Experiment on Formosa
CULMSEE, CARLTON
Experiment on Formosa Unique school trains Nationalist leaders of the future By Carlton Culmsee After spending some months on Formosa and talking with President Chiang Kai-shek, Vice President...
...Then, for two to three weeks, they go on field trips to Government divisions and bureaus...
...The Government enacted laws a generation ago to reduce the ruinously high rents for farm land, and to effect other reforms...
...Even the beleaguered offshore island-fortress of Matsu has been used for testing out ideas and men in dove-tailing civil and military rule...
...Stimulated by Institute decisions, the Government has gone vigorously ahead with land reform on Formosa...
...sions leading to decisions on action...
...There were hundreds of plants for making paper, cement and other products, all more or less war-ravaged...
...Elections for the Formosa Provincial Assembly, the island's highest popular representative body, have been held twice since 1950...
...Wisdom distilled out of Institute seminars has also helped in other ways to foster industrialization...
...And in response to pride of ownership and to technical advice from Sino-American scientists, farm production has increased approximately 50 per cent since 1949...
...Laying aside relative rank and station, they become simply classmates...
...Discussion and experiment have resulted in revisions of the election laws...
...industrial plants, and educational and other institutions...
...But even more impressive are the steps being taken to eradicate errors made when the Nationalist Government was still on the Chinese mainland...
...At first, assemblymen were elected indirectly by local council-men...
...Since rents were formerly 60 per cent or more, the rural standard of living has risen sharply...
...An interesting example of what this has led to was the election as mayor of Taipei of a native Formosan in opposition to a Kuomintang man...
...Experiment on Formosa Unique school trains Nationalist leaders of the future By Carlton Culmsee After spending some months on Formosa and talking with President Chiang Kai-shek, Vice President Chen Cheng and Minister of Defense Yu Ta-wei, one is impressed by the optimistic feeling that prevails on the island...
...Aid is now given competing parties and candidates in municipal and hsien (county) elections...
...At the beginning of every four-month Institute cycle, more than 100 selected civil servants and others gather in the little upland village of Yangmingshan (Grass Mountain), overlooking the capital city of Taipei...
...I asked Chinese leaders...
...The following year, the first election of magistrates and local councilmen was conducted...
...First the "students" hear analyses of various aspects of government...
...They are self-governing, electing their officers and activity chairmen...
...What is more important, their discussions sometimes yield solutions that merit actual trial...
...Nagging problems in government—issues alive in Formosa— are tossed at the students...
...now approximately 70 per cent of the land is cultivated by the owners...
...3. Faulty election procedures...
...They gave me three principal answers: 1. Too much Government control of industry...
...It is apparent, therefore, that one of the most potent stimuli in the Institute—the entire Government, for that matter—has been the consciousness of past shortcomings...
...When China received Formosa in 1945, the Government took over many industries which the Japanese had owned and operated...
...These seminars cannot terminate in mere talk...
...Located high in a cleft between two hills where Japanese officials once splashed in hot sulphur baths under hibiscus blossoms and palms, the Institute conducts a novel program...
...There is still much to be done, but there has been a commendable effort to apply democratic practices in local government...
...A year-and-a-half ago, Red Chinese rulers announced the reversal of their land reform program, shifting the base from individualism to collectivization...
...These latter stages, it must be stressed, are not merely brief "sham battles" between groups unable to agree in theory, or "mock" demonstrations...
...they must yield conclusions, according to Vice President Chen Cheng, who heads the Institute, and President Chiang...
...Some 355,000 acres of farmland have been transferred to nearly 194,800 tillers in the surplus land purchase and sale program...
...Two important results have been achieved by these reforms: Surplus lands have been purchased with shares in industrial enterprises, thus channeling rural capital into industry...
...2. Too many privileges for landlords...
...They live in dormitories, they argue, they study and play together...
...Lands have also been redistributed to tenant farmers, or to owners with too small holdings...
...Institute students strongly recommended that their control be transferred to private ownership as soon as equitable and sound financial arrangements could be made...
...But civil strife and the Japanese war, combined with inertia of custom and vested interests, hampered progress...
...Finally, the group participates in "maneuvers"— which means putting the conclusions into practice by actually governing...
...Now most of them are privately owned and managed...
...They get a comprehensive view of the activities which they as leaders are responsible for coordinating...
...Consequently, the amount of owner-tilled land has been increased almost 50 per cent...
...This insight and willingness to change forms a solid basis for hope among those who wish the Republic to succeed...
...Rents have been reduced to a maximum of 37.5 per cent of the main crop, affecting more than 306,000 farm families...
...Now Formosa is believed to be second only to Japan in industrial progress in the Far East...
...There was need of democratic elections with party competition...
...According to Asia Foundation experts in Formosa, it is higher than in any other Far Eastern rural area...
...Conclusions reached in Institute seminars helped persuade the Government to shift big industrial units from public to private ownership...
...Army, Air Force and Navy bases...
...In 1949, when Chen Cheng was Governor of the island, he initiated self-government...
...What past mistakes has the Institute been instrumental in rectifying...
...Now they are chosen through universal suffrage—one of the revisions which have resulted from Institute and other debates...
...In contrast, the Republic of China can point to over six years of more or less continuous development and reforms on the individual basis...
...The Government retains shares in some, but the majority are wholly in private hands...
...there were processing plants for the yields of farm and forest, and there were scores of coal and other mines...
...An outstanding example is the Research Institute Emphasizing Implementation of Revolutionary Principles—a leadership training school...
...A total of 156,000 acres of public land were sold to 122,000 tillers on easy terms...
...and the disproportionately large rural investment has been reduced in favor of industrial expansion...
...For the third phase, the students return to Grass Mountain for discusCarlton Culmsee is Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences at Utah Stale Agricultural College...
...Formosa has thus become a laboratory 240 miles long for experiments in government...
Vol. 40 • March 1957 • No. 10
