Arizona republican., 1904-02-20
CURRENT COMMENT
:: e. WHY THE LAPS WENT TO WoG.


 The total area of Japan is but little | more than the combined areas of Kan sas and Missouri. Japan is smaller | than Texas. Alaska would make three | of her. California is nearer her exact | size than any other political division | of the earth's surface. Yet where Kan sas and Missouri think they are bit crowded with their combined popula- | ton 4,50O,OO0, Japan has a population | of 41,0O0,0 GOO. not counting those whc 1 have spread over into Formosa, Korea | and other neighboring provinces. But this is not the whole story. Despite ths common impression that Japan is the garden spot of the world, she has only one tillable acre out of eight the great est portion of her territory being mountainous, rocky and unfit for any species of agriculture.
 Perhaps there is no other place in the world where the problems of life are figured so close as in Japan. Every foot of suitable soil is made to yield every ounce of food that can possibly be taken from it. Japanese farms av- craze about the size of American town lots! The waters of the country are cultivated as carefully as the soil. Fish, in fact. is the greatest food pro- duction of the island. Yet with all this the kingdom is wholly unable to pro duce enough to keep its population alive, and this fact brings us to the really significant feature of the pres ent Japanese Russian war-to the thought that what Japan is fighting for is the right to live
 For centuries Japan has relied upon Korea as a food source. Korea is to Japan in an agricultural sense just
 what the western states are to the At lantic seaboard. If Russia is permitted
 to take Korea away from her-that is to close the territory as a sphere of Japanese trade and influence it will menace her national existence.
 We have come to speak of Japan as warlike nation. still in one thousand years Japan has engaged in conflict i only three times. The first of her wars was with the Kublai Khan. the Mongol conqueror, who was repulsed from an | expedition of conquest near the end of the thirteenth century. The second | was in 1592-S when her armies made conquest of Korea, the present bone ] of contention. The third was the strus- ! gle with China a few years ago. In l the last two wars the essence of the ! struggle was for room to expand. In | the war with Korea, it was the "Im of l the Japanese statesmen to extend the political power of the Japanese throne ! over all China, but the underlying pur-
 pose was 10 secure new territory in which the Japanese civilization might | find room to grow. This, too, was he
 underlying purpose of the recent war
 with China. The war was made with ] the idea of taking Chinese territory on
 which to plant Japanese colonies and ! thus relieve the overcrowded condition
 of the island proper. When Europe stepped in and compelled Japan 70 | satisfy herself with the island of For mosa and q cash indemnity, it was | making certain the war of today, for there is no logic which can con-
 ceive Of Japan remaining content with ] her pent-up condition while virgin ter
 ritory like Korea lay close to her view. Still the war might have been averted
 for years had not Russia greedily
 sought that which Japan had been de- prived of by the concert of the DOW CTS. So long as Japan was permitted to n7inate the commerce of Korea, IS
 she did and to draw her agricultural i supplies from that rich province, she 1 perhaps could afford to remain at peace
 and await the developments which time might bring forth. Bat not so 1 when Russia moved from Manchuria
 on Korea. No statesman in the world ! can justify Russia on that move and condemn Japan for seeking to block it. | If Japan had remained peaceful under the circumstances it would have been | at the risk of national dissolution
 We believe that the best sentiment of the world is willing that Japan should
 have Korea and her chance to grow The island people have shown them selves to be the most capable and most progressive of all the orientals. They have astonished the world, in fact, by the facility with which the have taken on the ways of modern civilization. No one can doubt that the future of Korea
 will be far more satisfactory under the | rule of the progressive Jap than under the rule of the coarse and barbaric ! Russ. And a nicer adjustment of the
 balance of power on the Asiatic side of
 the Pacific could not be thought of.- Kansas City Journal.