Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-03-16
TALK On
JAPAN AND THE
PHILIPPINES

The Sunday school of the Congre-
gational church last Sunday heard a
very interesting talk by Mr.. James
B. Nash on the sights he saw and
experiences he had during the course
| of his journey with his father, Mr..
thomas E. Nash, to Japan, China and
the PHILIPPINES.
Mr.. Nash said
Japan seems like a fairy land, it
is so different from anything we have
on this side of the water; every
smallest space capable of cultivation
is worked to the limit Sc that the
ultimate pound of rice or whatever
the crop may be shall be garnered
and turned to the support of the pow
erty stricken people. Even the straw
is carefully kept, to be made into
mating, sandals and many other
things including wet-weather clothing
Some of their delicacies such as
raw fish do not particularly appeal
is 50 different from anything we have
sity of utilizing every corner of groun,
and smallest eatable or burnable thing
causes an excessively neat appearance
which adds to the park like and fairy
like suggestion the country produces
The boat life of Japan and more
particularly of China is one of the
strange sights; people are born, live,
marry, pursue almost every conceiv-
boats which cover the harbor in Hon
Kong and Canton, of course living
for the coolies in boats or on the
land, is a constant struggle to make
both ends meet, and the scale of liv-
ing is of the lowest. Men, women
and children all must work, and for
wage that seems to us the merest
p1ttance; the Chinese coolies who are
brought up to be porters will go back
and forth from the ''go downs" or
warehouses to the sampans all day
long carrying two hundred and fifty
pounds of flour on their backs to a
trip for load, and for this heavy
labor will receive perhaps the prince
ly sum of twenty cents per day The
cheapness of the labor cause many
things to be done by man-power which
here would be done by machinery For
instance coolies can be seen working
tread mills which lift weights to be
dropped on rice to make rice flour.
After spending the time necessary
to cross tie acif4c Ocean with even
a short sojourn in Japan, the Stars
and Stripes look mighty good when
Manila is reached, and seeing what
has been accomplished by our coun-
try way down there near the equator
adds a whole lot to ones opinion of
her ability, power and disinterested-
ness in contrast to the policy of some
other countries which have exploit
ed their colonies to their own bene-
fit. What the outcome will be in the
PHILIPPINES is still to be seen, for
while the natives have taken the edu
cation and so on offered to them, up
to this time they have made very lit
tie practical use of them
Like most people who go abroad,
this country seemed better to Mr..
Nash when he got back than it ever
did before, and indeed getting back
home was far from being the least
enjoyable part of the trip.
The address was illustrated by man
views, and by sandals and other ar
ticles of wear and adornment. The
entire Sunday school except the pri-
mary department, heard the talk, MAJ
ing an audience of about hundred
and fifty. Hearing in this way of
the difference between our ways and
the ways of the East, from one who
has so recently returned from the
other side, makes the Orient seem
very real and if not just near, very
much nearer than it did, not only to
the junior members of the school but
to the grownups who heard the talk
as we'll