A STATESMAN’S VIEW OF CHRISTIAN WORK ABROAD BY THE honorable WIELIAM H. TAFT An Address delivered in Carnegie Hall, New York, Monday evenhig, April 20th, igoS, at a meeting of the Laymen's Missionary Movement, Stenographically reported, but not revised by the author A Statesman’s View of Christian Work Abroad BY THE honorable WILLIAM H. TAFT 'I' HAVE known a good many people I who were opposed to foreign mis- I sions. It has been the custom in literature, sometimes, to make fun of them. You remember when Sam Weller came home to see his father, Tony, and the widow whom Tony had married, the widow and the Rev. Stig- gins framed an indictment against Tony on the ground that he would not con¬ tribute any money to pay for flannel waistcoats and colored x>ocket handker¬ chiefs for little infants in the West In¬ dies. He said they were little humbugs and he said, moreover, in an undertone to Sam, that he would come down pretty handsome for some ^^straight vestkits” for some people at home. I confess that 2 there was a time wlien I was enjoying a smug provincialism, that I hope has left me now, when I rather sympathized with that view. Until I went to the Orient, until there were thrown on me respon¬ sibilities with reference to the extension of civilization in those far distant lands, I did not realize the immense impor¬ tance of foreign missions. The truth is, we have got to wake up in this coun¬ try. We are not all there is in the world. There are lots of people besides us who are entitled to our effort and our money and our sacrifice to help them on in the world. Christianity the Basis of Modern Civilization No man can study the movement of modern civilization from a\2 impartial standpoint and not realize that Christi¬ anity and the spirit of Christianity are the only basis for the hope of modern civilization and the growth of poimlar self-government. The spirit of Christi¬ anity is pure democracy. It is the equality of man before God, the equality of man before the law which is, as I understand it, the most Godlike mani¬ festation that man has been able to make. I am not here to-night to speak 3 of foreign missions from a purely relig¬ ious standpoint. Tliat ihas been done. I am here to speak of missions from the standpoint of political, governmental advancement, Idie advancement of modern civilization. And I think I have had some opportunity to know how dependent we are on the spread of Chris¬ tianity in any hope that we may have of uplifting the i)eoples whom [Providence has thrust upon us for our guidance. Tlie Great Contribution of the Early Roman Missionaries in the Philippines In the Philippines, in 1565 to 1571 there were five Augustinian friars who came out by direction of Philip II., charged with the duty, under Legaspi, of Christianizing those islands. They reached there just at the time when the Mohammedans were thinking of coming into the same place, and these friars spread Christianity through the islands with no violence, but in the true spirit of Christian missionaries. They taught the natives agriculture, they taught them peace and the arts of peace. And BO it came about that the only people as a body, who are Christians, in the whole Orient, are the Filipino people of 4 the Christian provinces of the Philip¬ pines, 7,000,000 souls. I dwell upon this, because it is the basis of the whole hope of success that we have in our prob¬ lem in those islands. It is true that these people were not developed beyond the point of Christian tutelage. Those old missionaries felt that it was not wise to expose these people to the tempta¬ tions of the knowledge which European Christians had, and so they were kept in a state of ignorance, but, neverthe¬ less, they were Christians, and for 300 years have been under that influence. And now, in this condition of Christian tutelage, their ideals are western, their ideals are Christian, and they under¬ stand us when we attempt to unfold to them the theories and doctrines of self- government, of democracy. Because they are Christians they are fit material to make, in two or three genera-tions, a self-governing people. We have the op¬ portunity to know, because we hav'e a million non-Christians there. We have 4,000,000 Mohammedans i they don^t un¬ derstand republican gojemmex't; they don’t understand populai government. They welcome a despotism. And they never will understand a beneficent gov¬ ernment until they have been converted to Christianity. 5 The Constitution and National Altruism It is my conviction tliat our nation is just as much charged with the obliga¬ tion to help the unfortunate peoples of other countries that are thrust upon us by fate until they are fit to become self- governing people, as it is the business of the wealthy and fortunate in the com¬ munity to help the infirm and the unfor¬ tunate of that community. I know it is said that there is nothing in the Con¬ stitution of the United States that au¬ thorizes national altruism of that sort. Well, of course there is not. But there is nothing in the Constitution of the United States that forbids it. What there is in the Constitution of the United States is a breathing spirit that we are a nation with all the responsibili¬ ties and power that any nation ever had, and therefore when it becomes