The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-04-22

gine-room. In a word, though Japan's
 ships built in Europe are great, the se-
 cret of Japanese sea power is not in
 the fighting machines, but in the men
 that work them.
 | Long ago the Japanese conceived
 that Christianity was a sham, and that
 the eager nations of the west were most
 interruptions They resolved to learn
 the secret of the foreigners power and
 they have done 1t. They built their
 war schools, sent their bright young
 men abroad and made themselves sen-
 sitive on all sides to take in knowledge.
 This was all with one purpose-to keep
 their country undefiled and uncon-
 quered. They aimed to have the finest
 army and the best navy in the world,
 and expected that in time they would have 1t.
 Chagrined to find that the so-called civilized nations were blind to her real virtues, the fruit of centuries of train 1 ing, Japan determined that they should
 be impressed by her military and naval
 display. If the world would not know
 the Japanese as people of refinement
 and culture, then the world, especially | lllS dS IS I6SSlNG dHI llCSPd5olu6 WClle
 should know them as soldiers. "So let
 us master the last secret of the for
 eignars' craft, and cry Japan for the
 Japanese, said the mikado and his people.
 Europeans were in this respect not
 very different from the Chinese In
 1894 the Celestials thought there was
 only a pigmy within the armor. They
 called the little brown men of Japan
 wojen, or dwarfs. How soon were they
 cruelty disillusioned! for their own
 army and navy were soon arnihilated.
 So foreigners, even yet, perhaps may think that all the Japanese strength is | borrowed. Not so. The Japanese pos sess the secret of inner vitality. | Though feudalsn was not abolished
 until 1870 and all the lines of national construction had. to be laid anew, the
 mikado has steadily won his way in unifying the nation. Rebels were for given, the old clan lines wiped out
 Favoritism disappeared, merit won it's way, persecution for conscience's sake and repression of fact and truth were given up. Privilege was abolished, The army, the navy, the courts, the schools, all lines of promotion were thrown open to all. Even the pariahs were lifted to citizenship. The. revival of the study of the ancient language and literature and uniform system of education unified the whole nation. What China vainly longed for-perfect unity and high type of political or ganization--is what Japan has long possessed. Thus steadily within all forces and powers were unified to make Japan great and give her power inde- pendent of external appliances, and which machinery only reinforced.
 This is the secret of the nations power. It is what makes the army a unit and the navy one of the most effi- cient arms of the government, develop ing every resource of nature, of art and of humanity in Japan. It is love of na- tive land. as personif1ed in the mikado Every child in the empire is taught to revere and to love the emperor, even before, it's father and mother. For the emperor. every man, sailor or soldier or civilian, would not only gladly die but makes it his ambition and hope to die for him.
 This is what makes the Japanese navy. Statistics tell one story. It is this:
 To-day Japan's navy consists of sev- enty-five vessels-eight first-class and two second-claes battle ships, all afoat and equipped and among the very finest in the world; twenty cruisers, ten coast defense ships and forty-f1ve other vessels of the dispatch or torpedo class. | Her three navy-yards, at Sasebo, Kure 1 and Kokosuka are rich in modern re- sources, and even in the making of ar nor plate she intends to be indepen- dent She has a body of trained sea- | men numbering twenty thousand, with | a great mercantile marine to- draw | from.
 But this is only half It Is but one l wing of the bird, or one wheel to the | wagon, as the Japanese say, The float ing Actresses of steel, with their big forty or sixty cannon, quick firing and l guns, steel cupoas and con- ming towers, searchlights, powerful en- zines; the gunboats and torpedo boats and torpedo destroyers, are but one. phase of strength as seen from the out side by the foreigner. But from within, In tradition, in training, in patriotic glow, is the greater strength. What music, what poetry, what a thrill of Joy, nerving the arm and attuning the blood of every sailor and officer to do and die for everlasting great Japan are ,he very names of their war ships. Be- hind the brand-new guns and ships are ,mens of cheer a thousand years old. Do the names Constitution and Rear :arge and Oregon and Olympia appeal Q us? Then the names of Naniwa Ta- Sao, Akftsustima and Takachico to the Japanese more, because of a longer na-
 onal history. So grotesque to alien ,ars these names are as music to the [apanses. They are more inspiring, because reinforcing; they have thou- 'and years of poetry, of exalted associ- ltons, of precious and even holy mem- ries in them, even of land uncon- tered and unconquerable. With these l onorous or melllfuous names are asso- lated the deeds of heroes, the glories of rt, the beauties of nature and all that :. lrges to heroism and sacrifice. Fuji els of her peerless mountain, Asahi of | he morning sun of her glories, Yashi- nj and Shikishina glow with poetry :, rom the divine age. Tuso of the age l Id unshakable rock with the moss of 1