Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-23
REPLY TO MATSUKATA
JAPANESE COUNTS CRITICISM OF
AMERICAN ENERGY.
Right in His Observation That We
Live Too Rapidly and Work
Too Hard.

From the Philadelphia Press.
Count Matsukata, eX-Japanese minister
of finance, who recently visited this coun-
try, thinks that the American people live
too rapidly. AT least he is reported to have
said so in Vienna and to have expressed a
fear of serious break down or setback in
the near future. His advice TO Americans
is to go at slower pace.
In many respects the count is right The
American people do live rapidly sleep too
few hours and take too few days off The
young men start in at a pace that turns
their hair prematurely gray. The race for
the almighty dollar sends some of them to
the insane asylum and others to an early
grave There are wrecks also strewn all
along the highway of life as the result of
a too rapid pace in living. These are facts
evident to every close observer of passing
events and to every reader of the daily
newspaper. Count Matsukata is not the
only one to remark on them, as he would
have discovered, had he listened to some
of the lectures being delivered before the
numerous summer schools now In session
Opportunities of Americans.
But these decriers of American manner
and method of living forget to state the
other side of the case. If the American
people live rapidly they have the compen-
SdttO1l anu luSpii dlfoli VI seeing nluCn, dD-
sorbing much and achieving much. The
young American in the first fifteen years of
his active life will accomplish as much as a.
young Englishman or German will in thirty
or thrty-fve years. He will do it not
wholly because he works and thinks more
rapidly, but chiefly because he has more
opportunities, compels nature to do more
work for him by machinery and has fewer
traditions and less routine to trammel him
The American works freer, and having
e
more than his European brother with the
same expenditure of energy.
Great Travellers.
And when it comes to travelling and see
ing the world Americans have no rivals.
Ten of them have been over their own
country to one Englshman, Ftenchman or
German who has been over Europe and vet
there is about the same space of territory
to cover In each. And besides knowing
their own country, Americans know Europe
as well or better than Europeans There is
no one who absorbs so quickly as the
American. He catches on rapidly to
every idea and improvement he comes
across in his travels and applies them i'm
mediately to his business at home, and so
contributes to that appearance of rapid liv-
ing which startles foreigners when they
first visit America. The contrast between
old world and new world methods in this
respect is too marked not to escape notice.
Suicide and Insanity.
1t is unjust also to bring forward the in
crease in insanity and in the number of sui
cides as evidences of the harm of rapid lv-
ing. There has undoubtedly been an in
crease in both, but those who use them as
arguments should explain that the increase
in insanity is largely among foreign-born,
and that in the proportion of suicides to
popula ton America is still far behind many
European countries with much slower
methods of living. But when all is said and
done, it must be admitted that the average
American works too hard, sleeps too little
and tries to accomplish too much. He is
gradually working out of that habit, how
ever. But it will not be by the way of do
ing less work. He will take more leisure
when through superior organiza ton and i'm
proved methods he can accomplish much
or more than he does now in his active
years.
If Count Matsukata visits this country
after this transformation has been made
American life will appear to him just as
rapid as it did during his recent visit. But
he will also find American statesmen Sleep
ing seven hours Gladstone did and
fewer merchants to boast that they have
never taken a vacation