Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-27

that of Russia is $4,000, 100000. and Ger
many, including the empire and states.
owes almost much. Little Italy has a
debt of two thousand seven hundred mil
lions. and as for ourselves, We owe two
and half billions and are paying inter-
est on eight hundred and fifty millions.
IF country is all right many think a
ndtiora! debt national blessing 1 am
in doubt. however. whether SO big debt
blesses Japan.
The question of debt depends on the
security. What has Japan got back OF
her obligations? Can she meet the in
terest charges when due, and will she
eventually redeem her indebtedness?
Let us take look at the country and
see. Japan, all told, is a little bigger than
California Four-fifths of 1t is made up
of volcanic mountains, but the remainder,
including territory perhaps as large as
Indiana, has about the richest soil on the
globe. 1t is rich enough to. feed the
whole Japanese people. This country has
more Inhabitants than the United King
dom of Great Britain and Ireland. which
is now spoon-fed by the United States.
If Uncle Sam shut his bread basket for
three months England would starve. All
the nations of the world might keep their
supplies of food away from Japan and the
30. 100000 stomachs here Wpuld go on
b
the hard times OF today and the big taxes
of the late war there are no wrinkles In
the 50.OOO,OO0 Japanese bellies. The peo-
pie / see on the streets are plump and
the children are fat. We have In the United
States almost three thousand poorhouses.
with about eighty-two thousand inmates.
| don't know what they cost. but it must
be well up into the millions. Japan is
now spending less than four hundred
thousand dollars a year to take care of
her poor and the government gives for
such purposes much less than ours
good index of national prosperity Is
the birth rate. This Is increasing In
Japan and without immigration the nation
steadily grows. 1t had 5000 600 in 1872;
it has now so OOO. 600. and it's popula ton is
growing at the rate of 100000 each year
Within the past twenty years over ten
millions have been added to it, and todaS
the babies swarm. ] have visited ever
great people of the world. and nowhere
are there SO many new babies pc here
Every other child has a baby strapped to
its back; almost every woman who works
i'll the fields is thus loaded. and one meets
old men and young boys going along tot
ing these Acknowledged. yellow bits of SOL
emn humanity. The babies look we'll.
They are healthy. and they seldom cry.
doubt not the birth rate will be still high
err. if the conditions improve and one Of
the burning questions is how Japan can
keep on feeding all of it's people If the
storks continue'to bring I'm half million
more babies every year than they brought
in the year just behind. In most coun-
tries the birth rate falls with want and
hard times. Marquis katsura tells me
that this has been the case with Japan in
the past. and that it would be so today
if her people lacked food. The fact that
the babies come faster and faster shows
that the nation is not in desperate want.
AS to the actual wealth of this country
it compares favorably with that of other
lands. At the present writing, without
counting its debts the nation is worth
about twelve billions of gold dollars. This
is almost as much as the wealth of Italy
more than twice as much as that of
Spain or Holland and about one-thrd OF
the estimated possessions of all the Rus
sias. The richest countries of the world
are the United States, Great Britain.
France and Germany We lead all the
rest in having money to burn. Our as
sets are estimated at one hundred and