Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-07
Popular Exultation.

IN lSoo, especially after the Mukden VIC
tory, the moral tension of the nation was
dangerously loosened. Rampant, degener-
ate. and over-fat with Russian blood, Wis
Ions of the great mulct, so confidently ex-
pected. intoxicated the less wise among
the japanese After Togo's victory they
felt already the clinking of the Russian
roubles in their hands. Again the afro
cious proverb of the rebel reactionaries of
1877, who refused to lay aside the sword,
pay taxes and work came into vogue:
Though the eagle be starving, it will not
eat grain. After so interrupted a feast,
during nineteen months, on (double-headed)
eagle, Great-Bear pie and war jam, the
peace milk of Portsmouth was loathsome
to the new baby among the nations Hear
again the far-seelng Count Okuma. who
was once made legless by the dynamiter's
bomb concealed in the umbrella of a cham
pion of decadent Bushido, clad in Euro
pean evening dress. On a like occasion with
the present, in the face of parochial pat
riotism and insular bigOtry, he failed not
in warning rebuke. In July, 1900, he wrote
again:
To-day Japan has entered the country
OF competitive nations. If she imagines
that the sources of a nations advancement
do not lie in civilization, but are to be
sought in the remnants of feudal ideas, and
If she relies on armed victoriesf which
courage militarism and vitiate popular SEN
timent she will be injurng her own prog
ress and sowing the seeds of national de-
cay"
In a word the elder statesmen knew ia
pans real conditions, SOIL resources and
the problems awaiting solution. They had
but slight expectations of indemnity or of
anything save what Japan fought for and
has won. AS valuable as all brakes on
the train, or steel shoes on the tire IS
this body of old heads, whose pure mind
and aim would screen the evolution of
the Japanese into modern men and keep
their country in the path of sure progress
ana the permanent respect of the world.
In 1877 old Franklin and well-balanced
Washington were better, while Hamilton,
Jefferson, Adams and Clinton were good;
so today we appraise the Genro of Japan.
The treaty of Portsmouth crowns their
work. How superb their record! Not alone
with Bismarcks energy of blood and
iron. but with the patient, calm, exquisite
balance, unremtting Industry and gifts of
patient adjustment, of a Washington, or
Lincoln, they swept away medieval feudai-
ism, then made a new nation. and finally
have won place in the worlds council of
leading states.
Japan's Great Problems.
Like Washington, having given free rein
to the coursers of empire they stop
the steeds firmly at the goal.
All the better off for not getting an in
demnity, that would tempt the nation into
extravaganza. insolence and folly, Japan
will now fall back on the ancient virtues
of her sons and daughters, and within a
decade reclaim her fallow land, suck album
dance from the seas new and old, redeem
Formosa. settle Yezo, exploit the metallic
riches of southern Saghalin, set again in
motion her paralyzed industries. open the
mines of Korea and make the peninsula a
rice field, and by trade in Manchuria and
on the five continents win solid, permanent
wealth in place of slippery war spoil. Every
true friend must congratulate Japan that
she got no indemnity from Russia. Apart
hrr.,A
economies are the basis of history, and de-
pendence on cardinal virtues the only safe
guards of the future.
This is the end of an era. Japan's great
est and nobler problems ahead Let the
people ponder this--her progress SO far q
bagatelle" Let her face the truth and not
the fiatterer. The time for Bushido is past.
Tradition and mythology Will not serve her
Let the Japanese drop the ridiculous fiction
of $500 years of history" enforce a policy
Of truth in all things as the best weapon
accept the glorious fact of her youth and
rawness, cease to suppress academic free
dom, gradually relax that excess of secrecy
which easily degenerates into deception and
that has receiled on both nation and yoy-~1
eminent. and allow liberty to the individual
and In the home-where IL does not vet exist
educate her fifty millions still mostly
he.min, and make the merchants career
honorable. Asia's fertility Is like eternity
Itself, its mineral treasures practically UNI
touched its oceans wealth inexhausfihJa
and the possibilities of commerce M
dreamed The old ethnic hates are les
SEEMING. and the world is slowly but surely
learning that, though religions are many.
religion is one. Thus the seed-beds Of
war may one by one become the gardens
of arbitration and reason. Japan has
honored the sword and the fighter long
enough. Let the peace promoter have his
turn. Predominant in eastern Asia and
In the northern Pacific, her supreme on
portunity has come. to show herself what
she processes to be-"second to none,
Let the spirit of the emperor and the elder
statesmen be followed, and she will surely
actualize her dream.
WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS.