CHINA'S KEY MAN ON THE J. C. R. R.
If we add to Confucianism and Taoism the liberal education that he received in the West, we may be offering a key to the understanding of his personality and his life-long devotion to the welfare of his countrymen.
The key problem of Free China in Taiwan is economic. Whether that problem can be successfully solved or not will determine the future of the Island. One of the key organizations which will help us to solve the problem is the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction (JCRR). Its work ill aiding the development of the Island's agriculture and the improvement of rural life is highly beneficial and very fundamental. The beneficial results are already evident to every candid observer. And China's key man on the JCRR is Dr. Chiang Monlin, the Commission's Chinese Chairman.
Coming into Dr, Chiang's beautifully kept office over-looking Taipeh's "Central Park," a visitor will at once notice his thin but intelligent looks, his neat set-up, and his things kept in excellent order. Then after a brief conversation, the visitor will be impressed by his clear thinking and incisive remarks. For here is the presence of a keen intelligence.
Intelligence and qualities of leadership account for Dr. Chiang's success as JCRR's Chairman, a position that he has held since 1948 when the Commission began its work. Back of that, Dr. Chiang had a distinguished career. He was born in the year 1886, in the district of Shao Hsing, a place noted for its keen-witted secretaries. The years of his early education were disturbing and exciting years when the Manchu Dynasty was making its last effort to survive against the rising tide of nationalist revolt and when the institutions and ways of life of old China were yielding before the onset of the "Tides from the West" (title of Dr. Chiang's interesting autobiography). He had a good grounding in Chinese, becoming a "Shiu Ts'ai" (the B.A. degree in the old examination system) at the age of 18. But he was also initiated into the new Western learning, went to the United States and studied in the University of California (1908-1912). His autobiography tells us that he first selected Agriculture as his college major, believing that to be China's basic need (Could he have divined that years later he is to be the leading spirit in China's rural reconstruction?). Then one day, gazing into the beautiful sunlit San Francisco Bay, he came to the decision to dedicate his life to the education of China's youth. Graduating with honor in 1912, he studied later in the famous Teacher's College of Columbia and received his Doctorate in 1917. He did not, however, give all his time to his studies. While at California, he used to go, after school hours, across the Bay to write editorials for the Chinese "Free Press," Dr. Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary organ in the city of the Golden Gate. Dr. Chiang recalls that one afternoon in October, 1911, Dr. Sun unexpectedly walked into the office, much elated by news of the impending revolution.
After his return from abroad, Dr. Chiang joined the staff of National Peking University, then under the enlightened Chancellorship of Dr. Tsai Yuan-pei. When Chancellor Tsai relinquished his post shortly after the "May 4th," Dr. Chiang served as Acting Chancellor of "Peita" off and on for a number of years, with an interval as Minister of Education. In those years "Peita" was the acknowledged premier university of new China and also a hotbed of radicalism. To the head of the institution fell the onerous task of conducting it through the difficult course of changing regimes and frequent national crises. Dr. Chiang showed much skill and acumen in handling his problems, so in 1930 he was duly appointed Chancellor of the University. For seven years he discharged his duties with tact and dignity until in 1937 the Japanese occupied Peiping and Tientsin and forced Peita, Tsing Hua and Nankai to migrate to the interior. These three universities, high in the esteem of the educational world, then amalgamated into one temporary institution (some say that it was largely the idea of Dr. Chiang and his friends) first at Changsha and then at Kunming to become the historic National Southwest Associated University, "Lienta" for short. As each of the three components has had a distinguished history and tradition, there was at one time a sign of a rift. The writer of this article can vividly recall how Dr. Chiang assembled the students and spoke to them earnestly that for the time being there should be no longer a Peita, a Tsing Hua or a Nankai, and that the joint university could only survive as a joint university. Thereafter the components worked harmoniously and effectively, until eight years later the surrender of the Japanese enabled them to return to their original campuses and resume their separate existence. Dr. Chiang did not return with his university, for he was asked by Premier T.V. Soong to serve as Secretary General of the Executive Yuan. He held that position for over two years, 1945-47, years of trials and tribulations. Then in 1948 he took up the more fruitful work as Chairman of the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction.
The nature, the policies, and the achievements of the Commission can he read in the General Report of the Commission, issued in May, 1950, a book of some 200 pages. The Com mission began its work in inauspicious times (October, 1948) when Manchuria was already lost to the Communists and North China was in imminent danger of invasion. It had to confine its work in South China and even there the Communist troops were closing in fast, so it had to withdraw from one province to another, till in about a year's time (October, 1948 to November, 1949) it withdrew entirely from the mainland and shifted all its work to Taiwan. Its work on the Island has been effective and beneficial, and highly popular with the rural people. It is, in fact, a part of the American aid to China, which is already paying dividends and promises more.
