the Government was thinking of the Chinese exclusion act as a possible source of future diplomatic friction and desingenuously playing the part of the wolf in sheep's clothing. Such a view is too fanciful to take seri ously. That the temper of the present Administration is to be gauged by this visionary course with regard to China is evident. It shows what must be the real attitude of the Administration to ward Japan or any other Asiatic coun try. Whatever differences may arise between the Administration and foreign nations, it is hard, in the light of these facts, to suppose that they will be due to any over-assertion of our own selfish interests, they are more likely to be due to forces with which the Administration may not be able to cope successfully, as in the instances of Japan, the Panama Canal, and Mexico. The Secretary of State is thus able, with complete good faith, to propose to the Powers that they enter into an arrangement designed to secure the peace of the world. The plan outlined contemplates the agreement to arbi trate all controversies, not even except ing those involving national honor and vital interests. That the time is not ripe for such a proposal, however desir