FAR EASTERN QUESTION 98 FARIBAULT a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1832 made a D. C. L. of Oxford Uni- versity. He was, besides, a knight of several of the European orders, and a member of the chief learned and scien- tific societies in Europe and the United States. He died in Hampton Court, Aug. 25, 1867. FAB EASTERN QUESTION, that problem of international politics which has to do with the maintenance of the equilibrium of the various national spheres of influence in the Far East, especially in China. China, and formerly Japan, have been nations whose com- mercial importance has been out of all proportion to their political and military power. The consequence has been that there has been a keen rivalry among the Western nations for commercial influence in the Orient, resulting in a pressure of special privileges which the military im- potence of China made her unable to resist. Until the World War this rivalry for trade privileges existed be- tween Great Britain, France, Russia, Gerrnany, and the United States. A partial solution to the problem thus raised was found in an agreement whereby the Orient was divided into "spheres of influence," the territory in- volved being apportioned out among the rivals, each to have a dominant interest in its own sphere. The exception has been the United States, whose Govern- ment has stood for an equal opportunity in the markets of China for all. These spheres of influence were recog- nized as follows: the Yang-tse Valley and Tibet for Great Britain; Mongolia and Manchuria for Russia; Indo-China for France, and Kiauchau and the Shan- tung Peninsula for Germany. Since her emergence into the concert of nations as a military and naval power to be reck- oned with, Japan has also been granted recognition, and has had Korea assigned to her as her sphere of influence. These influences progressed rapidly, to the point where they amounted to at least partial military occupation, as in the case of Kiauchau by Germany, Korea by Japan, Manchuria by Russia, and Hong-Kong by Great Britain. Inevitably the final result would have been the com- plete partitioning of China among the rivals, had it not been for the consistent opposition of the United States to such a conclusion. As first enunciated by Anson Bur- lingame, in 1868, the United States was unalterably opposed to any further undermining of the "right of eminent domain" by China herself. This policy was further elaborated into the "open door"' policy by John Hay, after the Boxer troubles, in 1900, which the rival nations made the pretext of a military occupation of the Chinese capital itself. During 1912-1914 President Wilson still further voiced this policy by declaring that the Powers involved must keep "hands off" China, and respect her na- tional entity. Since the World War the superficial aspect of the problem has been somewhat changed by the elimination of Germany and Russia as factors. Kiauchau and the Shantung Peninsula, the German "sphere," were occupied by Japan, as one of the allies opposing Germany, with the declared intention of returning these territories to the Chinese administration. This promise Japan had not, in 1920, ful- filled. The Russian Soviet Government, in _ September, 1920, voluntarily relin- quished the Russian treaty rights in China. FARGO, a city and county-seat of Cass CO., N. D. ; on the Red river, and on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, the Northern Pacific, and the Great Northern railroads; opposite Moorhead, Minn, Here are a United States land ofl[ice, Fargo College (Cong.), the State Agricultural and Mechanical College, high school, court house, waterworks, street railroad and electric light plants, several banks, hospitals, parks, and a number of daily and weekly newspapers. It has the car shops of the Northern Pacific railroad, flour, planing and paper mills, large grain elevators, knitting mills, bottling works, and large brick yards. Pop. (1910) 14,331; (1920) 21,961. FARGO COLLEGE, a coeducational in- stitution in Fargo, N. D. ; founded in 1888 under the auspices of the Congre- gational Church; reported at the close of 1919 : Professors and instructors, 32; students, 602. President, W. H. Howard, FARGO, WILLIAM GEORGE, an American capitalist; born in Pompey, N. Y., May 20, 1818; became Buffalo agent of the Pomeroy Express Company in 1843; established the first express com- pany W. of Buffalo, in 1844; and, in 1868, became president of the gi'eat cor- poration controlling the whole West, the Wells Fargo Express Company, He died in Buffalo, N. Y., Aug. 3, 1881. FARIBAULT, a city and county-seat of Rice CO., Minn.; at the confluence of the Cannon and Straight rivers, and on the Chicago Great Western, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroads; 53 miles S. of St. Paul. Here are a court house, city hall, public library, the Shat-
