building at present. But indications are that the period of waiting is nearing its close. Prices will not go down to pre-war levels. But that is not essential. What is essential is that they become stabilized so that a house erected today will not have to compete with as good a house erected at smaller cost five or ten years hence. To this new price-level we shall adjust ourselves. Meanwhile we must maintain our housing standards, as these are expressed in brick and mortar, in type and plan of building. We must secure the enactment of more good housing codes and the strict enforcement of present codes. For if we lose on these it will take us generations to recover. One final word, necessary because there is such widespread misconception: the good house, the single-family house, is the least expensive house. Many people believe that the tenement or apartment house means lower rents and, faced with a serious economic problem, they favor this type of building while admitting its social disadvantages in the way of physical health, morals, and race suicide. It is not cheaper. It is more costly in dollars and cents. Rents for inferior accommodations are higher in tenement-house cities than in small-house cities, in brick New York and wooden-three-decker Boston than in Philadelphia, in tenement-house Paris and Berlin than in London. THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION TAKING PLACE IN THE ORIENT AND ITS CALL TO THE AMERICAN SOCIAL WORKER J. S. Burgess, Director, Department of Community Service of the Peking Young Men's Christian Association, in Connection with the Princeton University Center in China In describing to an American the opportunities for service and the thrilling field of activity in China today I more and more sympathize with that redoubtable explorer and yarn spinner, Marco Polo. On his return to Italy, his stories of giants and dwarfs, of men who had ears as large as elephant's, of the precious jewels, the magnificent architecture, the culture, and the beautiful women of the powerful court of the great Kahn in Peking, were received with slight credence. Before such a group as this who already have a large vision of world service, I may perhaps expect a better reception. Mrs. Conger, wife of the famous American Minister to China, who had lived in South America many years before coming to China, made the statement long ago that the attraction of South America and of Southern Europe was the pleasure they gave to the eye, the many beautiful things to be seen, but the challenge of China was to the mind, the many problems to be solved. Although in China today one may have a deep interest in ancient art and architecture, the great challenge, at least to such a group as this, who are primarily interested in the problem of human transformation, is the remaking of the whole social structure of China now in process of rapid change. As we consider for a moment four great epics in human history, four transformations taking place in different nations and in different periods-the Industrial Revolution, which took place in England in the beginning of the last century, and which has transformed the whole character of Western civilization; the Reformation, which gave freedom of conscience and religious liberty to the individual; the American and French Revolutions, which gave us political democracy; and finally the Renaissance which released the intellectual powers of Europe as we consider those four movements and then remember that in China, with its population of four hundred million, onefourth of the human race in one generation, four similar movements are simultaneously taking place, we can perhaps form a rough picture of the rapid and significant transformation of the Chinese race. Some of the leading social thinkers of the West have already discovered a large field for study in China. The pioneer discoverer of this fascinating situation from the sociological viewpoint was Professor E. A. Ross, of Wisconsin, who in 1910 in his The Changing Chinese depicted the medieval civilization of China then in the early beginnings of her social transformation. In 1913 Dr. Charles R. Henderson, of the University of Chicago, delivered the Haskell lectures throughout China. He said to me in Peking: "If I were a young man about twenty-five years old, I could think of no more fascinating field than that of social work in China today." Dr. John Dewey and Dr. Bertrand Russell, lecturing in the National Government University at Peking, are revealing to the world the kaleidoscopic transformations of political and social changes in China, while our own Robert A. Woods, from the more technical social worker's viewpoint, has recently held out again to American social workers the call of this fascinating situation. There are a great number in this country who realize that things are changing in China, but a question often asked is, of what significance is this change to us? A prominent social worker recently said to me: "I know these transformations are taking place, but they are not yet of interest to the American social workers." Before describing some of these changes I want emphatically to state my conviction that these transformations in China are of significance to us in America. It would be impossible for one-fourth of the human race to emerge from a medieval to an industrial civilization without affecting this country most vitally. Last year there were eightyfive new American industrial and commercial concerns opened up in one city in China -in Shanghai. People in this country are beginning to realize that perhaps our greatest future markets are in China. From the political viewpoint also these changes are extremely significant to us in America. The Chinese are strong physically, are capable fighters when led by good officers. They are in danger of becoming, in spite of their natural aversion to the soldier, a militaristic nation. Perhaps it will be a surprise to you to hear that the largest standing army in the world today is that of China, which country has one million men under arms. The conquest of China by one set of political ideals, the German-Japanese type, is at