The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-05-13

native merchant with whom they tram saet business. Ii is a matter of com mon knowledge that the native ban itos" or head men of the oldest foreign firms have enriched themselves by the fraudulent practice of charging a secret commission or "kosen" in all dealings with native merchants. Many of these "bantos'' have amassed millions by their dishonest methods, and the busi- ness of the foreign firms that employed them has practically passed into their hands, the foreign partners in those firms being mere salaried employees Of the Japanese s'banto." It is a fact that this is the condition of one of the prin- cipal American export houses in Japan to-day. Dishonest collusion between the native merchant and the "banto' to obtain higher prices from the foreign buyer has made it impossible to break up this system and has wrecked many a foreign firm in Japan.
 To the Japanese mind personal chas- ltity is matter of no importance ex- cept in the wife and-mother. This atti- tude is consistent with inborn philoso- lphy that dominates the Japanese char aeter. The interests of the home and posterity make it necessary that the wife should be virtuous, and in justice to the Japanese wife 1t must be sad that she is model of virtue If the hus- band can find happiness in being a lib- ertine, or in keepng a number of concu- pines, it is considered right for him to do so. It is only when the husband squanders more than he can afford in riotous living that he is considered to be doing wrong The principle upon which libertine husband is condemned in Japan is purely a material one and not a moral one. A young girl may be bonded to brothel, a geisha company, or placed as a concubine by her family, if financial reasons make it advisable, and to the Japanese mind it is perfectly proper. The Buddhist doctrine of self sacrifice upholds the girl who sells her self for the sake of her parents, and all though she becomes for the time being an outcast from society, she is esteemed for her act. It often happens that a well-to-do Japanese man buys a girl out of the Yoshiwara, and if she becomes his wife she finds no difficulty in estab- fishing herself in society.
 ] Suicide has always been considered honorable in Japan. the wish to die be- ing considered sufficient justification for the act. No moral principle against suicide is apparent to the Japanese mind.
 The Japanese nation has assimilated everything in Christian civilization ex- cept the Christian religion and it's stan dard of morality. To-day Japan Is equipped to hold its own in warfare, in science, in industry. art and commerce with any nation In the world, but it does not accept Christianity because 1t considers the Japanese philosophy su- perior
 To the Japanese mind there is no sin but folly, no ideals to be realized but material and patriotic ones.
 It is my conviction that the Japanese character is the most insidous force that has ever menaced Christianity. The Japanese philosophy is diametrical- ly opposed to Christian principles on all cardinal points. It is a philosophy which completely possesses those who believe in it with power almost hyp- notlc. one has only to observe the white men who have become Japanese to see how it wrecks the moral charac- ter of the Caucasian.
 I The effect of the Japanese philosophy on the brain of the European or Amer ican is not unlike that of a subtle nar- cotic. It perverts all moral ideas and poisons the very source of every thought and action. To the white man who falls unler the sway of this mystic power Christian civilization, with it's ideals, appears ridiculously Quixotlc. He has nothing but contempt for the men of his own race and is even ashamed of the color of his skin. It is only natural that such an individual should forsake his own kind, don kimono, become a Jap anese and try to lose himself in the great yellow mass.