Taiwan Today

Dr. Moyer’s resignation from his posts of ECA China Mission and JCRR has caused deep regret among the official circles as well as common people of Free China. Dr. Moyer has been in China for thirty years. Most of the woes that the country suffered during that long period have been personal experience to him. He is a great friend of ours. On many occasions he risked his life to fulfill his duties. He was put in prison by the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. During the recent few years when our nation has been facing the unprecedented danger of Communist aggression, Dr. Moyer, in his capacity as Chief of ECA China Mission and concurrently Commissioner of the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction, has given us the utmost assistance to solve our financial and economic problems. As most accounts about Dr. Moyer and his services published in the Chinese press pleasure in publishing a more accurate picture of the men and his by an authority on the Chinese financial affairs as well as a personal friend of Dr. Moyer’s.

To Begin with Oberlin

Dr. Moyer is a graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio State, U. S. A. It is also Oberlin that first sent him to China. The traditional Oberlin Spirit for social service and self-sacrifice has taken firm root in his mind and exerted great influence in molding his character as well as his career. Besides, the College also has some close connections with modern China politically and culturally. So it will be worthwhile to give a brief introduction first.

The word "Oberlin" was originally the name of a French Protestant priest in the 18th century-the Rev. John Frederick Oberlin. He received a good school education and was well qualified to secure high positions in various lines at that time. However, as an enthusiastic Christian, he gave up all offers and went to a small village of an undeveloped area in France. There he, besides preaching, founded schools, constructed roads, established irrigation systems, and initiated various kinds of philanthropic work. The valuable work he did and the good example he set have made his name live forever. And that village was named after him.

Soon afterwards in the United States of America, some pioneers, most of whom were Puritan Protestants, went to the then undeveloped wilderness of the north part of the country and settled down, Because they all felt great admiration for the Rev. Oberlin and wanted their offspring to learn his great example, they named their town "Oberlin".

Oberlin College is situated in Oberlin Town. It is not a big college, but it has become a famous one. It is said that Oberlin was the first college that admitted negro students and practiced co-education. It has become famous mainly because of its high standard of morality and rigid regulations on studies.

Among the scholars Oberlin produced was Prof. Charles G. Hall, inventor of a new method of refining aluminum which has made the modern aviation possible. The patent right of his invention made him a rich man. By the time of his death he left behind a legacy of many million dollars, A large sum was donated to the Christian Educational Institutions in China. Yenching University got the largest share, Nanking University came to be the next; and Oberlin Shansi Memorial Schools in Shansi also received a share of $700,000.

In China Oberlin Alumni have also rendered valuable services in various lines. Among, these there are two leading political figures: one is Dr. H. H. Kung, the war-time Finance Minister, and the other is Dr. T. F. Tsiang, the chief delegate of Free China to the United Nations.

Martyrs

In the year 1891, there was a serious famine in Shansi province, China. The vast area of the central part, including more than forty counties, which are the most productive area of the province, yielded no crops of any kind throughout the whole year. At that time, modern transportation facilities were not available, so that no foodstuffs could be imported. The Manchu Regime took little notice of the calamity, nor did it tender an adequate relief Consequently the famine developed into a great tragedy. Thousands of lives were taken away and corpses were heaped up here and there. When reports of this tragedy reached the United States through the missionaries, all newspapers ran big items in their columns. Meanwhile there was an old professor of Theology in Oberlin College, who was very rich moved by these descriptions. He explained one day to his students that the main cause of the horrible famine in Shansi was lack of modern scientific knowledge and facilities and urged them to go to Shansi to educate and help the people there. His tone was so earnest and enthusiastic that the audience were deeply affected. After their graduation from Oberlin, some of them did go to Shansi with a determination to do the same job that the Rev. Oberlin had done in France. They chose Taiku Hsien which is in the central part of Shansi as the site of their work. There they built up churches, founded schools and hospitals, and rendered various kinds or services to the people.

During the Boxer Uprising in 1900 all the Missionaries at Taiku including their dependents were massacred. Together with the Chinese fellow Christians killed there, the number totaled over one hundred persons. All of them were buried at the East Suburb of Taiku Hsien, where the Oberlin Shansi Memorial schools are now situated. After the Boxer Incident, people in Oberlin College; deeply mourning for the pitiable death of their alumni in Shansi, set up an organ called "Shansi Society", charged with memorial plans for those martyrs. Considering the urgent need of Shansi as well as whole China, the Society finally decided to build a school at Taiku and named it in English "Oberlin Shansi Memorial Schools" and Ming-Hsien in Chinese. Oberlin College provided for the total expenditures of the Shansi Institution. It dispatched one of its undergraduates to Shansi to teach each year, of whom Dr. Moyer was one. So his coming to China, from the very beginning, really represented the Christian love mingling with the Martyrs, blood, which is the best explanation of Dr. Moyers unceasing effort in helping China.

Thirty Years Ago

It was thirty years ago. One September afternoon in 1921, all the faculty and students of Oberlin Shansi Memorial Schools were called together and told that they were to meet a new teacher named Raymond T. Moyer who was just come from the United States. They were led out of the campus and lined up along a road running northward. Toward nightfall the man was sighted alighting from an old fashioned carriage, which was the most common means of conveyance then in Shansi. Among hearty greetings and compliments he appeared before the crowd. Then he drew a full breath of the racy air of the Shansi plateau, and with a smile on his youthful face, he began to look more closely at the county and the people among whom he was to spend the best year of his life.