the Chris¬ tian duty of a nation to assist another nation, the Constitution authorizes it, because it is part of its being. We went into the Cuban War not for conquest. We went there because we thought there was an international scandal that ought to be ended, and that we had some re¬ sponsibility with respect to that scandal, if we could end it and did not do it. 6 The Hope of the Philippines I ihave been at tlie bead of tbe Pbilip- pine Government, and I know what i am talking about when I say that the hope of these islands depends upon the development of the power of the Chris¬ tian Churches already there. One of the most discouraging things to-day is not the helpless, but the poverty-stricken condition of the Roman Catholic Church, which has the largest congregations in those islands. 'Every man, be he Prot¬ estant or Roman Catholic, must in his heart hope for the prosperity of the Roman Catholic Church in those isl¬ ands, in order that it may do the work that it ought to do in uplifting the peo¬ ple. So, too, with reference to the Prot¬ estant missions in the islands. They are doing a grand and noble work. And it is the influence of the Churches upon a people as ignorant as they are that holds up the hands of the civil governor, charged as he is with the responsibility of maintaining peace and order, of inducing the people to educate their children and to go on upward to¬ ward self-government. I am talking practical facts, about the effect of relig¬ ion on the political government, and I know what I am talking about. 7 The Mission a Nucleus of Modern Oivillzation Until I went into the Orient I did not realize the variety of things that foreign missions accomplish. Connected with every successful foreign mission is a school, often an industrial school. In connection with every good foreign mis¬ sion there are hospitals and doctors. Therefore the mission makes a nucleus of modem civilization, with schools, teachers and physicians, as well as the church. In that way, having educated the native, having taught him how to live, they are able to 'he sure that they have made him a consistent Christian. Of course people say there are a great many rice-Christians in China. Doubt¬ less there are. The Ohit^ese do not differ- from other people. And some are quite willing to admit a conversion they don’t have, in order thot they may fill their stomachs. But that does not affect the real fact, which is, that every foreign mission in China is a nucleus for the advance of modem civilization. China is in a state of transition. China is looking forward to progress. China is to be guided by whom? She is to he guided by the young Christian students and scholars that either learn English or 8 some foreign language at home or are sent abroad to be instructed, and who come back and whose words are listened to by those who exercise influence at the head of the Government. Therefore it is that these frontier posts of civiliza¬ tion are so much more important than the mere numerical count of those who are converted or those who yield allegiance to the mission seems to make them. And I speak from the standpoint of, as I say, political civilization in such a coun¬ try as Ghina. Missionaries and their Critics Two or three things make one impa¬ tient when he understands the facts. One is this criticism of the missionaries as constantly involving governments in trouble, as constantly bringing about war. The truth is, that trade is pressing into the Orient and the agents that are sent forward, I an sorry to say, are not the best representatives of western civ¬ ilization. The Americans and English¬ men and others who live in the Orient are, many of them, excellent, honest. God-fearing men, but there are in that set of advance agents of western civili¬ zation gentlemen who left the West for the good of the West, and because their 9 ■history in the West might prove embar¬ rassing at home. More than that, even where they are honest, hard-working tradesmen and merchants, attempting to push business into the Orient, their minds are constantly on business. It is not human nature that they should re¬ sist the temptations that not infrequent¬ ly present themselves to get ahead of the Oriental brother in business trans¬ actions. They generally are quite out of sympathy with a spirit of brotherhood toward the Orientals. Even in the Philippines that spirit is shown. Eor I remember hearing this sentiment sung on the streets of Manila by a gentleman who did not agree with my view of what we ought to do toward the Filipinos: “He may be a brother of William H. Taft, But he ain’t no brother of mine.” That is the spirit that we are too likely to find among the gentlemen who go into the East for the mere purpose of extending trade. Then, I am bound to say that the re¬ straints of public opinion, of a fear of the criticism of one’s neighbors that one finds at home, to keep men in the straight and narrow path, are loosened in the Orient. We find that many men are not the models that they ought to be 10 in probity .and morality. .They look upoiL the native as inferior, and they are too likely to treat him with contumely and insult. It is through the foreign mis¬ sions that we must expect to have the true picture of Christian brotherhood presented