The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-07


Toxic, Viscount Kaneko was elected
a member of the city council. There
was but one tax payer in the ward
entitled to vote. and it was corpora
ton, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, or
Japan Mail Steamship Company. Wis
count Kaneko received its vote and
was unanimously elected. He did not
live in the ward. and the hundreds of
people who did, had no voice in his
selection.
The general parliamentary elections
are manipulated in the interest of the
ruling oligarchy in many different
ways. Bribery is always in evidence.
Then, too, the government may fix the
date of the election. One was to have
been held in April this year, but the
commercial movement for reform was
so strong that the cabinet feared the
result, or feared it would cost too
much to buy the voters when there
was competitive bidding, so the cleo
ton was postponed until June. If the
outlook is still dark for the ruling
party another postponement may be
expected.
The oligarchy which actually rules
japan is made up of the leaders of the
two dominant clans of Choshu and
Satsuma, of the millionaire Mitsui
family, and of the controlling spirits
of the army and navy. These inf1u-
ences represent five or six families
which are all powerful by right of ira
ditfon, and they bow only to the will
of the Emperor. AS the Imperial
household is connected intimately in
political and business affairs with the
members of this oligarchy, there is
no friction at the top. Below, people
may protest and complain as much as
they like-it makes no difference.
The intelligent business men and
publicists of Japan who are not con-
nected with the ruling oligarchy are
unanimous in their protests against
further impoverishing the nation for
expenditures in unproductive invest
ments. They do not want war with
anybody, and they do not see the sense
of preparing for a great war If none
is expected to be fought.
But the military clique, always as
sertive after a war, is jealous of it's
power. If the army and navy cannot
be kept continually before the public
mind, they will suffer the loss of their
popularity, and their places as rulers
may be taken by mere politicians.
They care not how great the burden
of the tax payers. They control the
government and the government must
pay to keep them in the lime light
This Is one of the marked danger
points of the whole Oriental situation,
for while Japan Is economically I'M
able to stand the strain of another
war, it is unfortunately governed by
a military clique such as has often
rushed a nation into war and then
counted the cost afterward.
The great mass of the Japanese peo-
pie, those below the rank of voters,
is unthinking and improvident It is,
however, intensely patriotic and full
of the war spirit. Civil affairs of gov
eminent attract no attention from this
class, and it borrows it's opinions
wholly from military sources. Thus
the middle class must stand alone
against the present tendency of the
government which it believes means
economic ruin.
The middle class knows that the gov
eminent is not now responsive to the
popular will, but it thinks it has a
great opportunity in that the forms of
government are popular and may
therefore, by a great effort, be actual
ly captured by the people. This is
what the rank and file of the business