He was a smart young man, at the age of about twenty years old then, with a tall figure, brownish hair, and twinkling eyes. His friendly and pleasant demeanor was very attractive - as it is still now. It was not very long before he had become popular. You could see him talking to people with his two hands in his pockets; walking with big strides with a violin under his arm; and whacking a tennis racket with loud shout; and giving out loud laughter from time to time.

His English full name is Raymond T. Moyer. As soon as he came to China, people translated his family name into Chinese as “Mu-I-Er” and gave him a surname “Te-Fu”. These are really the most complicated characters in the Chinese vocabulary. It was more or less out of mischief to use such big words for a newly-comer foreigner's name. He practiced to write his Chinese name whenever there was spare time but seemed always to fail write it well. One day when he asked, "Arc all Chinese characters so hard to write as my name?" the naughty students told him, "These are the easiest ones, there are still more difficult ones." He shrugged his shoulders and said: "Oh! My God!"

Oberlin College took it very seriously to choose teachers for her Shansi Branch School. Only those undergraduates or graduates with sound character and good records were eligible. Dr. Moyer possessed all these qualifications. He was a good athlete as well as a violin player. Many people have been amused with his excellent violin music. During the first period of his stay in Ming-Hsien, he taught both English and physical training. Many times he led the school teams to make “expeditions" to different places.

As he was a man of such versatile talent, so he would give you the impression that he was an artist or a writer. However, he chose agriculture as his major subject of study afterwards. From that time on he began plan to build an agriculture college in Shansi. There he spent his whole youth, maintain a family and gave birth to three children. There he and his family got acquainted with the people of all classes and lines. They almost regarded Shansi as their second native place.

Another Oberlin College

Dr. Moyer stayed in China for two years from 1921 to 1923. He returned to United States in the summer of 1923. By the next year he had finished his undergraduate course in Oberlin and entered Cornell University as a post-graduate. There he received the doctor degree in agriculture. In 1927 he came to China again. During the long period from 1927 to 1941, he devoted himself to the founding of the College of Agriculture of Oberlin Shansi Memorial Schools. It was he who designed every thing for the Institution; and it was he who steered the whole educational program. The guiding Principle of education adopted by the College was "To learn for use." In order to achieve this goal, experimental work was especially emphasized. There were large-scale experimental stations [or soil studies, plant breeding, animal husbandry and horticulture established in the College. The campus of Oberlin, Shansi covered several hundred acres, of which the College of Agriculture shared the largest part. Dr. Moyer's ideal, as we comprehend, was to introduce the agricultural achievements of the United States into China so as to increase the rural production and improved the farmers' livelihood of our country. He purchased various kinds of sheep and poultry from abroad and bred them in Shansi to test their adaptability to the environment there. In order to ascertain the possibility for developing sheep raising in the mountainous regions of Shansi, he and his colleagues made a great deal of travel among the big fares tries in the Province in disregard of all risks and toils.

It seemed that Dr. Moyer was especially interested in soil studies and plant-breeding. He made long series of experiments in transplanting foreign plants of various kinds in Shansi and especially in improving local varieties. He always liked to take upon himself the farming work of every stage; ploughing, sowing, and harvesting, etc. You could see him wearing a working suit and a small cap toiling under scorching sun from time to time just like an old farmer. As a result of long time of study and personal experience he has become quite familiar with the rural problems of China. These valuable experiences must be very helpful to his recent undertakings in JCRR as well as ECA.

With consistent efforts of more than a dozen years, he succeeded in erecting the sound foundations for the College. The faculty members and students increased year by year; the laboratories were provided with more and more apparatus and most research works turned out to be successes. Just at the moment of speedy development the Sino-Japanese War broke out. The school authorities decided to remove the Institution to Szechuan immediately. But Dr. Moyer was requested to remain in Shansi to take care of the school property. For four years from 1937 to 1941 he was stranded on the isolated campus. Finally after Pearl Harbour, he was captured in Hongkong by the Japanese while enroute to join the College in Szechuan and imprisoned in the concentration camp there without enough food and clothing. The sufferings have done mud harm to his health and it took him long months to recuperate. He was not set free until on one occasion when civil prisoners were exchanged between America and Japan.

"Since then I have become an official." He said when he came to China after World War II. As soon as he had recovered, he joined the Agricultural Department of the United States for some time. When JCRR came into being he was appointed by President Truman as one of the American Commissioners of that Organization. This new appointment offered him a much better Opportunity to render services to China-the same as he has been doing in the past years.

A Friend in Need

In English there is a proverb saying: "A friend in need is a friend indeed." During the recent few fears we people of Free China have been experiencing great difficulties. But Dr. Moyer has been with us all along. In the summer of 1949 when our military strength on the mainland was collapsing, he took swift action to switch the JCRR and ECA programs to Taiwan, the last citadel of Free China. This indicated that he would not give up any chance of helping the nation. Last year, after National Government's withdrawal from Hainan and Tinghai Islands, when Taiwan was cast in the shadow of doubt and fear, he came from Washington with a beaming face and the heart-warming projects of ECA and JCRR in his pockets. He not only assisted us to solve many headache problems financially and economically, but also inspired us with his courage and perseverance. Such an inspiration was needed no less urgently than those material aids which he was to bring to us. Now he is leaving. But wherever his new position will be, we Chinese shall always look upon him as one of the best friends we have ever had.