The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-09

Scr Kanai. OF the Imperial University,
tells US that during the last ten years
the number of banks of deposit has in
creased four-fold. of savings banks
fivefold, while the savings of the ma
ton are twenty-four times greater now
than then. She is by no means wealthy,
having but Al persons worth Se50.0o0.
or one quarter-millionaire for every
100000 Inhabitants, while the United
States boasts 3.S2S m:Ilionaires. or one
per every 10000. Yet Japan. contrary
to general opinion. is not overtaXed.
Her people pay to the government less
than they did ten years ago. Compar-
ing the Empire with one European ma
ton, every person in Italy. child or
adult, paid last year $3.50 per capita
in taxes. If Japan were taxed equally
her income would be S500.o00,000, in
stead of some $100.000,06o. 5apan's fis-
cal budget for 1904, not acted upon be-
cause of the dissolution of the Diet,
called for revenue OF 225 IA million
yen and an expenditure of 1S3 2-3 mill
liens. The surplus, IL L. millions, was
to have been applied 70 various uses.
1t is now available for war purposes.
Besides this, she has three capital
funds totaling 90 million yen, one-half
in ready money. with an Offset liability
of 10 millions. She had last December
1l3 million yen in specie in the vaults
of her Central Bank, which at that time
had margin OF note-issuing power up
to 30 million yen. The proceeds of the
bond sale of 1902, mostly in the form of
specie, still awaited the order of this
bank in London. Beyond and above
this her war loan of 100, geo, 600 yen has
been subscribed without effort. In case
of real emergency the people would
spend their all to down Russia. In the
realm of finance the Muscovite bears
no better comparison with Japan than
in naval prowess.
THE FORCE AND THE FIELD.
Man for man, there seems little to
choose between the Russian and Japa-
nese soldier as well-oficered fighting
machine. Only a protracted campaign
will declare which. is the better. Rus
STA has the advantage on paper in num-
bers. Whether she can put more men
effectively into battle line away off in
Manchuria remains to be seen. Grant
her ability to do this, and do It deci-
siyely, for the sake of fairness in ar
gument.
Over against this performance may
be placed the distance from base of
supplies. Now that Russias navy is
out of the discussion, Japan may be
said to be fighting on her base, while
Russia is thousands of miles away from
hers with but single connection, and
that sure to be in a chaotic state of
severance. For it must be accepted as
fact that Manchuria swarms with
japanese disguised as Chinese coolies,
priests and the Ike, whose business it
is to break Russia's railway connec-
tions. Only in January last bombs
ready for explosion were said to have
been found in twelve places on the line
from Dalny to Tashi Kiao (near Muk-
den). They were attributed to disaf-
fected Chinese coolies. Since the war
has opened reports have come of sew
eral successful attempts to destroy the
roadbed at various points.
Furthermore, ever since 1895 Japan
has kept her agents busy in the most
minute typographical study of the en-
tire provinces of Manchuria and East
ern Siberia The Russians, notwith-
standing the signal advantage of their
Cossack cavalry, cannot begin to know
the ground over which they must fight
y,
for the Car, the policy of forced labor
and of savage reprisals has stirred up
the hatred of the Manchus to such a
degree that the japanese, who. since
1900, have improved every opportunity
to cultivate China's friendship-and
With marked success-are viewed as de-
iverers throughout the entire field of
war. Since December a crop of anti
TIC hoe Ill
over the Celestial Empire. England in
South Africa tasted the bitterness of
warfare in a hostile territory Russia,
90, is likely to drink this experience to
the dregs-to take the medicine it
forced upon the great Napoleon some
ninety years ago. Bear in mind also
hat this war is racial. The japanese,
Korean, 4Ianchu and Chinaman are
it is impossible to dis
ingufsh one from another by mere per-
onal appearance. Russia has arrayed
lgainst herself the largest consanguin-
ous segment of the human family. She ,
s likely to learn the magnitude of her :
'lunder before she is through with her
LABELLING in the politics of the Far
Cast.
'HE MAN BEHIND THE GUN AND
THE NATION BEHIND THE MAN.
What, then, of the spirit of the man
'ehind the gun2 One is a dolt big but
gnorant, lacking initiative, with vast
apacity for development, but sup
'ressed by centuries of vigorous tyr
my. He is patriotic, of course-all
men are; savage and fearless as
ears cub should be, but of free life he
as not yet begun to dream. He may
o longer have the name of serf. but
till he is that melancholy thing-a
lave. But the japanese is a freeman,
nth the spirit of a freeman. He can
link for himself, and has been taught
4 a land where free schools abound
nd men are left to choose their own
aligion. Those of us who know the Jap
nese best feel that perhaps we know
heir possibilities least. No nation,
OWeVer nOWerful. may dare provoke