THERE NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE IN CHINA HERE are several so-called Western in- an article in World's Work, (London), ventions for which a more or less satisfactory claim of priority can be made for its twenty-odd octavo pages still make their reguChina; e. g. the telephone, gunpowder, and tices of appointments, and memorials from such lar appearance, filled with imperial decrees, nothe mariner's compass. But China's claim to have the oldest newspaper is beyond dispute. For nearly twelve hundred years the Tching-pao (News of the Capital), or, as it is commonly known to Westerners, the Peking Gazette, has been issued daily. According Though the Gazette had its imitators in the to Mr. Franklin Ohlinger, who writes provincial capitals, there was nothing in the high dignitaries as have been accorded the privilege of addressing the throne. These leaves are loosely stitched together in a cover of imperial yellow, which distinguishes the publication as the official organ of the Government. way of criticism in the direction of molding It was the Japanese who first appreciated public opinion or of giving general informa- the opportunities afforded by the new condition. Not until Christian missions were tions. A college, where Japanese youths established in the Middle Kingdom did news- were instructed in the geography, resources, papers in the modern sense of the word come and commerce of China, had for several to be printed in Chinese. From the publica- years been maintained at Shanghai by the tion of religious books the missionaries soon chambers of commerce of the leading Japbranched out into journalism. Of their anese cities, and Japanese interest had religious papers, the Chinese Christian In- owned the Universal Gazette of Shanghai; telligencer and the Christian Advocate, both and now Japanese enterprise started new of them published in Shanghai, are the principal ones. These were so successful that the Sin Wan Pao (Daily Chronicle) and the Tung Pao (Eastern Times), the oldest dailies of Shanghai, were instituted. journals at Foochow, Hankow, and other important cities. At the present time the British and Germans each control a newspaper in Peking, and the French L'Impartial at Tientsin is a semi-official organ. It was, however, the uprising of 1900 that Unfavorable comment has been suppressed gave the greatest impetus to journalism in in so arbitrary a manner in the past that a China. To quote from Mr. Ohlinger's article: favorite plan now is for the Chinese to apply The occupation of Peking by foreign armies, for a charter of incorporation from the Britthe flight of the imperial court, and the terrible ish Crown Colony of Hong-kong. This enpunitive expeditions, all combined to shatter the titles the newspaper company to the protectraditional notions of their own superiority which had so long been entertained by the Chinese. tion of the British flag, although the persons They were now willing and anxious to learn the of the editors are still subject to Chinese sources of Western efficiency. . . . In 1905 it was authority; and many a too-outspoken editor estimated that no less than six hundred treatises has been exiled to the bleak deserts of Monon scientific subjects had been translated from foreign languages into Chinese. Students were golia or subjected to punishment more severe. sent abroad in great numbers. In 1897, Com- In spite of this, journalism is spreading so missioner McLeavy Brown had established the rapidly in the interior of China that statistics Chinese imperial post and had put into effect a of the newspaper press of the entire country schedule of postal rates which was probably the lowest in the world. Thus, both the demand and cannot be obtained. It is known, however, the facilities for a secular press had come into being. that Shanghai has eight dailies, Peking and OFFICE AND STAFF OF THE "SIN-WAN-PAO" OF SHANGHAI - (The editor is on the left, smoking, the assistant in the center and the "copy boy" on the right) Tientsin five each, Hankow three, and Foochow two. As regards the printing operations, human power still being the cheapest, the presses, which like most of the other equipment, come from Japan, are operated by men who receive about two dollars a month. As Chinese has no alphabet, the type is necessarily a much larger item in the expenses than with us. To quote Mr. Ohlinger further: The paper is usually the poorest quality of tissue that will hold ink; it also comes from Japan. Even with this saving, the poverty of the people often makes original methods of circulation necessary. In some places the same editions are successively distributed to different sets of sub scribers, boys being employed to gather up the papers as soon as they have been read and carry them to another set of readers. The Chinese dailies usually sell for seven or eight cash a copy [a little less than half a cent]. Notwithstanding the arbitrariness of official interference, the criticisms of the powers that be are exceedingly free; one editorial, cited by Mr. Ohlinger, going so far as to inform the Provincial Assembly that "whenever the editors deem it advisable, they will express their own views of the course taken by the Assembly as a whole or by any individual member." Nothing could more vividly portray the rapid march of events in what was once slow old China. A THE RELIGIOUS SITUATION IN FRANCE CAREFUL analysis of the "crisis" in Curia, the incapacity of some of the clergy, and religious affairs in France is contributed the scandal some of them have given here and there to the Hibbert Journal, by the well-known those ranks are being as rapidly deserted by those have helped to swell the ranks of Free Thought, French philosophic and religious writer, M. for whom freedom and thought are not mere meanPaul Sabatier. Rome, this