The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-03-12

hero in the restoration period and be-
came a major general at 81. He has
been minister of var and chief of the
general staff many times, and served
twice as premier and has made and
unmade premiers more than once.
When Prince Ito was assassinated he
stepped into that great mans place.
He has been abroad. His recent
course brought about his attempted
assassination in December. His
blood nephew and adopted son, Tsa-
buro, So years old, is deputy governor
general of Korea.
Prince Marshal Taro Katsura is
every inch a man and a smaller
~Yamagata, whose lieutenant and fell
low clansman he is. He studied
military science in Germany for four
years at his own expense. While the
japanese call him a kounji, meaning
that he was born under a lucky star,
his promotions We're very slow. He
was a colonel when his colleagues
We're generals and marshals, and a
long after many of his con-
temporaries had been given titles. His
chance came in 1885 when he assisted
the marvellous General Kawakami,
who died at 50, in the reorganization
of the army along modern lines. The
war with China made him a lieu
tenant general and v~iscount. HIS
rule as premier for five years, 1901
1906, established his power and his
fame, although he counseled the sui
cidal policy of paying off loans with
more borrowed money. His retire
mcnt from active politics by becoming
an elder statesman a year ago, sur
prised the country, and his eturn to
the premiership last December was
expected. Then followed his reiec-
ton by the people, public stoning by
a mob, and resignation after less than
W months Of office Today, at 65,
he is organizing a new party which
he hopes will be an effective
mise betWeen the radicals and the
conservatives. Last summer he went
to Russia and is supposed to have
negotiated a secret Japanese-Russian
understanding.
Marquis kimmochi Saionii. around
whom the fight for rights revolves, is
the Thomas jefferson of Japan. A
patrician born, endowed with all the
qualities of greatness, successful in
''b'i' "ii'i lIlt HIS nineteenth
year, he is today at GO. one of the
most ardent democrats in the land.
At 10 he was a volunteer general in
the light for the restoration, and in
the same. year was governor of IA
province. The two succeeding wears
spent in France made him so pro-
nounced a democrat that the news
papers which he founded upon his re-
turn barely escaped suppression.
1to's personal Influence, which
began in 1882, he became a practical
and useful statesman instead of mere
1y a theorist. Senator and minister
to Austria and Germany were posts
he held in he pre-constitutional days.
Since then he has held many cabinet
places, and was premier twice, besides
succeeding Prince Ito as head of the
Seiyukai party. AS heretofore stated
his resignation last December was in
protest of the blocking of his plan for
reform and constitutional
rights. Saionji's great fault lies in
lack Of initiative and sustained ear
n~estness. 1t is believed that he could
have slashed the opposition to reform
into ribbons, but instead he resigned.
Nevertheless. it is recognized that he
is ahead of his time.
Admiral Count Gombie Yamamoto,
the new premier, is a Satsuma clans
man, pioneer graduate of the naval
academy, n at 60, is rather an un-
known factor in politics. He is not
a party man and the nearest he has
been to big politics has been the min
istry of the navy, a position he filled
most admirably regardless of minis
terial changes from 1898 to 1906. He
is a full admiral, has Travelled around
the world twice, and is a member Of
the supreme council of war. He
favors a greater navy, which is a
popular issue in Japan at present,
and is under the Yamagata influence.
He is not expected to advance. the
peoples propaganda very much. On
the other hand, he may not adopt n
repressive policy.
The other ~Yamamoto, the retiring
minister of finance, is of quite a diff
ferent type. He is an educator and
f]inancier. not a politician, n is Sc
years old. His appointment to
Saionji's cabinet in 1911, when he was
governor of the Hypothec Bank of
Japan, was a great surprise. He had
been a member Of the house Of peers
for years, but never politically active.
He started the drastic retrenchments
which the situation demands and did
more than any other man to open the
eyes Of the Japanese people to the ex-
treme danger which faces the en-
pire. He Is very popular in Japan
Just now and may be premier some
day.
Marshal Prince IWao Oyama, al
though a nephew of the. great saigo
or ruler of the Satsumas. and an ell
der statesman, is at 10, a fair-minded
~aristOcrat. In the recent discord he
opposed the course of Yamagata and
Uehara. He was a hero of the wal
with China and is known to the world
at large as the man who whipped the
Russians. His wife is a Vassar
He has been in EurOne