The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15
JAP STATESMAN
 SEES GREAT WAR General Forio Says Clash Is
 Inevitable HUNDRED YEAR CONFLICT Friend of Mikado Gives Out Startling nterview-Yellow Race Will Humble White Is Predicted.
 Bold Declaration.
HUNDRED YEAR CONFLICT

New York November 14.-(Special. )- War between Japan and the United States is inevitable'' is the startling declaration made by General Yiscount Torio, Japanese elder statesman and one of the closest counselors to the Nikado. Not only is 1t inevitable but on the same prophetic authority. 1t will last not three. nor 90, but perhaps 100 years and will be the greatest war in the history of man. kind. General Torio makes this bold prophecy in an interview secured by Richard Barry. the well known war cor respondent, in the December Hampton S Broadway Magazine. It is a remarkable utterance, coming as it does, from man of such great prominence. General To- rio is the first authoritative voice of Japan to predict war with America As to the length of the predicted conflict. the Seer of Atami as the magazine art- ele entities him, said:
 ' Come and see me when you return from the first stage of it. Your hair will be as gray as mine.'
 l What. A % years war?"
 Perhaps a hundred" he answered. You have q great nation, and we have -well-we have nation, too"
 But is it possible for nations to fight so continuously in these modern days?''
 "In the life of a nation like Japan a century is but day. We have existed since the growing of the first anemone; we will continue to exist after the reap l ing of the last sunflower. And we have existed so long for one thing-to preserve our national unity.
 ''As q nation we are only one member of a family. That family covers the whole continent of Asia and all the is lands that lie nearby. It has many mem ] bers, from the old grandfather. China i to the little bad boy in the Philippines ] It Is a big family, a wonderful family and we revere it. Behind the family we 1 remember-nothing beyond that family We see-nothing. There is nothing but l the family. All our ideas of life are 1 based upon the family; thereto our civ lization is built. We are born. we live, we die for the family; the family gives us our , colossal strength, our perpetuity. And it also gives us that easy reliance in our selves which lets us drift, sometimes for centuries secure always in the faith that | if some members of the family may be weak or foolish there will always Be strong member to fight, to maintain, to shield.
 The Boy Alexander. "Over two thousand years ago your boy, Alexander, strayed Into our back yard He was bright boy and venture some, expert with both swords, and we sent against him one who was at that time our elder brother, the good XerXes. Our elder brother fell and your younger brother pushed on for how long? For breath, a laugh, a shy, exulting shout: then he slipped, he fell, he died, and his people scattered, and his nation perished, and we lived on, the family triumphant! We opened, We absorbed them, we passed them out and did not know that they had come. And therein we always win. If overwhelmed, if startled, if outwitted, we yield, We gracefully submit-for time and then the family gathers the loyal members together, loosely enfolds its en- twining and terrible arms. hospitably about our triumphant victor.
 You have a family, just as we have one your family of the occident and four times in the last 2O00 years has some member of your family strayed over to impose upon the rights of our family Four times have We cast you out and your marks have hardly remained
 Do you think, then, that the fifth time you come upon us you are to stay to take our lands, keep our men, remove our money? The hundred and fifty years you have been in India is but a day and a hall in our slow family pride, your de- cade in the Philippines but the interval between the smoking of cigarettes"
 ''To be exact then,' asked Barry. you mean that Japan is today the strong na- ton of Asia, and that she will right the wrongs of all the orient that you will drive the American from the Philippines, the British from India. the Russians from Manchuria, the French from Indo- China, and the Germans from Kiaou-Chou?"
 O.! You Americans.
 70! You Americans," exclaimed the old man, showing his first impatience and that only by the quick movement of his 1 eyelashes. "To be exact we have driven the Russians from lower Manchuria''
 Why did Japan choose Russia first among the white people?'
 "Why does the wounded buffalo turn on the dogs" he replied, almost sav- agely
 And yet now that you have Corea the natives complain more bitterly than they did of the Russians. Is that like loyal member of the family?'
 The old man smiled slyly. "The bad young one never likes to be spanked" Now we had reached the question which l had long been imminent. I hoped it might have some adequate answer, differ ent from those diplomatic courtesies with which Tokyo reeked. Here was a man who could talk who was worth listening i to, and who would talk.
 Do you then regard so confidently a conflict with American
 'I regard it as inevitable. You are en- 1 croaching on the rights of our family"
 And you feel certain of the outcomeg' | Remember this," and as he spoke the | old man rose. "The whole difference be- tween you and us hinges on a thought, what your philosophers call a mental at titude. That thought is the attitude we i bear toward one another Among you the purposes of life are mixed sometimes you are a family sometimes you are not a family. With us the purposes of life are absolute. We have but one purpose duty; the highest duty Is the family.
 "Even in these casual observations was shown clearly more clearly than is usual with his diplomatic countrymen, the in- nate contempt that the Japanese bears for the American. This does not spring from want of respect as we understand the word. The Japanese usually acknowl- edge the American to be his superior, not only in physical power, but in many of the departments of life which require thought He seldom tries to rival him as a mechanician and has only doubts of his comparative capacity as an engineer. Nevertheless, he regards the American as a barbarian, wanting in the essentials of civilization and deferior to himself from sheer deficiency of brain power.
 Permanent Condition.