Durango semi-weekly herald., 1905-09-14
fpy George n. Maxweil, J

What then is the secret of Japan's
Strength
1t is in just one thing. and that Is
MEN,
II is In the efficiency OF the unit
II is In the physical and mental pow
err in the health, strength and intel
lIgence of the Japanese people as q
whole, and as consequence. OF every
Individual soldier and sailor.
And this physical and mental efll-
cheney of an entire people-ot the en-
tire citizenship Of the japanese ma
tion--is n plain and distinct result of
their mode of life.
The japanese people are strong he
cause they live as the human animal
must live to be mentally and phy sic
ally strong-noXt TO Nature.
They breathe fresh air.
They eat plain food
They neither starvo nor gorge.
They are mentally and physically
active.
They are an "out of door" people
They understand the laws of health
and obey thom.
Their children draw their strength
from the bosom OF Mother Earth
And above and beyond all they are
nation of homes and home owners
Each family is in a home and each
nome Is In garden. where health
and strength are gained by the labor
OF cultlvating that garden for n living
for food for the family.
And In these garden homes the peo.
pie of Japan have far more of real
happiness and the genuine enjoyments
of life than the average wage worker
in our country
We have fallen into n Snug and self
complacent and wretchedly superficial
habit of thought which loses sight OF
the life that people lead and meas.
ures everything by n money wage-a
totally false and deceptive standard ol
measurement of the best things that
human life affords.
In the United States two hundred
and fifty thousand of our people are
being annually destroyed by the great
white plague, tuberculosis.
In Japan the disease is PRACTICAL,
unknown.
why?
Because the japanese breathe fresh
air.
What would the Japanese think #
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 ath
letic clubs?
Or must 20 without food because
they lacked money 10 buy 1t at a
butcher shop or 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 of him.
self and family.
or the $4,000. 600 population of ia.
pan 3o,oOD,Oo0 are farmers, or. more
correctly speaking, gardeners. The
Japanese farm is garden irrigated
and fertilized and scientifically and
intensively TILED.
And recent writer, describing the
HE OF the Japanese farmer, says:
Measured in money he is not rich
But he dwells in comfortable and in.
viting home, purged of every taint OF
dirt and dust. The transparent paper
walls of his house. made from bark
of his mitsumata shrubs, food his
dwelling 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 visibl,
signs OF poverty. There is no squalur
in agricultural Japan. The humblest
peasant farmer is clean, Industrious
and comfortable. The area of fence
corners abandoned on many American
farms to wild mustard, fennel aud pig
weed would furnish comfortable Nv
ing TO "A whole family In rural Japan
Some idea of The trifiing cost of iv-
Ing In agricultural Japan was given
me by an American who has spent
fifteen years in the empire. Frequent.
ly he takes vacation in the farming
regions. He has good food, sleeps on
clean and comfortable quilts in i'm
peccable aousos, is carried about in
in country carts. and at the end of
two weeks he finds that his total eN-
penses have not exceeded ten yen, or
Ave 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
Manchuria and leaped into eternity in
order that they might wipe the men.
ace of the Russia navy from the seas
that wash the shores of their home
land.
II Is an old saying that man will
not fight heroically for boarding
house, but the Japanese have proved
hat they will fight like demons to
lefend the institutions of u nation OF
1ome Acres.
We instinctively think OF the vic
cries of Japan as the victories OF her
eaders.
We are naturally hero worshippers'
But there again we are Superficial