34
Revolution in China
There will soon arrive in this country forty Chinese boys to be educated in American colleges and universities at the expense of their home government. The tremendous significance of this fact, which appears in news cablegrams in the daily press, may not be appreciated upon the first reading. The sending of these boys to America by the Chinese Government marks an epoch in the history of that ancient empire unsurpassed in the past two thousand years. One of the greatest revolutions of the ages is now in progress in that country—a revolution in the educational system of China that means new thought and enterprise, a westernizing of the most exclusive of Oriental peoples.
In this revolution the United States is playing a leading part. The overturning of the old system of learning—that monastic, difficult, caste education—is being accomplished by the decree and with the assistance of the Chinese Government, but the United States has contributed practical suggestions and pointed the way for advance along the path of modern progress.
When President Roosevelt determined that the United States should not make any money out of the Boxer uprising, and when, upon his recommendation, Congress returned to China several millions of dollars that had been paid in excess of the actual damages sustained by Americans in the trouble, the opportunity was afforded for a practical suggestion to China. Mr. Root, then Secretary of State, in a diplomatic way proposed that China use the income, from these returned millions for a long series of years to educate Chinese boys in the United States. China agreed to the proposition, and the first forty boys are now ready to sail for this country to begin their studies. There will be in time four hundred of these boys, and that number will be kept here for many years, the ranks being filled up as the graduates go back to China.
"The eager manner in which China adapted Secretary Root's suggestion leads to strong hopes that the American education carried back to China will be one of the potent agencies in effecting a complete revolution in the education of that empire. Chinese officials have shown wisdom in their method of selecting the youths to be sent to the United States. This selection is not made haphazard or by favor. A preparatory school will be established in Peking where boys from ail over China can enter for a course of training in the English lan-
