The record-union., 1899-07-22

heads who have the care of the coun-
try are wise enough not to foster a
tendency which may lead to very dan
gerous places. But even of1icialdom
mas been influenced by the prevailing
1lllperaiity of feeling. There is not a.
european filling any post which can
posslDiy-lt is not a question of COM
parative efficiency-be filled by Jap.
anese.
The postoffice. the railways, the dock
yards are denuded of foreign assistance
and oversight to an extent that impairs
their efficiency. Few State departments
have progressed and in some there has
been retrograde movement.
There is tendency to look on the
foreign employe as a bloodsucking In
cubus, and not, as he veritably is, the
maker-wise, patient and ill recon-
pensed-of modern Japan. For there il
no disputing the fact that the Japan OF
to-day is at least half the work of for
eigners. The country has found the
money, and has up to recently placed
herself with wise passivity in the
hands Of the most competent advisers
she could find. Mistakes were made,
naturally, at first. In the genesis of
the European craze it was taken for
granted that all foreigners must be
clever and scientific, and consequently
some very curious appointments were
made. Ship stewards were chosen as
professors of moral philosophy, seat
hunters as mathematical instructors
and retired policemen as teachers OF
physics.
But those We're very early days, and
ho
afterward engaged to instruct and
guide her have done all the practical
work in rearing that mushroom ediflce
of japanese civilization at which the
western world is called on by every
literary globe trotter to fall into ecsta-
sizes Of admiration.
Englishmen-only very few-form-
ed Japan's navy. Englishmen founded
her mint. Englishmen have had the
chief hand in her railways. Her sys-
tenn OF education came direct from
America. Her first law code was the
work of a Frenchman. Germans found
ed her medical schools.
Everything modern in the country
has been achieved under the direction
/ of foreign employe. and under not his
mere supervision only, but with the
help of his hard practical work-for he
has often performed the duties of
mechanic, an Admiral, an architect and
drill Sergeant combined for a salary
not much larger than a stockholders s
head clerk.
It is natural that, in the chorus of
congratulation she has received from
Sir Edwin Arnold and equally acute
and masculine observers, Japan should
have little lost her head, and actually
come to believe that she has accom-
| plished of her own initiative the whole
vast task of her Europeanization.
She now wishes to be quite rid OF
leading strings, and to enter the comfy
of nations on quite equal terms. But
| it is foolish policy, especially at a
time when treaty revision is SO close at
hand, to develop an anti-foreign feel
whole of that expert assistance that
has been so valuable to her.
| Japan's present cock-sureness o< at
titude does not promise so well for her
| future advance as did the patient do
cility which distinguished her early pu-
pilage. At the best, things are now at
a standstill; at the worst, there may
be said to be absolute retrogression in
some ways.
| The country may outlive the craze,
as it has outlived other. crazes, but it
is the most foolish and most mischiev-
GUS of the whole series Of national cap
rices.-Yokohama correspondence of the
| London Mail.