writer contends, ingless words. For them anti-clerical infallibility has alienated the respect and confidence of proves far more oppressive than Roman infallibility. the French clergy, and their obedience to the Vatican is now rendered "in darkness and discouragement." Meanwhile the laity have taken a neutral attitude, accepting neither the "puerile explanations" of Rome on the one hand, nor the sterile teachings of "Free Thought" on the other. In considering the situation of the Catholic Church in its moral aspect, this writer goes on, it is important not to confound the Church with the Holy See. The latter, like other governments is apt to forget the limits of its rule and is wont to act as if it It would be unwere the Church herself. just to make the Church responsible for the mistakes and shortsightedness of some of her representatives. M. Sabatier does not consider the political aspect of the problem resulting from the separation of Church and State in the republic. He treats only of what he terms the moral crisis through which both the French clergy and the laity are passing. The anguish which fills the hearts of so "For the nonce, he says, "Rome com- many French Catholics is not due to loss of mands and they obey, but obedience is ren- faith, M. Sabatier maintains, nor to "deviadered in gloom and depression. There exists tion from righteousness of conduct, nor to no longer between the command received and weakening of purpose-but because of the the soul bound to fulfill it, the deep preëstab- strength with which they have loved their lished harmony which alone can inspire per- country and have tried to live in their time.” fect obedience and an enthusiasm strong enough to surmount all obstacles." The most important factor in the religious situation of France, says M. Sabatier, is, without a doubt, the teachings of Free Thought. It is a movement inspired by the priests who have "broken" with Rome and who are endeavoring to establish and organize an Anti-Church in which the principles of truth would be embodied in opposition to the dogmas of the Catholic Church other dogmas diametrically opposed to them. In other respects it presents an organization, a hierarchy, even a liturgy, patterned upon that of the Church. While the arbitrary proceedings of the They are passing through a purely moral crisis, far graver than that of philosophic and scientific modernism. Modernism, in all this, counts for nothing. Neither bishops, priests, or the laity whose trials we have had in mind, have become contaminated by the famous heresy. Meanwhile, the great majority of the people in France is waiting. They feel that another period in its history is about to unfold,-that the temple has to be rebuilt. Neither accepting the simple explanations of the mysteries of life and of duty offered by the Church of Rome, nor tempted by the teachings of Free Thought, which preaches easy pleasure, living from day to day, the stupidity of self-denial, of love and of heroism, it stands reserved-equally removed from the one as from the other. THE NEED OF ECONOMIZING WITH OTHER NEWS OF BUSINESS AND INVESTMENT Savings Withdrawn of the $100,000,000 savings institutions in New York County. From another big one "DON'T mention my name" begged one approximately the same sum had been New York savings-bank president after removed in about the same period. A another when interviewed last month by $60,000,000 bank had lost $2,000,000; a representatives of this department. "Don't $30,000,000 one, $1,000,000; and nearly as much had been withdrawn from an institution with $20,000,000 deposits. identify my bank in your story; under that condition I'm willing to tell you that our deposits did fall off this summer in the most astonishing way." The Center of Savings Banks FOLKS who hate statistics may wonder Everywhere the REVIEW OF REVIEWS inquirers went they met similar replies. Their careful canvass was being made to anticipate why the savings institutions of New York the report of the Banking Superintendent of County are taken so seriously. They may be New York State that will show the condi- surprised to learn that 20 per cent.-a full tion of savings banks on January 1, 1911, as fifth-of the entire savings bank deposits of compared with six months before. Financial the nation are in this county (which does people always find these figures significant. not include Brooklyn at all). For every business man, investor and student Only thirty-two banks are situated here; of conditions, the flow of money into savings but they contain savings of no less than banks, or out of them, forms an excellent $806,000,000, which is just about one fifth of barometer. This year the report is awaited the sum total of all American savings banks with real anxiety. -$4,070,400,000. Since the spring, great enterprises have Moreover, these are institutions for savings been checked or curtailed or abandoned purely. They do no commercial business "through lack of capital." Capitalists have whatever. Each of them was founded as a been unwilling to buy securities in a big way. help to thrifty wage-earners. The average Small investors, the kind that keep their eyes regulations read that no single deposit may be open, have profited through the low prices more than $3,000 and that no more than $500 of good bonds. may be deposited between any two interest dates. No ulterior causes can exist that might radically complicate the returns. New York County savings banks are not stock companies. They are controlled by trustees who are paid nothing for their services-who accept their positions as the community's tributes to honesty and ability. Even the salaries of clerks and officials are held down to nominal amounts. No country can prosper, however, that does not go ahead. The refusal of the professional investor, whether trust company