Dr. Chiang spoke modestly but eloquently when asked about the work of the Commission. The first basic idea, he said, is to know what not to do—not to start with putting up big impressive buildings, not to employ a large staff, not to compete with local enterprises by establishing new of organizations. This knowing what not to do is negative, Dr. Chiang said, yet sometimes the negative is more important than the positive, for knowing what not to do narrows the selection of what to do. The first thing to do is to learn from the farmers and the local people what they want and need. By visiting the provinces and talking with local leaders and tillers of the soil, members of the Commission learn, at first hand, their real needs and their grievances. Such method saves the Commission from the errors of preconceived ideas and bf imposing upon farmers a program that they do not want. The next is to find a sponsoring agency to carry out the work. If there is a local organization that can take up the work, the Commission will help it grow and thrive. No competition. "Claim no credit and the credit will remain with you" -- it is a wise precept from China's old philosopher, Laotze, Dr. Chiang points out. Thirdly, it is wise to bear in mind the idea of social justice while striving for improved production. Fair distribution should be emphasized as well as increased production. Experience of the industrial revolution in the West has shown that greater productivity without even distribution did not make for greater happiness. The lesson should he especially stressed in China with her teeming population, her bare-subsistence level of living, and her middle class ruined by war and inflation. Dr. Chiang said in a letter --" Our programs must be accompanied by a social counterpart. Using science to increase production is relatively easy, but solving social problems is difficult. If we had not developed a land reform problem along with our production programs the better part of good result would have gone to the landlords and not the tenants. That would defeat our purpose." This is the germinal idea which sprouted into the land tenure reform in Taiwan, the famous 37.5% reduction of land rent. This reform was initiated and vigorously prosecuted by General Chen Cheng when he was Governor of the Island, with the technical and financial assistance of the JCRR. Similar programs of reform were started in Szechuan and the Lung-yen district in Fukien, but they had not been fully carried out before the loss of these provinces to the Communists. The undertakings of the Commission, endeavoring to conform to the real needs of the rural society, often begin with experimentation and tantativeness. They start, says Dr. Chiang in a happy simile, with points, probing for the problems and their solutions. When the points proven to be right, they ace allowed to develop into lines--- lines of work such as irrigation, fertilization, insect and disease control, rural health and farmers' organization. These lines when working properly will naturally develop to cover the whole country.
Concrete application of the general ideas outlined above can be read in a paper written by Dr. Chiang discussing the JCRR program and emphasizing the adaptation of Western ideology to Chinese conditions. It says:
"The JCRR program is not merely a group or groups of projects aiming at the increase of production in order to give more loaves of bread or more bowls of rice to underfed millions. However important as it may be, production is only one of the main objectives. Besides production there are such problems as land reform, rural health, rural credit, processing and marketing, the strengthening of local self-government, the adjustment of the supply of industrial goods to that of farm products as to meet the rise of the 'Scissors problem '. [The growing disparity between the prices of industrial goods and those of agricultural products.]"
This paper concludes:
"The JCRR program is an attempt to help solve some of China's major problems in a humble way. The funds used by the Joint Commission for the projects are moderate. It has spent a little over $3,000,000 of the American taxpayers' money on the mainland. Up till now (late 1950) the Commission has spent some $2,000,000 in the Island of Formosa. The budget for the Fiscal year 1950-1951 is about $4,400,000 while the budget of the Provincial Government on similar projects amount to $8,000,000 twice the JCRR budget, not including the amount spent by local governments, public organizations and private sources. JCRR proposes to spend more this year because we know better by two years' experience the effective use of the fund. To speak figuratively, JCRR supplies yeast for the dough. The government and the people supply the major portion of material for the dough."
Dr. Chiang delights to discourse on history and the lessons to be learned from history. However, he warns against making- the mistake of applying Western history to the Chinese without regard to their difference of circumstances. For instance, he maintains that China is on the way to industrialization, but unlike England and other countries of the West, she is still predominantly agricultural and rural reconstruction must precede industrialization. He believes in the application of science to Chinese agriculture but not its mechanization at the present time. In 18th century England, the Industrial Revolution started with the development of machines and only in the later stages did the application of science become more important than inventive genius, In China the order will have to be reversed. We will have to start with the application of science, in a modest way at first. Such things as the control of insects and plant and animal diseases will yield immediate concrete gains and will be appreciated by the Chinese farmers. Mechanization should come later, in its natural course, not by premature forced introduction. History is a great teacher if one knows how to make proper use of it.
Listening to Dr. Chiang's talk on the JCRR and reading some of his writings, one cannot help coming to the conclusion that it is fortunate for both the Chinese farmers and the JCRR to have a man of such intelligence and understanding in that key position as Dr. Chiang now occupies. Fortunate for the farmers because Dr. Chiang has repeatedly stressed in his talks and writings that it is not a preconceived program that the Commission should endeavor to put through, but to learn from the local leaders and actual tillers of the soil their real needs and grievances. In consequence, the measures that the Commission undertakes will be to the real benefit of the farmers. Fortunate for the JCRR that it has the guidance of a man of such understanding and experience, who saves it from much misdirected enthusiasm and wasted efforts, so that it has been able to accomplish, with moderate expenditure, so much of solid benefits, especially at such troubled times. The writer of this article talked with some personnel of the Commission, both American and Chinese, and heard from them their admiration and high regard for their Chairman, They praised his clear thinking, his liberal attitude, his tact and his qualities of leadership. In short, they have all agreed in saying that Dr. Chiang is a major factor for the success of the Commission.
Can we attribute, in part at least, his present success to his educational background? Dr. Chiang once suggested the use of Confucianism as the foundation of character and the use of the philosophy of Laotze as a way of the world. If we add to Confucianism and Taoism the liberal education that he received in the West, we may be offering a key to the understanding of his personality and his life-long devotion to the welfare of his countrymen.