XVI
CONCLUSION
There are many people who advocate the use of opium, and who defend the policy of the Opium Monopoly. They argue that it is not harmful—if taken in moderation. They even assert that it is no more objectionable than alcohol or tobacco. Leaving out of account, therefore, the consensus of opinion of the medical profession as to the evils of habit-forming drugs, and accepting the theory that opium is harmless, we should then like to ask why the use of opium is so carefully restricted to the peoples of subject states, who have no voice in their own affairs? Why should the benefits of opium be confined to Oriental races, and why should not the white race be given the same opportunities for indulgence? Is there any reason for this discrimination? As a source of revenue, it certainly has advantages. Yet curiously enough, those European countries which derive much profit through the sale of opium to their subject races, seem to have an aversion to introducing it to their people at home. And there is a further coincidence in the fact that none of the self-governing colonies of European countries—Australia, New Zealand and Canada—permit this traffic. It appears to be only the subject peoples, whose well-being has become the White Man's Burden, who receive the blessings of this peculiar form of altruism. Is it because the white race is worth preserving, worth protecting, and because subject nations are fair game for exploitation of any kind?
Another argument advanced by advocates of Government opium is that the Oriental peoples are "different"—that opium does them no harm. Every writer on the subject of opium in China, produces evidence to show the shocking results upon that country, during the hey-day of the deluge. The complete moral degradation, and economic ruin of thousands of helpless individuals. Nor do we think the medical profession would agree with this assumption that opium is harmless to Orientals, because they are "different." Their only real difference lies in their helplessness to protect themselves from foreign aggression.
Another argument advanced by the upholders of the Monopoly is that the Orientals have always been users of opium, that they like it, it suits them, it would be unfair to deprive them of it. We have seen to what extent the Chinese liked it, and how it was forced upon them by two wars. Not until they were completely crushed, and had to accept the terms of the conquerer, did they submit. It can hardly, therefore, be called a vice indigenous to the Chinese. Japan is another Oriental nation that disproves this argument. As we have said before, there are no opium shops in Japan, and the sale of opium is not conducted by the Japanese Government. On the contrary, the Japanese have the same fear of this drug that a European nation has, and exercises the same precautions to protect its people. But, as we have said before, Japan is the only Oriental nation that has not been subjugated by a European nation, and therefore has never had opium thrust upon her. She is the only country in the Far East that has managed to preserve her sovereignty, and has never been subject to certain blighting influences of European culture.
Another exception to this assumption that the Orientals cannot do without opium lies in the Philippines. When America acquired those islands some twenty years ago, our first act was to eliminate the opium traffic, which had been established there by our predecessors. It had been in existence for decades, but we immediately set about to abolish it. Root and branch we did away with it, and shed no crocodile tears as to the "hardship" this would be to the people who had come under our protection. We wished no revenue coming from such a source as this. Yet we might have cut in half the cost of our Philippine budget had we followed the example set by other nations. We have seen that certain British colonies, Hongkong and the Straits Settlements, for example, derive from one-third to one-half of their upkeep expenses from this traffic. But we refrained from treating our Filipinos in this manner. We are called sentimentalists out in the East—at such times as we are not called money-getters. To-day, the Philippines are very nearly ready for self-government. Would they have been so nearly ready had we continued to drug them as they had been drugged before we took possession? Drugged peoples are usually docile and submissive—perhaps that is the secret of much of the successful colonizing, about which we hear so much.
But let us leave aside the question of the Orientals, and whether or no opium is good for them. We recognize quite clearly that it is not good for ourselves, for Americans. We recognize that fact quite as clearly as England realizes that it is not good for the inhabitants of the British Isles. Quite as clearly as France, while setting up opium shops in her colony of Indo-China, refuses to establish them in Paris or Marseilles. America is unique in the fact that although we have colonial possessions, we do not have a double standard of morality. We attempt to throw around our colonies the same safeguards that we throw around ourselves at home. But the question arises, how successful are we in protecting ourselves at home? Not particularly so, according to the daily press.
How great the danger to ourselves was recognized some thirty-seven years ago by an Episcopal missionary to China, the Rev. John Liggins. In 1882 he published a small book, already referred to, entitled: "England's Coercive Opium Policy and Its Disastrous Results in China and India." The preface to this unheeded warning runs thus. "Our aim in this sketch is to present, as briefly as possible, the most important facts and testimonies concerning a traffic which is as disgraceful to England as it is ruinous to China and hurtful to India.... It is also of the highest importance that the people throughout our wide domain should be aroused concerning the new, fascinating and deadly foe which has entered our country through the Golden Gate, and which already numbers its victims by the thousands, and will soon do so by the tens of thousands."
The Rev. Mr. Liggins saw it coming—that danger which is almost ready to overwhelm us to-day. He recognized clearly that the Opium Monopoly of that great nation which rules nearly one-third of the world—the British Empire—would in time reach further and further afield for new victims. It is too lucrative a trade to be confined to only a few countries. Markets must not only be created and legalized in subject states, but new ones added in outside countries, through smuggling. All too fatally easy of accomplishment, and so profitable, financially, as to be worth any risk and effort. The prediction as to our own danger, made in 1882, seems to be abundantly realized.