Life — April 14, 1927 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

VOL. 89. 2319 “While there is Life there’s Hope” Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY 598 Madison Avenue, New York Crrantrs Dana Gmson, President E. Suenwoon, Editor F. D. Casey, Art Editor “AFTER A you” isa very polite phrase in peace time, but in war it means something else. As used by Chinese at Nanking to the foreigners there it was not at all reassuring. The job of getting the refugees out was well done, but it was a close shave. This reorganization of China is a. very large omelet; very large indecd ; and of course there are going to be lots of eggs broken in the making of it. All observers ought to keep cool, but won't if there are serious mas- sacres of forcigners. Let us hope there won't be. It looks as if that hope was not extravagant. War with China seems imprac- ticable. It would be like a war with an earthquake or a flood. For the moment there is no responsible au- thority to fight, and fighting irre- sponsible authorities is like contend- ing with forces of nature. If there is to be any incidental killing of Chinese it is highly desirable that Chinese should do it and not foreign- ers, and certainly not Americans, iverybody out there seems to un- derstand that. The gunfire from the American and British boats that got the people alive out of Nanking was strictly for purposes of rescue. It seems to have been skillful and effective. One observes once more in that incident the propensity of British and American observers to take the same view in emergencies of what is necessary to do, and to do it together if convenient. That sense of what is proper conduct in tight places is one of the fundamentals of that English-Spoken-Here sodality, Cram Maxw Lancuoaxe 11, Vice-President jiusox, Secretary and Treasurer unauthorized and undefined, which folks tell us is one of the major facts of contemporary world politics. ? peep! 32, R E will do well to look at do- ings in China as a part of a great cvolutionary proccss. That huge country is at last on the move. Chinese civilization, which has been the synonym for something that stood still, seems at last to have gone into action. To determine the details of its working-out is far beyond any human power. It will move accord- ing to the nature and promptings of its ingredients. We cannot do much about that. The job of the United States is first to take care of its own citizens and bring them to safety and incidentally to do everything pos- sible to help out other foreigners now in China. Next to safeguard prop- erty as far as is feasible and profit- able. Finally to be helpful to the great politico-evolutionary —move- ment as opportunity offers, and to avoid as far as possible interventions and interferences that are destructive to lives and properties of Chinese. The Russian papers yell and lie about the doings of forcigners, and especially of the Americans and the British. They have opened a bar- rage of epithets. They are out ap- parently to deceive the Chinese as to the facts of what has happened and what is going to happen. That is just a part of the mess. The opinion seems well founded that Rus- sia is welcome, so far as we are con- cerned, to do anything she can in China and that China is welcome to get anything she can out of Russia, That sentiment is largely based on the opinion that China is much too big a job for Russia to handle and that the Chinese have deep down sentiments of their own which will conflict with the Soviet purpose, It is all extremely interesting. We should be wary of believing all that the newspapers tell us from day to day because news comes from pre- carious sources and is fallible. = O T attests the remarkable qualities of the mind of Henry Ford that he is able to break into such news as we are now getting to the extent that he does. After we have read the re- ports from Shanghai, Nanking and other points East and improved our geography a little and made new attempts to identify Chinese Gen- crals, we go on to read about Henry's libel suit and his efforts to supply the necessarics and some of the lux- uries of life in competition with vari- ous chain stores. Henry is working along from mass production to mass distribution and, of course, he has got into a hornet’s nest. Perhaps we ought to think of him, too, as a de- tail of an evolutionary process. Life is changing extremely fast and he is the most notable individual _life- changer of the lot. Apparently we cannot do much about China nor yet about Henry Ford. They will both have to take care of themsclves. They are not much alike, indeed they present about as great a contrast as is possible, except that they both seem to be impelled to step on the gas. What an extraordinary world it is that we live in. How very comfort- able, how very convenient it is in a good many ways. How handsome in some places. What amazing means we have for what is called the en- joyment of life, including trans- portation, and what stubborn doubts as to whether the life so called is really enjoyable. Qucer times, very queer! We should all be careful of our deportment, careful with the solicitude of persons who do not know what may happen to them nest. E. S. Martin. P.S. Subsequent to the above re- marks Henry Ford had an accident and became instantly the leading object of public attention. comicbooks.com