New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-10-02
J.p4xs NEW AWAKENING.

japan has already had two aWahehlhSe' "i-
| Is now undergoing the third Inc hTsL was
political, an awakening from OLD Ieuoallsni
and desnotic isolation TO a state of enlightened
popular government and intercourse WIN ue
world The second was military, In whlch
awakening she crushed the power OF emma
and then struck that of Russia such staggering
blows as it had never received before. Inc
third. which has already proceeded consldera-
bic distance, and which will be speedily COM
pleted as sequel to the late war is an 1ndus-
trial awakening in which Japan will probaoiy
show herself one of the most formidable COM
petitors the great manufacturing and CONNER
ciaI nations of Europe and America nave ever
known A nation of nearly fifty million people,
| ranking among the most intelligent the most
ingenious and the most industrious in the world,
and capable of existing on the smallest incomes
is about 10 make itself felt with all its strenu-
Gus vigor in the markets of the world.
We need not here again review the marvel
lous expansion of Japanese industry and trade.
/ There is one feature Of it more significant than
its increase in volume. That is its change IN
character. A generation ago Japan imported
manufactured goods and exported raw ma
terials. Now the reverse is true. She Imports
raw materials and exports manufactured goods.
But by virtue of what she has won in the Rus
sian war she is now about to make further
the raw materials used by her manufactures.
She may not be able to do that altogether. but
she will do so to an extent that will be felt
the world around. That is what her paramount
foothold in Corea means. That large, poten-
TALLY productive but sparsely populated coun-
try is to become the field of Japan's production.
There she will cut the lumber, mine the coal anu
grow the wheat which she needs and thus she
will not only cease 20 buy supplies so largely
from other lands, but by producing her own raw
material more cheapIy than she could buy 1t
abroad she will also be enabled to produce man
ufactured articles more cheaply than she has
been doing.
In this industrial and commercial awakening
Japan is employing the very means which the
other great industrial and commercial nations
have always employed and which have been
the initial secret of their success, namely, pro
tective and fostering laws. Japan not only has
a protective tariff. She protects her shipping
by keeping her coasting trade in her own hands
1t will be remembered that for time after her
ACQUISITION of Formosa she forbade foreign YES
sells to continue in trade between that island
and Nippon She will doubtless not try to pro-
hibit other nations from trading between Corea
and Nippon but we may be sure she will find
some way Of giving her own vessels marked
advantage in that trade 1t is well known that
no foreign individual or corporation is permit
ted TO own land, TO operate mines, to hold rail-
road shares or TO belong to the stock exchange
in japan. The system of protection is about
as complete all around, as Oriental ingenuity
could make 1t.
It is an interesting circumstance that the in
dustrial and commercial rivalry of Japan is to
he directed for obvious reasons. against those
very two nations which have been her closest
friends and to which for her awakening al
ready achieved, she owes most These are the
United States and the United Kingdom-or per
haps the whole British Empire It is worthy
of note that while the latter has been conclud-
ing with Japan a noteworthy offensive and de-
fensive alliance in politics and military mat
tars the two have been and are preparing for
q tremendous industrial and commercial duel
It will. of course. be entirely friendly, as will
the competition between Japan and America
This country and Great Britain are entirely too
reasonable to complain because Japan has
learned the lessons they. taught her and has
followed the example they set her. Nor do we
fear that Japanes competition, strong and re-
sourceful as it will doubtless be, will prove
r11inous to US We shall meet it successfully in
some respects, and, if there are any in which
we cannot do So we shall find elsewhere COM
nensation for our losses. There will not be
cause to regard this third awakening of Japan
as disaster to the commercial world