or "magnate," to take the new blocks of bonds that would soon have represented new railroad tracks and cars, new factories and public works, is the fundamental cause, in the final analysis, of complaint. It may be affected by political suspicions, or Supreme Court law suits in suspense, or public opposition to certain corporations and corporation methods. But no real check to the flow of capital into honest and productive enterprises can continue-unless it be that American wage-earners are spending more than they are saving. It means a good deal, therefore, that the REVIEW OF REVIEWS canvass among the New York County savings banks revealed, in almost every case, a tendency on the part of depositors to take more money out than they put in. No less than $3,000,000 had been withdrawn, during July and August, from one "Have not some of the banks reduced their interest rates?" is a natural suggestion to explain the falling off of deposits. Examination proves, however, that those banks which retained a 4 per cent. rate lost as heavily as those that had come down to 32. There seems to be no connection between interest reduction and withdrawal of deposits. Of course, the reason for the sudden commencement of a withdrawal movement on July 1st is to be found in the payments of semiannual interest on that date. Many, probably most, of the depositors who can celed or lessened their accounts had intended who employ savings banks merely as investto do so previous to July 1st, but were not willing to lose their interest. Indeed, several of the presidents remarked that they heard of much borrowing, just before July 1st, on savings-bank "books" as security. Higher Prices, Lower Deposits WHY is it, then, that practically every ment brokers, to take their money out and buy bonds-now selling so much lower than last year. As for such folks, however, "their room is more welcome than their company," as any president of such a savingsbank will tell you. His institution is for the encouragement of thrift and frugality, not for the convenience of rich people. Last month a prominent New York banker savings institution in the county which remarked that a tremendous "retrenchcontains one fifth of the savings-bank de- ment" was visible to him; and that if it conposits of the United States seemed to have tinued for six months, enough capital would sustained a loss in deposits following July have been saved to last the country several Ist the only exceptions being banks in new years. territories which had previously lacked sav ings facilities entirely? "Strikes of various kinds are partly responsible for this state of things," suggested John J. Pulleyn, controller of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, "combined with the high prices of foods and other factors of living. Some small amounts of money may have gone into real estate." Real estate men, however, report a dull six months. If it be true that the butcher's bill and the shopping fund and the rent payments have increased in the average family to a point where the savings-bank account cannot be built up but must actually be drawn upon-it is time the nation knew it. Our Accounts with Europe ANOTHER test of economizing, even more significant than the flow of money into and out of the savings banks in America, is the flow of corn, wheat, cattle, oil and other American products to Europe, as compared with the inflow of the manufactured goods and the like that Europe sells us. At a time like 1907, imports into America of things like diamonds and other precious stones, silks and the like, fall off abruptly. Contrariwise, everybody knew, when it was announced a little over a year ago that our imports of precious stones had broken all "Out of work" was likewise referred to as records, that the country was highly prosa cause for deposit losses by President Quin- perous—or at least thought it was. lan of the Greenwich Savings Bank. Presi- It is discouraging, therefore, to find that dent Charles E. Sprague of the Union Dime the imports of merchandise into America Savings Bank had diagnosed the cause of withdrawals as the desire of the average citizen to regulate his expenditures according to the income of his neighbor. The nation's extravagance, he believed, had reached that point where men and women fall back upon their last resort the savings bank-to clean up their indebtedness. A similar conclusion had been reached by President Felsinger of the New York Savings Bank. The payment of old loans and debts, he felt, was the chief factor. He believed, however, that although his depositors had not been earning as much as in 1906 and 1908, they had, after all, been discovering how to live within their means. this year have been tremendous. The following table compares the total for the tenmonth period ending October 31st this year with each of the five years preceding: 1910. 1909. 1908. 1907. 1906. 1905 $1,296,226,777 1,219,984,920 Not only are this year's imports greater, by hundreds of millions, than those in 1905, 1906, or 1908, but they are a hundred millions greater than any of the preceding years except 1907-which was a time of trouble. Fortunately, American manufacturers have That is the cheerful side. In the couple been breaking all records at selling their of months past, the number of savings-bank goods abroad. Our November "merchandepositors has been growing-even though dise exports" ran up to $206,000,000-against the sums they pass through the window have, $196,000,000 last November, $161,000,000 on an average, run smaller. To some degree the year before, and only $204,000,000 even the last phenomenon is an indirect result in November, 1907. of the reductions of interest rates made in Moreover, some signs of economizing can some quarters. This has led wealthy people, be deduced from the following table, which |