The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-05-15
Ms 80
advertiser Correspondence, Copyrigh
by Frederic j. Haskin.)

nomic trust in the world has its head
quarters in the Palaces of Toxic. The
Japanese Imperial Household is the
center around which an amazing bust
ness organization revolves. The effects
of the application of TRUST methods"
to a partnership between a sovereign
state, a family of princes ruling by di-
vine right, and certain clique of rich
men, are being felt all over the East.
To define that partnership and explain
the details of its working would be as
difficult as it would have been ten years
ago to get line on the operations of a
great American life insurance COM
pany. But just as financial peace in
America required the exposure of the
insurance company methods, so interna-
tional peace in the Orient may require
a frank exposition OF this mysterious
trust of Japan.
The age-long prejudice against mer-
chants in Japan has not prevented the
Princes of the Imperial Household from
Selling an opportunity to make little
on the side in purely commercial way.
The Imperial Household, operating un-
der the established code OF family laws,
owns stock in nearly every large bust
ness concern under the Japanese flag,
and in many of them it controls a ma
jority of the shares The advantage of
this private ownership is apparent when
it is considered that the owners can
also operate through the government,
which they control by their association
with the ruling oligarchy.
For instance, the Imperial Household
owns large cotton spinning mill. The
raw cotton must be brought from the
United States, manufactured in Japan,
and then taken to China to be sold. The
Imperial Household wishing to make a
great profit on this cotton yarn, but be-
ing compelled to sell it very cheaply
to compete with other yarns in the
Chinese market, has an advantage which
no other trust on earth could dream of.
1t also owns the bio steamship lines,
but in order to make the cotton bust
ness "go,'' it will permit its steamers
to carry the raw cotton from America
and the finished product to China for
less than cost This effectually shuts
out all foreign shipping and makes
business for the japanese merchant ma
rine. Other business may be carried
by these ships at profit; if 50, the
profit goes to the Imperial Household
pockets. The losses are always made
up by the government: not by the I'm
perial Household, but by the people of
Japan, who are taxed to pay the ship
subsidies.
Losses in other businesses in which
the Imperial Household may have a di-
rect or indirect interest are made up
in the same way. The essentially pa
ternal government of Japan, exercised
by half dozen men, will substitute any
thing on earth. If the Imperial House
hold and other partners in the trust
think there is chance to make money,
a business will be carried on as a pri-
vate concern, but with the government
treasury held in reserve to help out any
weak point with a subsidy. If, how
ever, the Imperial Household cannot
make any Roadway at all against for
eign competition, then the power of the
government viii be utilized, a state
monopoly is created, and the particu-
lar industry is under the control of the
Empire of Japan, which is a subsidiary
company in the trust
Suppose that John D. Rockefeller, J.
P. Morgan, E. H. Hartman, and Thomas
F. Ryan had absolute control of the
government of the United States Sup
pose that they couIu levy on the ma
tional treasury for a subsidy to make
up any loss they might happen to sus-
tain in any branch of business. Suppose
that they could so make the laws and
WELD the government that no other
person would have even the legal right
to stay in business if they desired to
push him out. Suppose that they could
absolutely control Congress and there
by change the tariff, increase the inter
nal taxes, or do anything they desired,
all for their ultimate personal pecun-
larry benefit. Suppose, moreover, that
these four American fnanciers could
treat with the nations of the world in
their capacity as the rulers of the
American nation, wage war if they saw
fit, and guard every line of attack upon
a foreign market with their own army
and navy. The imagination that can
conceive of such state of affairs, and
that can then go infinitely farther and
imagine the American people meekly
submitting to the program, will have
fair picture of the true condition of
and commerce in Japan.
That the work of this great Imperial
Household trust, linked with the for
tunes of the Mitsui and Mitsubishi
families, has accomplished wonders for
Japan cannot be denied. Thanks to
liberal subsidies from the government
to ship lines owned by the Princes,
Japan has one line of steamers which |
ranks fourth among the maritime com
panies of the world. The Rising Sun |
of Nippon floats from the taffrail of |
ships in every sea. Japan has become
an exporting nation and is seriously |
seeking to convert the trade of China |
to its own purposes. But the very fact |
that it has become a considerable fac
tor makes it the more necessary for Oc- |
cidental nations, until now absolute |
masters of the world IS trade, to exam
inc into the ways and means by which |
these things have been done. The De-
,ident is unit in supporting the propo-
sition that if Japan has been admitted |
to the family of frst-class nations, the
first Oriental nation to be so honored,
It must observe the rules of the game
as played by the older nations, and |
must conform to international ethics in
business as well as to international law
n war.
Official representatives of Western
nations in Japan are now beseeehing
ha, I