The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-04-19
LAPS TRYING TOGAW
 GREATER TURF.

| Brooklyn Eagle.
 Most curious of all ambitions Japan is engaged in great national move ment to get it's leg pulled. Wise men or the island nation are studying the | question of stature in order to find the means of taking the thought that | will add stature
 The Jap wants to be tall. He is tired | of being spoken of as the midget His soldier on parade. though admit tedly great fighter, looks absurd in comparison with the warriors of other nations The physical deficiency in in height stands as the only disadvan- tage which Nippon has yet been unable to overcome. Now the entire nation is pledged to an effort to produce tall CT men and women.
 The campaign is to begin at the cradle and the young Jap coming into | the world is to he raised differently from the ancient form of his forefat- hers. By measurement 1t has been shown the body of this Japanese baby left alone will be not far short of the size of the badv of the son of other nations. The shortage is in the legs Once lengthen the lower limbs and the problem of how to get taller Jap has been solved.
 Some of the best authorities of Japan have been Investigating the causes that have kept the nation undersized Their researches have led to the opinion that the sedentary habits of the people are at the base of the trouble. Apart from those engaged in the more muscular forms of activity. the Japanese work man performs all his tasks while seat ed on the floor. his legs crossed under him.
 This attitude is characteristic of the people, and Is followed even in the hours of rest, for there are no chairs fin a Japanese home, members of the family squat on their heels after the manner of their forefathers for cen turies back.
 Many . prosperous merchant spends the greatest portion of his life in this 1 position, not even arising to wait on customers. A boy is kept to hand pur- chases to those who buy the merchant sticking resolutely and uninterruPtedly | to his pose of comfort and laziness.
 The professional man also adheres Go this position. so do the artisans and craftsmen who make up so large part of the native population.
 | Perhaps the only exception to the national habit of sitting for the tran saction of all work is to be found among the farmers. Naturally. they are exempted. for no way has yet been i found by which a man with a hoe can do his work while sQuatted on his heels But the kind of work perform ed by these farmers is so arduous that they never have a chance to get pro- perly developed bodies. All the stature is bent ouE of them. so to speak. by the | process that converts into beasts of burden men who have not the natural physical equipment to stand the work.
 This is the condition with which phy- sicians and statesmen are trying to labor. Their experts in physical devel- opment have told them that the sitting posture interrupts a proper circulation of the blood, keeps the mucles in a strained and unnatural position, and prevents the proper development of the normal height that comes to other peoples
 Therefore an edict has gone forth that the Japs must learn to sit on chairs. As regards the army, the rule has been made absolute. The soldiers will be required to sit on something higher than the floor. Chairs and benches are being placed in the bar racks and punishment is visited on the soldier who takes up the old fam iliar squat on the floor.
 The Japanese army surgeons are m tenseIy interested in the enforcement of the rule. for the national agitation for extended legs comes from them. They examined and learned lessons from the fighting men of other nations including the giant Russians, whom the little men made taste such hum- iliatIng defeat.
 Is is characteristic of the intese de- termination of the people that they declined to believe that the shortness