Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to Arthur Sun, Boston, January 8, 1927

Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to Arthur Sun, Boston, January 8, 1927

Letter from Alfred E. Stearns to Arthur Sun, Boston, January 8, 1927

Dear Arthur:

Thank you for your letter received this morning. You will note that I am using the new address which you have just sent me.

I am interested in your hint that Tom seems to you to have changed a lot lately. Please tell me frankly in what way he has changed and whether you think it is for the better or for the worse. I never feel altogether easy about Tom, as you know, and if he needs checking up, I am sure that my good friend Pres. Moody of Middlebury will find a way to do it.

No, I have not heard from your father for many months, and I can't help feeling a bit anxious, owing to the newspaper reports of the critical conditions that are developing in China. Evidently Peking and Shanghai have not suffered seriously as yet, but it looks to me now as if this developing antagonism towards foreigners in general would not go down until a real crisis has occurred. Of course these angry mobs are ill advised, and yet I am not sure that we can blame them altogether, for I can never get over the shock I received myself when I was in China, as I noted the arrogance and injustice so characteristic of the attitude of many of the foreigners whom I met. If only China could settle down, unite on a common policy and a strong leader, all of the thorns which have been pricking her flesh for years, including foreign concessions, tariff, extraterritoriality, and the rest, would speedily and permanently be done away with just as was the case in Japan when Japan went at the thing in the right way. You fellows, when you return to China will have a wonderful chance to help straighten out a bad tangle and put your country in a position that ought properly to be hers.

I don’t think your idea of a night school course or two is crazy at all; indeed it seems to me pretty sound, especially as the bulk of your present work, as I understand it, is to be out of doors and more or less physical. That means that you ought to be able to take on a little real study even in the evening without harm and with some evident advantages. Don’t overdo it, though.

With best wishes for the new year, believe me

Always sincerely yours.

Alfred E. Stearns

Phillips Academy

January 8, 1927

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