The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-03-10

raised. The second increase put a
stamp duty on checks. civil docu-
ments, administration papers, and
even on travelling within the empire.
A person travelling 200 miles or over
has 80 sen, or 25 cents, added to his
fare. One wishing to go less than so
miles third class pays an additional
five sen
The shiftless policy of borrowing
from Peter to pay Paul was adopted.
1t was the custom of Prince katsura
when he was premier to borrow money
to redeem bonds, and the rate of in
terest on the new obligation was rare
ly lower, even by a shade, than that
of the old loan. 1t was a heydey
period of expansion and eNaltation
over the defeat of Russia. The people
became reckless in their personal eX-
penditures. and the dangerous ten
dency toward moral corruption and
Indulgence in Injuries was very no.
ticeable. This state of affairs in
spired Mutsulito to issue his famous
'Roshin" rescript of October, 1908, in
! which he counselled the people to be
thrifty n diligent. The country foil
took His Majesty's advice very much
to heart, but the general urban popu-
lation has honored it more in the
breach thar in the observance.
An insistent demand for more sane
economies swept Marquis Saionji into
power for the second time in May,
1911. In the last days of the katsura
ministry the party of Saionji had sue
ceeded in reducing aXes by $500, 600,
but the people wanted the knife to cut
the bone. Among other things the
proposed worlds fair for 1917 was
abandoned altogether after having
been put off once from 1912. The plan
to standardize the gauge of the gov
ernment's 5000 miles of railroad vas
also postponed.
This was the problem Saionji faced.
Surely it was a situation which de-
served the cooperation of every de-
partment of the government. A re-
view of the situation showed that a
cut of from 10 to Is per cent must be
made in the total expenditures. In
other words, a saving of from $2S,-
100000 to $1,000 900 per annum was
necessary in order to pull the nation
through. Naturally. the army and
navy would have to stand their share
of the cut, The nation was committed
to the policy of gradually increasing
it's war forces to a standing army of
500, 900 men and a navy Of SOC, 900
tons displacement. 1t was seen that
the annual increases would have to be
stopped for a few years. At the same
time, public opinion, once pro-army,
has veered around to a demand for a
big navy. Public men and the press
thought that the navy should be pro-
vided for but that the army could and
should wait.
Unfortunately, the army is the pet
project of the b~ureaucrats. katsura,
Namagata and Oyama, the three most
powerful men in Japan. are all army
men, and in turn dominate the elder
statesmen, who are the emperor's in
innate advisers. and to whom the
members of the cabinet look for gui-
dance. In September, 1912, the min
lister Of war, Genera Baron Uehara.
refused to make a cut in war eXpendi-
lures lower than 3 per cent, and that
for three years Only. At the same
time he demanded an appropriation
for 10000 more men for Korean de-
lenses. His defiance and ultimate de-
feat of his premier then unleashed the
! public wrath which last month startled
the world.
Tomorrow-The Crisis in Japan.
III. Tangled Policies.