to those natives, the true spirit of Christian sympathy. That is what makes, in the progress of civilization, the immense importance of Christian mis¬ sions. Go into China to-day and try to find out what the conditions are in the in¬ terior. Consult in Pekin the gentlemen who are supposed to know, and where do they go? They go at once to the mis¬ sionaries, to the men who have spent their lives far advanced into the nation, far beyond the point of safety if any uprising takes place, and who have learned by association with the natives, by living with them, by bringing them into their houses, by helping them on to their feet, what the secret of Chinese life is. And therefore it is that the only reliable books that you can read, telling you the exact condition of Chinese civ¬ ilization, are written by these same for¬ eign missionaries who have been so much blamed for involving us in foreign wars. It is said that the Boxer war was due 11 to the interference of the missionaries, and the feeling of the Chinese against the Christian religion as manifested and exemplified by the missionaries. That is not true. It is true that the first out¬ break was against the missionaries, be¬ cause the outbreak was against foreign interference, and it was easiest to attack those men who had gone furthest into the interior. But that which really roused the opposition of the Chinese was the feeling that all the Christian na¬ tions were sitting around waiting to divide up the Middle Kingdom, and wait¬ ing to get a piece of the pork. That is the feeling that the C-^inese have; and I am not prepared to say that there was not some ground for the suspicion. The United States and China By doing what was a clean, honest thing to do, but which as between na¬ tions seems to be a little more excep¬ tional perhaps, than between i^rdividuals, by agreeing to return the money that we really ought not to have taken, as the Boxer indemnity, by the influence of our foreign missions there, and by the be¬ lief in China that we are not there for our own exploitation, or to appropriate jurisdiction, territorial or otherwise, I 12 think we stand well in China to-day. I think we stand in such a position that such a movement as the laymen have now undertaken, to raise money to in¬ crease the number of missionaries and the number of nuclei of Christianity and of civilization in that teeming popula¬ tion of 450,000,000, has a better prospect to-day than it ever had before. There¬ fore such a movement as this must enlist the sympathy and the aid of all who understand the great good that the seK- denying men wh^ go so far to accom¬ plish their good are doing. The Missionary Life Exacting You can read books—have read them—in which the missions are de¬ scribed as most comfortable buildings; and it is said that the missionaries are living much more luxuriously than they would at home; and therefore that they have no claim upon our support or sym¬ pathy. It is true that there are a good many mission buildings that are hand¬ some buildings; I have seen them. It is true that they are comfortable; but they ought to be comfortable. One of the things that you have got to do with the Oriental is to fill his eye with some¬ thing that he can see; and if you erect a great missionary building he deems 13 your coming into that community of some importance. The missionary so¬ cieties that are doing that, and are building suitable homes for the mission¬ aries, are following a very much more sensible course than is the United States in denying to its ambassadors and other representatives suitable dwellings. The life of a missionary is not a life of ease; it is not a life of comfort and luxury. I do not know how many have felt that thing that the physicians call nostalgia. I do not know whetheryou have experienced that sense of distance from home, that being surrounded by an alien people, that impression that you would give almost anything if you could only have two hours of association with your old friends at home, if you could only get into the street-cav and sit down, or hang by a strap. I tell you, when you come back after an absence of five or ten years, even the strap seems a dear old memory. The Conclusion of the Whole Matter These men are doing grand, good work. I do not mean to say that there are not exceptions among them; that sometimes they do not make mistakes, 14 Chat sometimes they do not meddle in something which it would be better for them from a politic motive to keep out of; but I mean as a whole these 3,000 missionaries in China, and those in other countries, worthily represent the best Christian spirit of this country, and worthily are doing the work that you have sent them out to do. I thank you for the opportunity of speaking on behalf of this body of Christian men and women who are doing a work which is indispensable to the spirit of Christian civilization.- COPIES of this leaflet may be obtained from The Corre¬ sponding Secretary^ 281 Fourth Avenue, New York, by asking for Leaflet No. 1101. T[ Information concerning the Laymen’s Missionary Movement may be obtained from the same address. ^ All offerings for missions should be sent to Mr. George C. Thomas^ Treasurer, Church Missions House, 281 Fourth Avenue, New York. February, 1909. 23d M.