The 1920s and 1930s were a golden age of economic development for China. Modern industries such as cotton textiles were established in the coastal cities centering on Shanghai, which developed into a major hub of manufacturing. To meet the funding requirements of these emerging industries, industrial finance was developed by modern banks, a stock exchange dealing in securities was founded, and a financial market based on real estate transactions was created. In this way, the Chinese economy gradually joined the global economy, while adopting various economic systems from Western Europe.

How were the people who took on the role of connecting China to the world educated? What kind of relationships can be found in the background? This paper argues that the key point to consider is the business education that developed at American institutions of higher education in China in the 1920s.

Business education in China developed actively and was in line with the systemization of business education taking place in the world at that time. It was also in line with religious activities by Western Christian missions, business expansion by countries as well as the growth of the global economy.

Using the case of higher commercial education as an example, this paper seeks to clarify some of the socio‒economic effects on China of Christian evangelism and globalization originating from the West.

The establishment of a business school in St. John’s University in Shanghai, based upon the business school system in the United States, made “academic business education” a key catchphrase and was aimed at strengthening the influence of United States. The curriculum was designed to educate the managers that were needed by the newly emerging industries, and was different from vocational training. The background to this, from a broader point of view, was the global trend after World War I to pursue business education through the systematic implementation of the study of economics and business management, as well as the presence of the United States, which wanted to use this as a way to expand into China. The intentions of Christian missions were intertwined with the establishment of these business schools, and it was into such institutions that Chinese entered, seeking a connection with the United States.

This paper explores the impact of World War I veterans on the post‒war era. With the end of the war, most doughboys returned to their hometowns. However, unemployment reached serious levels in major cities due to the oversupply of workers and the lack of uniform assistance for ex‒soldiers readjusting to civilian life. Meanwhile, other areas, especially in the South and in Western mountain regions, experienced a worrisome shortage of farm labor, first because most veterans preferred to stay in large industrial cities, and second because of significant migration from rural to urban areas. Ultimately, faced with strong political activism by veterans’ associations and public opinion, Congress enacted the Adjusted Compensation Act (or Bonus Act), which authorized cash payments to veterans in limited cases. This article examines the process by which this Act came into being.

In 1919, officers of the American Legion were reluctant to demand adjusted compensation, adopting a conservative stance toward the post‒war labor movement. Confronted with decreasing membership due to the anti‒union attitude of rank and files members, however, they gradually tried to establish a cooperative relationship with executives of the American Federation of Labor and increasingly expressed a “neutral” attitude toward labor‒capital disputes. Furthermore, in competing with the political efforts of other veterans’ associations that supported social reform policies, they changed their stance on the bonus matter and forced policymakers to alleviate veterans’ discontent about the inequality of economic sacrifice incurred in the First World War.

Some farmers, especially in Midwest states, viewed the adjusted compensation bill as a vehicle for redirecting currency into depressed rural areas. Conservative Congressmen from these districts therefore agreed to passage of the bill. However, other organized farmers represented by the National Grange condemned the reclamation plan attached to the bill, calling it a state intervention that would create an unfair competitive environment in agriculture projects. Moreover, faced with severe attacks from fiscal conservatives who advocated abolition of the wartime progressive tax system, proponents of the bill accepted the 20‒year endowment insurance policy that emerged in the compromise. Finally, in 1924, the Federal Government recognized a limited obligation for postwar compensation of able‒bodied veterans, which established a precedent that led to the creation of a social welfare system tied to military service.