The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-05
DOES JAPAN INTEND ID ENGAGE IN WAR Haskin Tells What They Are Doing In Mikado's Realm ENORMOUS SUMS SPENT HabitabIe Area of All Japan Is Equal To Just Half the State of Ohio.
 Congestion Is a Great
 Problem.
 
ENORMOUS SUMS SPENT
BY FREDERIC J. HAsklN.

and navy ever undertaken by any na ton of like resources in time of peace. The United States is sending to the
 Pacific ocean the most powerful armada in the history of navies Despite tho | assurances from Washington and Tokyo that there is no serious quarrel be- t'ween~tbe two powers. these are con
 crete facts, for the acceptance of which
 it is not necessary to take anyone's
 word.
 Does this mean war?
 The investigator will encounter many people willing to assure him that trou- 1 1le between the two countries is m evitable, and just as many more who protest that all this talk of clash is mere moonshine At such time one must go beyond the assurances of | diplomatists, because 1t is their bust
 ness to preserve amity by the subtleties ] Of fine speech and friendly representa- 1 tion. One must also disregard the bel | ligerent mouthings of the jingoes for i their utterances of rancor and wild alarm are as unwarranted and danger ous as they are undignified.
 Since Japan determined to put aside | it's old civilization and take up the 1 ways of the Occident, it has fought two wars. The first was with China, the most populous and second greatest in | contiguous area of the nations of the world; and the next was with Russia the greatest in area and the second most populous of all the nations. In each of these conflicts Japan was the victor, not alone by the bravery of it's
 magnificent fighting men, but by it's preparedness before each war began. In the year before the war with Rus sia, Japan's total military and naval expenses were $41 100000. Last year the Japanese government spent $115.- | 704 $50 on it's war establishment, and this year it will again spend nearly as much. If it was prepared for war with Russia, what will it not be prepared twice as much annually as it did prior twice as much annaully IS it did pr.oc 10 that conflict?
 .tion of Japan's national resources and 1 present financial status reveals such q sorry condition of affairs that even the suggestion of war with power like the United States seems to be the height of absurdity. No matter how well Japan may be prepared for war in a military way, in other respects 1t is not at all prepared Modern war means spending
 money, and in order to spend money one must have resources. Japan Is poverty stricken and almost bankrupt. Its total wealth is but one-twentieth of that of
 the United States although its population is more than half as great
 If every vestige of wealth in Japan i could be turned intQ cash, the whole amount would not )e enough to buy the clothing and furniture used by the peo- pie of the United States. The entire in- come of the Japanese government is not as great as that of the United States al rha fol n4fol QN-- penditures for education in the Japanese empire not only falls short of that of many of our American states, but is less than the city of New York spent on it's public schools last year. The Jap anese peasant welcomes the opportunity
 to hire himself for F months for S16-
 a sum earned by capable American shop girls in one week. The Japanese brick layer is one of the countrys highest paid artisans, his wages for day of F hours being 31 cents. Compare this with the
 American brick-layer's pay of S for eight hours work, and one has striking illus tration of the vast difference between the
 potential wealth of the two countries.
 This abject national poverty is the re- suit of the intense congestion of the Jap anese people The entire empire of the Milxado is no larger in area than the
 state of California, and only 13 per cent
 of it is susceptible of cultivation That
 
 its population is just half the size of the
 state of Ohio. This means that if every
 man, woman and child within the boun-
 daries of the United States and the re-
 public of Mexico should move Into ono,
 the soil of that commonwealth would
 have no greater task to support them
 than that now imposed upon the afaoie
 portion of Japan
 Janancse statesmen realize that If their
 country is to retain its rating as frst-
 class power some remedy Tor this con
 Sestion must be devised. That remedy,
 they think, is to be found only in emigra-
 ton and expansion. It is the solutloh ot
 this vexing problem that raises the great
 est issue in world politics today. streams
 Of Japanese epligrants were sent pouring
 into Hawaii. the Philippines. Mexico, Can
 ada and the Pacific coast states or the
 union. The result was trouble. How ever, the immigration question in America
 HOW bids fair to be settled by peacetul diplomacy, as Japan was quick to recos-
 nize the difficult position which It occu- red. and set about restricting emigration
 to those countries where its people were not welcome, and where there was enough strength to repeal them. But whatever course Japan took at the dictates Of
 peaceful counsel, the fact remains that this slight put upon it's citizens has
 wounded the pride of every subject of the Mikado.
 Therefore the Japanese are all the more
 set upon solving the problem of the con ] gestion of their people by the other way expansion Japan acquired valuable ter rtory from China after the war with that country, but the great powers forced q retrocession The wal with Russia, l caused by it's occupation of the very ter
 ritory Japan had been forced to give back ] lo China, and by Russian aggression in i Corea and Manchuria, has placed Japan , in a position to predomlnate influence | in those two countries. In .Corea the | sovereignty is virtually in the hands Of 1 the Japanese resident-general, and in | Manchuria the Japanese influence is being l extended rapidly. In China proper the