The log cabin Democrat., 1907-06-27


 Question" has its focus. And an ln- yestigator finds that it is by no means one abstract question, but an inter- woven mass of perplexities, each With a relation to the other. Out or the whole I have tried to extricate the two that appear to be fundamental education and morality; and both have a direct bearing upon the mls- sionary and religious situation which I am studying.
 Tokio is the greatest student cen ter in the world, with more than 5o,- 900 students of the higher branches. Here young Japan, infatuated With the western learning, has concentrated its ambitions. The streets teem With young men and women student The procession of these that may be seen any day along the moat by the lm- perial palace is the most significant spectacle in all Japan. It is the crux of the nations anxieties; l do not wonder that the elder statesmen are shaking their heads and looking grave over it; for reasons which l shall presently show.
 So great is the craze for education that, although the rather loose figures of the Japanese government give 94.43 per cent of the population of school age as under instruction tan Amerl- can educator here figures it as 69.Oo per cent, according to western rex oning), there is not room in the m stitutions of higher grade for all the applicants. Japan has only eight col leges and two universities, but each of these has a very large enrolment. l heard the other day of 1000 stu dents being examined for entrance into a class that could admit but |o. The rejected students feel disgraced, and this is one cause of the suicides that are so common among this class of the Japanese.
 It is freely stated that much of the modern education is quite superficial. Certainly the sudden prove a fertile lheid for the exploitation of socialists ard other agitators. There are not places in the nation for these educat- cd young men commensurate with their ambitions. So there is consid- erable political as well as social un- rest
 One striking result of the craze for education is the universal desire to learn English, which is regarded as the language of progress and civiliza- tion. There is no similar zest for French or German. The higher pub lie schools teach English, and tens of thousands are learning it privately. Train boys, railroad men, walters, Bhopkeepers, editors, students, fellow passengers in trains-all sorts of Japanese have come to me since l have been here for help in English. Any good-natured foreigner could keep busily employed "A hours a day irstructing the Japanese in the mys- teries of English. Recently l visited a mission night school in Kobe which was literally damned with young men employed during the day as teachers. clerks, etc. Not only were the rooms crowded but outside of the doors and windows stood clumps of eager stu dents, each having paid the tuition fee The mission force was made uuate, and two outside helpers. Eng lishmen, had been engaged temporari- !y. It was highly edifying to hear an enthusiastic young man teach ms class, as model sentences, There are many dogs in England. l have got
 ;c tn the mis- sionary force to say that they them selves are college bred men and women.
 Leadinq a Nation to School.
 It was the missionaries who intro Guced higher education into Japan. One of them, Dr. David Murray, was the governments educational adviser and led in the organization of the present school system. The first of the Japanese institutions of higher learning was the Doshisha, founded by the runaway youth, Joseph Hardy Neesima. who was trained in home and is now esteemed by the nation as one of its great men. The Doshisha, which is located at Kioto, is the most famous of mission schools in this country, and ii is still doing success full work. with about 600 students. The average age of the latter is lower than formerly, as seems to be he case with all long-estabished mission schools.
 Must Mission Schools Go?
 The intensely national spirit among the Japanese, together with the crea- ton of the new educational system, has largely altered the status and character of the mission schools. Whatever changes the future brings, it is evident, however, that from the mission schools Japan has received a tremendous educational impulse, & host of trained teachers, and a com many of unselfsh counsellors. Fur thermore, it must be admitted that at
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