Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-02-03
SPENCER AND
 JAPAN'S POLICY
The Philosophers Advice on Its
 Attitude to Foreigners.
FAVORED GIVING FEW PRIVILEGES
He Told Baron Kentaro Kaneko In n Letter That Americans and Euro- peans Should Be Kept at Arm's Length-strongly Opposed Marriage With Outsiders.

Length-strongly Opposed Marriage With Outsiders.
 It has already been announced in the cable dispatches that the late Herbert Spencer about twelve years ago wrote a letter to Baron Kentaro Kaneko in regard to the attitude which Japan should maintain toward foreigners. The following is a part of the text or the letter which the Tokyo correspond ent of the London Times published In a recent issue of his paper:
 Fairfield, Pewsey. Wits, England.
 Aug. 26, 1892.
 My Dear Sir-your proposal to send translations of my two letters to Coun. Ito, the newly appointed prime munster, is quite satisfactory. very wNhhsAy give my assent.
 Respecting the further questions you ask, let me- in the first place answer gem erally that the Japanese policy should think be that of keeping Americans and Europeans as much as possible at arm length In presence of the more powerIui races your position is one of chronic dan- ger, and you should take every precaunon to give as little foothoid as possible 10 foreigners.
 It seems to me that the only forms of intercourse which you may with advan- tage permit are those which are indis- pensable for the exchange or coInLnoui- ties inporta tion and exportation Of phys ical and mental products No further privileges should be allowed to people of other races. and especially to people of the more powerful races. than are absolute Nv needful for the achieven ent or these ends. Apparently you are proposing by revision of the treaty with the powers or Europe and America ''to open the whole empire to foreigners and foreign capital | lr- f. ~Y{~xy yiakH to see what is likely to happen, study the history of India. Once let one of the more powerful races gain point d'appua, ana there will inevitably in course of time grow up an aggressive policy which will lead to collisions with the Japanese. These collisions will be represented as attacks by the Japanese which must be avenged, as the case may be- A portion of territory will be seized and required to be made over as a foreign settlement and I from this there will grow eventually sub l 5ugation of the entire Japanese empire. l I believe that you will have great difficulty l in avoiding this fate in any case, but you l will make the process easy if you allow of l any privileges to foreigners beyond those | which have indicated.
 In pursuance of the advice thus general l Iy indicated, should say, in answer to | your first question, that there should be | not only prohibition of foreign persons 1 to hold property in land, but also a re- l fusal to give them leases and q permission only to reside as annual tenants
 To the second question should say de- 1 cidedly to prohibit to foreigners the work 1 ing of the mines owned or. worked by the ] government. Here there would be obvi- l ously liable to arise grounds Of difference l between the Europeans or Americans who | worked them and the government. and | these grounds of quarrel would be follow l ed by invocations to the English or Amer l ican government or other powers to send l forces to insist on whatever the European workers claimed, for always the habit | here and elsewhere among the civilized l peoples is to believe what their agents or sellers abroad represent to them.
 In the third place, in pursuance of the l policy have indicated you ought also to 1 keep the coasting trade in your own hands and forbid foreigners to engage in 1t. This l coasting trade is clearly not included in 1 the requirement I have indicated as the | sole one to be recognized. requirement. I to facilitate exportation and importation l of commodities The distribution of com l modities brought to Japan from other l places may be properly left to the Jap- ! anese themselves and should be denied to | foreigners for the reason. that again the | various transactions involved would be- | come so many doors open to Quarrels and | resulting aggression6. | To your remaining question respecting 1 the intermarriage of foreigners and Jap anese which you say is "now very much agitated among our scholars and politi- 1 clans" and which you say is lone of the most difficult problems" my reply is that I as rationally answered, there is no difi- | culty at all. It should be positively for bidden It Is not at root question of so- cial philosophy. 1t is at root a question of biology There Is abundant proof, alike furnished by the internarriage of human ] races and by the interbreeding of animals, l that when the varieties mingled diverge beyond a certain slight degree the result is inevitably{a bad one in the long run. I l.. fr-~ -I~S+ at the evidence bearing on this matter for many years past, and my conviction is 1 based on numerous facts derived from numerous sources. This conviction have within the last half hour verified for I happen to be staying in the country with a gentleman who is well known and has had much experience respecting the in terbreeding of cattle, and he has just, on inquiry, fully confirmed my belief that when, say of the different varieties of sheep, there is an interbreeding of these which, are widely unlike the result, espe- cially in the second generation, is bad one there arise an incalculable mixture of traits and what may be called chaot- ic constitution. And the same thing hap pens among human beings The Eurasians in India, the half breeds in America, show this. The physiological basis of this ~ex- 1 perience appears to be that any one va 1 riety of creature in course of many gen. rations acquires a certain constitutional adaptation to it's particular form of life
 and every other variety similarly acquires
 it's special adaptation. The conse.
 quence is that if you mix the constitution
 of two widely divergent varieties whicl
 have severally become adapted to widely
 divergent modes of life you get a con
 stitution which is adapted to the rhode o1
 life of neither, a constitution which will
 not work properly because it is not fitted
 for any set of conditions whatever. By
 all means, therefore, peremptorily inter.
 dict marriages of Japanese with foreign
 CTS
 You see. therefore, that my advice k | strongly conservative in all directions.
 I give this advice In confidence. I wisl
 that it should not transpire publicly, a
 any rate during my life. for I do not de
 sire to rouse the animosity of my fellow
 countrymen. am, sincerely yours,
 ,.ss HERBERT SPENCER. P. S.-Of course when I say I wish thi, advice to be in confidence do not inter
 dict the communication of 1t to Count Ito
 but rather wish that he should have thu
 opportunity of taking it into considera ton.
 Easily Remembered.