Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-01-30
JAPANESE SEQUEL.
The People are Poor Farmers and
Need Education.

1NCC0 Iad&oLAOAs
Japan has yet to learn agri-
culture, says DIR. David Star
Jordon in the Pacific Monthly of
January. The tourist il Japan
goes from Tokyo to Kvoto, then
to Kobe or Nag gasaki. He knows
the Japan OF the swarming vii
lsges, the dainty rice fields, the
green tea gardens, the pictur-
espue attitudinizing, the hand
painted landscape. He sees, or
thinks he sees, that Japan is
crowded. vastly overcrowded,
everv foot of land worked to the
utmost, no room for expansion or
extension of anv form of agri-
cultare. But this is an optical
illusion. In fact, barely half of
the arabic land of Japan is cul-
tivated; IS per cent of the whole
territory. Great tracts in the
north-ft for wheat, rye, oats,
barley, potatoes, hay, are almost
wholly unused-covered with
swamp grasses, logs and wo DDS.
japan has no roods, no horses,
no cows, no sheep, no goats, no
hogs, no butter, no cheese, no
orchards, no vineyards, no fruit,
no cabbages, turnips, carrots
scarcely anything to show in
agriculture save rice, tea, lac,
quer, taro and silk. Nothing in
domestic animals save a few bodi-
less chicken, half-starved dogs,
and soul-weary vegetarian cats.
Everything N agriculture is in
the style of two thousand years
ago. If is wholly unspecialized.
Nothing is worked to the fullest
modern economic advantage. Of
course these matters are chang
ing from day to day, and a
sweeping statement is no longer
true. There is now and then a
horse, COW, an apple tree, a
field of varied grains. The agri-
cultural stations of the govern
ment are doing their best to
accustom japan to the successful
methods of othercountries. But
the population of japan could be
doubled, without crowding, if
every resource were developed.
Japan must spend far more for
education. Rapid as her pro-
gress has been, it needs extern
tion in the direction of individ-
ualism and democracy. She
must educate men as men-not
as part of group or caste.
Real democracy must replace
what is still left of feudal COM
munism. Japan must break
down caste absolutely aud for
ever if she learns to make the
best of whatever of varied talent
NAV arise among her people.
The strong men born in the
nobility alone can never make a
great nation. They may make
an efficient bureaucracy, nothing
better. 1t takes all the force
there is for a nation to do her
part among other strong nations.
AS things are in Japan, the trade
or profession is greater than the
man. He is known by his
cloths and his badges. The
student is all student, he can do
nothing but study; the warrior is
all warrior, he knows nothing
but fighting; the jinrikisha man
is all legs; the farmer is all
farmer. His clothing was fash
ioned for him two thousand years
before he was born, and he can
never change it. He is chained
to his caste and can not get out
of it-whatever his fitness for
other or higher things. For all
these reasons, personal ambition
has little play in Japan, and
there is less power of adaptibility
to new condition than there
should be, however great this
power may seem, as compared
with that shown in India or
China.