Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1907-01-02

that five japanese have been tax
ing measurements and photographs
OF the Notifications of Havana.
The fact is, the government rather
expects this sort ofthing. 1t is
well known that other countries
have measurements and plans OF
all the Notifications, both here and
in the outlying possessions, just as
the United States has measure
ments and plans of the fortifica-
tions of other countries. That is
what general stats are for.
So far as Japan's alleged desire
to 90 to war with the United
States is concerned. there isn't a
clear mind in the administration
that does not scout the idea. Japan
cannon go to war with anybody.
She is in debt a billion d pillars, with
no place to borrow more.
The idea that England would
assist Japan in an assault on this
country is preposterous- The peo-
pie who have given study to the
problem admit, for the sake of
argument, the supposition that
England would join with Japan in
a concerted movement on both the
Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the
United States. Then whatl They
might bottle up this country, al
though there would be an argu-
ment on the Atlantic coast and
another on the Pacific before that
happened. But the people who
look at the facts as they are, going
further in the argument, concede
the bottling up. Then they point
out that the United States is the
only country in the world sufficient
to itself, and if England tried the
experiment of bottling up this
country she would cut herself off
from very large proportion of
her own food supplies.
Meantime, the United States, in
the extreme contingency that it
lost its fleets, would build other
fleets and go out and regain its
prestige. The United States has
money, men. food. and everything
else to maintain placid existence
with all the fleets of all the seas on
its coasts, and would also immedi-
ately go across the border and
seize Canada, which is the choicest
bit of suburban real estate Great
Britain has. There isn't an Amer
lean living who thinks the United
States would ever capitulate in
circumstances like these, and there
isn't IN American living who does
not know that, even if the Philip
pines and Porto Rico and ports in
Alaska and seacost cities were
taken, the United States would
evidently get them all back, and
more, too, by force of arms.
OF course, these conjectures are
almost fantastic, but the state
ments that call them out are the
basis OF the talk that has been go
ing on for the past six months of
an invasion of this country by
Japan, and the theory that Great
Britain is the hard and fast ally of
that country.
80 far as Japan herself is con-
cerned, she does not want a fight
with anybody. Her public debt
is almost, if not quite, as large as
that of the UnitedbStates, and her
territory is about as big as the
State of California. The greatest
problem Japan has now is not to
conquer any country, but to pro-
vide for the rapid increase in
Japanese population, which in
crease is 100000 year.
Japan's navy, when you analyze
1T, is not to be compared in any
way with and half of the American
navy. The alarmists say that
Japan's navy is in the Pacific and
the navy Of the United States is
not. That is perfectly true but
that portion of the United States
navy which might be needed in
the Pacific would be sent there.
Furthermore, the proposition of
Japan bringing an invading force
of a size to do any particular dam |
age 1000 miles has it's grotesque
features that apparently do not
appeal to the people who are COR