Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-10-29
GLOOMY VIEW OF JAPAN.
Disclosures About the Country Not at
all Pleasant.

japanese, in their poetic enthusiasm,
| celebrated what they called the COM
ing of age of their country. For
! twenty-three years the fowery king
dom had been clamoring for admit
lance into the circle of full self
| governing nations and the conse-
quent adjustment of eXtra-territOrlal
| privileges enjoyed by foreign resi-
| dents. But it was not until 1894,
when Lord Salisbury signed the re-
vised treaty with Japan, that the
other treaty powers fell into line.
Five years later the most ardent de-
sire of the Japanese was fulfilled.
| There was widespread rejoicing
throughout the kingdom; all classes
seemed persuaded that the new era
would prove golden with opportunity
lively few foreign residents who were
so situated that they could not well
leave the country had misgivings and
feared for the future under the new
order of things. 1t may be too soon
to judge the use the Japanese may
make of their full independence, but
| it cannot fail to be instructive to
listen to testimony which, showing
present conditions, may enable out
siders to make some reasonably pos
sible forecasts.
In the Review of Reviews R. Van
Bergen, writing on Japan's New Era,
does no thesitate to say that the re-
vised treaties and consequent free
dom from consular supervision were
not only a grave mistake, but crime
against Japan's real progress. Mr.. Ber-
gen maintains that the treaty-making
powers acted in the matter with too
much haste. They took the assurance
of Japan that a written code had
been in force a year, too much for
| granted. 1t should have been a duty
to examine these codes to see how
far they were likely to cover the new
conditions. Had this been done the
discovery must have followed that
while they might suit Christian ma
ton, from which they had been copied,
| it would have been ridiculous to eX-
pect an essentially oriental people to
obey them. Even now, when less than
these codes have been quietly ignored
and Mr. Bergen believes they will be
amended until not a shred of the
original is left. The new codes, which
if enforced, would have given protec-
ton to foreign residents and interests,
/ CT
They are ignored by the courts when
ever the interests of a Japanese and a
| foreigner clash; and the traditional
hatred of the natives for everything
| foreign seems as far beyond the con-
troll of the local authorities as it is
past that of resident consuls.
In view of such conditions there is
new interest to Americans, as well as
to the other treaty powers, in the
present menacing attitude of Russia
and the imminency of serious clash
between that country and Japan; but
Americans are particularly interested.
| Japan has shown in marked degree a
desire for the investment Of American
capital to aid in the development of
/ it's resources. But American capital
has all the canniness of the typical
Scotchman. 1t is ready for invest
ment, but it wants assurances of
permanency and security as well as
profit; and if Mr.. Bergens Indictment
be correct-and he is not niggardly
in presenting facts-Japan, in the
circumstances, cannot offer the first
two essentials. With an anti-foreign
spirit predominating among the
Japanese; with judges paid smaller
salaries than the earnings of
an Industrious jinrikisha coolie; with
widespread contempt and disregard of
the written codes upon which the new
! treaties were based, what American
capitalist is going to run the obvious
risks involved, even where prospect
of large profit is alluring?
! One or two of the facts given by
Mr.. Bergen may be mentioned to
show what small heed is paid either
to the written laws or the rights of
foreigners. In 1889 the English third
officer Of a Japanese mail steamer
was attacked in his cabin by the
quartermaster, Japanese. The
Englishman knocked the Japanese
down and had him arrested The
quartermaster retaliated by having
the Englishman arrested. The court
released the native on his own recog-
nizance, but kept the Englishman con-
fined sixty-eight days, and ended by
sentencing him to six months of rigor-
GUS Imprisonment. Emboldened by
this evident miscarriage of justice, a
! Japanese merchant named Otaki Motu
brought suit against the old and high
ly respected firm of Worch & Co. of
Yokohama, asking for the restitution
OF 10000 cases of alcohol deposited
with the firm as security for loan
of 132,700 yen. The firm does not even
know this man, never lent him any
money and never handled the alcohol
But Otaki Motu trusts to the bias of