The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1905-11-17


ard of measurement of the best thing
that human life affords.
F. In the United States two hundred
and fifty thousand of our PED lie are
being annually destroyed by the great
white plague, tuberculosis.
In Japan the disease is practically
, unknown.
Why2
Because the Japanese breathe fresh
t air.
What would the japanese think IL
; they were told that their people could
not have fresh air because they did
not have more money!
, Or could not have exercise because
they could not afford to belong to
: athletic clubs2
Or must 60 without food because
they lacked money to buy it at a
butcher or a grocery store, when
every japanese gardener has the land
: from which he knows how with his
own labor to get all the food he needs
for the abundant nourishment fer
himself and family.
The Garden Farm.
OF the 100000 population Of
Japan 30,000,000 are farmers or more
correctly speaking, gardeners. The
Japanese farm is a garden, irrigated
and fertilized, and scientifically and
/ fntensively TILED.
And a recent writer, describing the
life of the japanese riarmer, says
Measured in money, he Is not rich.
| But he dwells in a comfortable and In
viting home, purged of every faint OF
dirt and dust. The transparent paper
walls of his house, made Of bark from
his mitsumata shrubs, flood his dwell
| ing with light and keep out the wind
| He enjoys good food served In dainty,
but inexpensive dishes made of native
woods. Even in the homes of the
| poorest, there are no visible signs of
poverty. There is no squalor in agri
cultural Japan. The humblest peas
ant farmer is clean, industrious and
comfortable. The area of fence corners
abandoned on many American farms
to wild mustard, fennel, and pig weed,
would furnish comfortable living to a
whole family in rural Japan. Some
idea OF the trifiing cost of living in
agricultural Japan was given by
an American wAo has spent fifteen
years in the Empire. frequently he
takes a vacation in the farming re-
gions. He has good food, sleeps on
clean and c0mforta blequilts in impec-
cable houses is carried about in coun-
try carts, and at the end of two week.
finds that his total expenses have not
exceeded ten yen, or five dollars"
And from the garden farms-the
Home Acres-of agricultural Japan
have come the soldiers who have faced
death to drive the Russians from Man
churia and leaped into eternity in Or
der that they might wipe the menace
of the Russian Navy from the seas that
wash the shores of their Home Land.
A Nation of Home Acres.
1t IS an old saying that a man will
not fight for a boarding house, but the
Japanese have proved that they will
fight like demons to defend the insti-
tutlons of a nation of Home Acres.
We lnstinctively think of the victo-
ries of Japan as the victories Of her
leaders.
We are naturally -worshlppers.
But there, again, we are superficial
Our military men were loud In their
praises of the mastery way In which
KuropatlSin played the game Of war.
And RoJestvensky must have the
credit due him for sailing his feet four
thousand miles and planning so ell
GENTLY to provide it with coal and pro-
visions.
But Oyama and Togo had the men,
and every Japanese soldier and sailor
Is not only hero but a leader. If
every officer in the Japanese army and
navy above the rank of Captain were
stricken dead tomorrow, their places
would be filled and Japan would con-
tinue to prosecute the war to flnaH vic
tory. The secret of her power lies in
the fact that in intelligence, in mental
and physical strength, in individual
initiative in patriotism, In all that goes
to make up a fighting unit, every
Japanese soldier and sailor Is an
Oyma or Togo In embryo.
You might destroy every ship that
Japan possesses, destroy all her arms
and munitions of war, take away even
the clothes on their backs and trans
port every soldier in her army and
every sailor In her navy back to the
shores OF Japan as naked as the day he
were born, and leave the nation to its
own devices, and in few years they
would completely reproduce their
layal and military power and be
stronger than ever.
But destroy the men of Japan and
substitute for them the dull-witted
oeasantry of Russia or the enaemic
'actory operatives of England, and
7ou have destroyed Japan.
Men Before BattIeships.
True to his warlike impulses and in
Itincts, President Roosevelt clutches up
he echo from the great naval battle
which has just been fought, and calls
IN the country for more battle ships.
RoJestyensky had battle ships. He
lad more Of them than Togo. But he
lidn't have the men. And he couldn't
ret them. Russian institutions could
lot produce them.
Now, would 1t not be wise for the
'eople OF this country to wake up to
he fact that the foundation of our
trength as a nation is not in an army
4 a navy, but in our citizenship.
And also wake mp to the appalling
act, powerfully portrayed BY Robert
1unter in Poverty his recent hook.
hat we are deiiberately fz1icWinx III
he footsteps of England and degener-
ting our citizenship by crowding our
gorzing people into cities where
hey live In an unhealthfui environ
1ent and are weakened by poor food
nd fnado0f9ofa r.turfufafnafsf