least a decided possibility. With Japan controlling China, having an access to the resources and man power of that nation, who could stand against her? On the other hand, with a strong democratic China, we would have nothing to fear either from her or from Japan. The Chinese are not a barbarous people. They have an ancient culture of their own, and they are fast taking on Western methods of civilization. The America of the future is as sure to be influenced by China as she is to be influenced by any other modern nation. Dr. Conklin, a distinguished biologist, in his recent publication The Direction of Human Evolution says: In virility, conservatism, and reverence for social obligation the yellow race, as a whole, is probably superior to the white. If the white race worships liberty, the yellow race defies duty. . . . . By rigid laws excluding immigrants of other races, such as they have at present in New Zealand and Australia, it may be possible for a time to maintain the purity of the white race in certain countries, but with the constantly increasing contacts between all lands and peoples such artificial barriers will probably prove as ineffectual in the long run as the great wall of China. The races of the world are not drawing apart but together....." Aside from all these considerations of the significance of China to America, of course the great challenge of China to the American social worker is precisely the same challenge that has summoned us into all other fields of social service, the clear call of social need. Whether this need be in war-stricken Europe or in rapidly changing China, where there are great human needs, the American social worker always finds a situation in which he is interested and a challenge which he must meet. The social needs of China are both those of medieval civilization and those which come as a result of rapid adoption on the part of China of new ideas, methods, and ideals. A large part of the Chinese race in normal years are hungry. The rapid increase in a population in many sections of China, such as Shantung and Canton, which is greater than the land will support. There are of course certain religio-social reasons for this fact. So far, in no city or district in China has there been adequate study made of the poverty situation, or any scientific charity organization formed. There is in China vast mass ignorance of the elementary laws of hygiene, of elementary knowledge of geography or history, let alone of civics and government. In the vast hinterland of China the outlook is practically the same as it was three thousand years ago. In China there is today the medieval guild system, which holds in a vise the whole industrial organization of the country. Practical slavery of apprentices still exists. But on the other hand modern industry is coming rapidly. The guilds are showing signs of weakening. The capitalistic class is beginning to appear. The mills of Shanghai are making 100 per cent on the investment a year. Thousands are coming in from the country districts, lured by the call of high wages, to find themselves in the sweat shops, where, although they receive more than they made in the country, the cost of food and lodging is proportionately higher. Instead of working in the fresh air they are from twelve to fourteen hours a day in unsanitary shops. Women and children are working side by side, the mothers often bringing their babies into the shop, leaving them beside the cloth weaving machine or the silk filature machine during the day's work. Sidney Webb remarked as long ago as 1909 on his trip through China that conditions then were the same as they were in England in 1840. With no labor legislation to speak of, little organization of the workingmen, and a low standard of value of human life, it is no wonder that the modern slums are making their appearance in China and Hankow. Along with the rush of modern industrial life, the incoming of a new industrial organization, has come licensed vice. In such a city as Peking there are 3,000 licensed women in the great amusement sections of the capital. These women range all the way from the highest type of entertainers to the lowest type of prostitutes. The tea houses and theaters of the capital are in the same section of the city. Venereal diseases are on the increase, and the recent famine has made a large increase in the number of prostitutes, thousands being purchased from the famine districts. In this changing situation there is a demand for new forms of recreation. The new Chinese are not content merely with walking around the streets and holding bird cages and listening to their favorite songster, which was one of the great amusements of old China. The demand is for the moving picture, the modern "Coney Island," pool and billiards, and, for the most progressive, the modern dance. Exploiters of these modern desires are making their appearance. The vicious moving pictures that are not "passed by the censor” in America and other "modern" commercialized amusements are rapidly gaining the field. China has been trying democracy since 1911. The Chinese educated group are beginning to realize that without fundamental changes in social ideas, without civic and social education, they cannot hope for a real democracy in a nation where the people have been used to avoiding all civic responsibilities and escaping where possible from any relations with the corrupt local official. I might continue by describing many other changes in China-the whole social fabric of the nation is falling apart, and a new pattern is being woven. Not only are things fluid and in process of transformation in China, but there are certain significant tendencies and certain socially minded groups in that nation that point to the possibility in the near future of the forming of a constructive social and civic program of far-reaching significance. In the first place there has been in the last two years a most powerful progressive political movement in China. May 4, 1919, is said to be the birthday of modern democracy in China. Up to that time a group of pro-Japanese cabinet ministers had been selling out China. They