The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-11-26
Says UNCLE CAV

once more let it be said that great
ness is to be found in the common
place. The shapelcss bit Of coral
living neglected upon the beach, holds
the priceless cameO-the stone reject
ed of the builders may be heWn TO q
capital, the formless marble carved
into a deathless embodiment. of genius
If is what we put into the materials
at hand that makes us great-not what
we take out of them.
There is no more inspiring example
in history than that of Ninomiya
Sontaku, the Idol of Japan Son
taku was neither a military genius
nor a statesman. He was greater than
either-he saw glory where nation
saw impossibilities. Moreover, he saw
that glory in the drab colors of i'm
poverished land where only waste and
want and famine f1ouriShed. In all the
category of national heroes there is
none to whom Nippon owes so much
as to this simple old man who found
opportunity in things so VIGOROUSLY
sordid and hopeless that his contem-
poraries without exception looked else
where for fields of achievement. There
in lay Sontaku's greatness-that in
mean and humble things, in things
hopeless and despised, he found oppor-
tunities of service.
That a poor farmers boy in a pow
erty stricken country-a country of
shiftlessness and little thought of the
morrow, should have become a great
engineer and a greater teacher OF
men, is at first blush fairylike ro-
nance. Yet by the simple process or
improving his surroundings, of taking
one simple step in advance Of another
Sontaku made himself a national hero,
cured his country of shiftlessness, ban
ished want and made Japan world
power. He began by improving his
own land. He had no agricultural sci
enlist to teach him. Exceeding great
pains and ceaseless work made his lit
tie farm profitable. An inspection of
the rotten rice bikes showed him a
ready remedy for their condition-the
planting of pine trees. Having thus
discovered, by looking at his own sur
roundings in a new light, the cure for
his own poverty, he took service I'M
der a certain lord whose dominions
were a liability rather than an asset.
He showed the peasants how to live
frugally, how intelligent care of land
produced profitable crops, how saw
ing for a rainy day took an unjust
burden off growing children, how in
dustrial freedom could be gained by
a little forethought and added effort
Thus he laid the foundation for the
modern Japanese character charac-
ter SO great in it's dynamic devotion
to the common good of Nippon that
it terrifieS the world In the end, he
was doing for the emperor what he
had done for an obscure Iord-teach=
ing a nation how to grow great upon
the resources upon which it had starv-
ed. The Caucasian race of today fears
Japan because it has learned well the
lesson of this simple farmer, who lived
upon a few cents day and kept his
eyes and ears and brain open to pos
sibilities in familiar, worked out things.
If there is a yellow peril to the white
race. it is the peril of yellow great
ness, the peril of old Sontaku, who
taught race of isolated, insulated,
shiftless, progress hating, degenera-
ting men to lift themselves by the
boot straps to efficiency, prosperity
and world power
Blessed is he that finds his oppor-
turnity in the waste fields and desert
places.-(C Copyright, 1912, by the Nc
Clure Newspaper Syndicate.)