THE TWAIN SHALL MEET

The moving of the United States navy into the Pacific has shown that the Federal government is aware of the immediate danger of American implication in an oriental war. This danger makes an intelligent popular opinion not only desirable but necessary. Yet until now public ideas on the subject have been of necessity superficial; they have been based exclusively on facts gained from a prejudiced pross, and have had no roots in an understanding of the national temperaments of the participants. Oriental civilizations, moreover, have remained an esoteric study in the United States; literary and cultural communication has been slight, and there has been no community of race and religion.

The Harvard-Yenching Institute by offering summer school courses in Chinese and Japanese civilizations recognizes the increasing importance of American relations with the orient. Courses in oriental othnology, geography, politics and literature will give a sympathy with the characters of the nations which cannot be gained from newspaper dispatches. This sympathy alone can make possible a peaceful adjustment of Far Eastern problems.