had been mortgaging her mines, railroads, and forests to Japan at the rate of $250,000,000 in two years. On that date 3,000 college men rose in their wrath in Peking, marched to the home of the arch-traitor Tsao Ju Lin, Minister of Finance, and not finding him at home gave the former minister to Japan a good beating. They destroyed much of the furniture of Tsao's house. This started the student movement which in two years has done the following things: caused the dismissal of two corrupt cabinet members; organized public lectures throughout the country explaining to the common people the present political situation; forced the government not to sign the Paris treaty, which gave away China's sacred province to the virtual control of Japan; and organized the powerful anti-Japanese boycott which has meant the loss of millions of dollars of trade to Japan and caused a tempering of her foreign policy. As a part of this movement there were organized in every large city citizens' unions composed of representatives of the commercial and industrial guilds and of educational, agricultural, press, lawyers' and various religious organizations. The organization of these civic unions has created a mobile force' of right-minded citizens and the beginning of public opinion in China. Another movement even more significant is the Renaissance movement started in January, 1919, as a literary revolution. Three young Chinese graduates of the University of Paris, Columbia, and London University headed this movement. The endeavor was to substitute the Manderin or the spoken language in written form for the ancient classical Chinese. Within two years this movement has expressed itself through 400 new modern magazines. More significant than the transformation of the form of the language used in these magazines is their content. They are organs of the new intellectual movement having as its motto, "Save the Country through Science and Democracy." Its method is to destroy old China and build a new progressive nation. The most popular writers of today in China are Karl Marx, Kropotkin, Bakunin, and more recently Bertrand Russell and John Dewey, who are lecturing in the National Government University in Peking. The catch word of this new movement is "social reconstruction." Young China is ready to get behind a constructive social program for China! THE LOCAL COMMUNITY Another group who students. There are already in China several thousand men with degrees, many of may be counted on in building the new China are the returned them Doctors of Philosophy, from European and American universities who are ready to line up with the modern movement. Most of them have taken political positions, because, owing to the lack of industrial development in China, there are very few other positions which provided enough salary to enable them to live up to the standards they have learned in their Western education. Then there is another group, prepared for years for playing an effective part in the social program of China-the Christian church. For years unable to play a large part in public affairs outside the mission compound, in modern China the Christian movement has a new freedom and a deep interest in developing both church social service work and a general community service program. Why should the American social worker go to China to help develop a Chinese social program? The Chinese are free to admit that they need Western capital and Western business advisers for the development of their factories and railroads. The army has foreign advisers, and there are foreign advisers in the Ministry of Finance and Communications. If she needs counsellors and advisers in these fields of obvious need, she needs even more promoters and helpers in initiating her program of fundamental social reconstruction. Also, as I have pointed out, China is our neighbor. Our future is closely tied up with hers. The way she develops is of utmost significance to the future of our nation. Then, too, Americans, unlike Japanese and Germans, for instance, are better able to understand the social needs of China. We are both democracies. The business man, and not the soldier, is our foremost citizen. Social welfare movements and policies in China as in America are sure to come from the people up-not from a paternalistic government down. The methods we have worked out in our loose-jointed democracy are of the same nature as are likely to be those most needed in China-a nation noted for having a minimum of effective government and having a maximum of local autonomy. For a hundred years we have been sending Americans to China who have opened churches, schools, and hospitals throughout the country. There are more missionaries from America there than from any other nation, and the opening up of modern life in that nation is a very clear result of American missionary enterprise. The whole missionary program is taking on a new social trend. The missionaries, as never before, need the social worker to effectually supplement and enlarge their largest work. Finally just a word about the kind of people that are wanted in China today. We want highly trained social workers. These workers should have a general knowledge of city and country social work in connection with the school, the church, the settlement, and civic and social betterment movements. On the other hand a primary need is for men and women of adaptability. Social workers going to China should therefore not be too old to learn the language and, what is more, to learn a new civilization. I would place the age limit around thirty. Their chief characteristics should be adaptability and a talent for constructive thinking. They should of course learn the language, study the civilization of the country in which they are living, and adapt the methods of the West to the conditions in the East. Of course it is needless to say that such workers should have a great deal of human sympathy and be able to overlook the defects of many blundering attempts in the beginning stages of the social movement in China. They should have imagination to see beyond the small beginnings to the large results in human terms. |