Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-07
JAPAN'S WISE MEN
GREAT PROGRESS OF ISLAND EN-
PRE- DUE TO ELDER STATESMEN.
Nation Surely and Steadily Delivered
From Feudal System-Advance-
ment in Civilization.

The Rev. william Elliot Grlfis in the North
American Review.
Every law-abidng Japanese still reJoices
that the liberal provisions of the funda-
mental law. put into writing in 1888, are so
full and explicit All the world was amazed
at the emperor's enormous limitation Of his
imperial prerogative Though I speak with
the furnace of Japanese party politics IN
near view; can recall that when in Bos-
ton in 1889 with the faces of Japan's
mighty dead. of the ffty-ive of 1858, in
memory, l first read this august text, every
line of which seemed to me written in mar
tyr blood I wondered why meetings were
not held in Faneuil Hall and the bells Of
the nation rung in sympathy with this
Asian people So wonderful an event, taxi
ing place in Asia and within a hundred
years of the Philadelphia instrument,
seemed a political miracle. One almost eX-
pected the Independence bell to heal its
crack and ring out congratulations. To i'm
pugn or threaten that Constitution. or even
to insult or lampoon the elder statesmen in
the privy council, whose loyalty has been
tried in fire. and whose patriotism grew in
a field of swords, seems to me, an alien
outsider, to be the height of folly 49, the
committing of national hara-lIiri in the
wrong age Of the world. No sensible Japa-
nese can go back of the text of the consti-
tuition. Let him rather fight the conditions
if he wants to, agitdte for extension of the
franchise. and strive for the political educa-
ton in duties even more than rights, of
the fifty million of his brethren. Make the
upper house of the diet a true senate with
treaty-making power like that in Washing
ton, and demand that the imperial ministers
be responsible to the diet and not to the
throne-but hardly yet. 1t IS certain
that the sun rose this morning that because
NJ victories In MHpphuri4 a
tension of political privileges in Japan is to
be looked for. Nevertheless. the very ex
perieHceS of the japanese people since the
late war began, show that they not yet
ready for universal suffrage. Better,
thousand times. Count Okuma's policy of
steady agitation and solid education than a
single hour of mob demonstration!
Lust Of War.
For, without denying the satisfactory side
and some noble features, war is little more
than incarnated lust It's moral consequences
reveal hells crop, as of poisonous toad
stools. Nothing Is more ultimately disap-
pointing than success in many battles. TO
this effect Count OEuma had already sound
ed warning. The inevitable aftermath is
social plague and moral pestilence. Twice
has the Japanese populace been deiuded by
the deceitfuneSs of war. In 1S34-5, to the
occident ignorant of the real organization,
of that amazing racial Regeneration called
China, there was a war between Japan
and China, in which Japan won first glory,
then humiliation. and again money indem-
nity-With the certainty of having TO spend
it all quickly and of entailing an awful
debt in fighting Russia. In reality. there
never was any war between Japan and
China, because there is no such thing In eX-
istence as a Chinese empire in the sense
that there is a German, British or Russian
empire. What southern Chinaman cared
for what went on in Chilli Shing King?
1t was only north mans pidgin.' What
did happen was war between all Japan
and Picking, backed by but four five out
of the twenty-one Chinese provinces. And
with what results TO Japan? After the
mobs and newspaper outbreaks against the
treaty of Shimonoseki, wild financial spec
ulations led the nation into extravaganza,
neglect of real education awful moral de-
terioraton. and the necessity Of wasteful
military and naval expansion, with exhaust
ing outlay In getting ready for the care
fully prearranged war with Russia
How has 1t been in 1895? Even more de-
ceitful was this war with It's victories The
nation girded for the fray In January and
February, 1904. At once followed the post
ponement or paralysis of internal improve
ment, deterioration of educat ton and
self-denial of the poor almost to starva-
ton. The land was drained OF Its youth,
and the old men and women worked In the
fields, widows and orphans uttered no cry
For a WHILE modesty, self-control, sacri-
flee, made the Japanese not only admirable
but models. But continued success made
millions of them drunk of mind and imagi-
nation, while the statistics of loss were
suppressed or manipulated with a secrecy
that was horribly misleading. Forgetting
that, with their leaders educated by Brit
ish, German and American Instructors, with
modern machinery and forces borrowed
from the most advanced nations, and near
their base of supplies. they ought by all
calculations to have won-for their enemy,
not only. the most backward of Europe
and far behind In training, experience and
science, fought at the flag end of his at
tenuated empire-the popuace failed also
to realize that. compared with European
and American development. Japans has
been a mere baeatelle." These quoted
words are not the ci,ld decision of an alien,
they are those of the elder statesman,
Count Okuma. Again, as the same leveI-
headed wise man, who has all along given
economical and moral warnings to his eoun-
trynen, made vivid In his article on Mill
tarism and the Rise and Fall of States"
he warned against bioodthirstiness, and
secuted the old popular worship of hara-
kirf. the sworded bully and the theatrical
assassin. Violence Is the rule OF Bushido