The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-05-18
JAPAN IS FACING
 GREAT UPHEAvAL
Return Of Count Okuma To Power A Victory For Demo
 cratic Forces

Tokio, May 18.-Everythfng in Ja- pan today indicates, to use the words of leading Japanese newspaper. that Japan is in the midst of a silent but great struggle between the democratic forces and the conservative and bu- reaucratic machines The return to power of Count Shigenobu Okunna.. who has astonished his best friends by the radica1fsn of his utterances in the past few years. shows that delnocrat- ic forces have won a signal victory for the moment It is not too much to say that the recommendation of Count 0kuma as premier by the few remaining elder statesmen of the Elm bfre was really out of deferenee to the voice of the people
 The elder statesmen, or genro, had prnEto1sty selected Viscount Kiyoura fn ar, attempt to keep the reins of the rovernnaenf in the hands of the bu- reaucraks and reart1onaries, but the uro8zzf from the dddsrent ErOups in the House of Representatives was so strong that Kiyoufa was forced to aban<Hon his task Of forming a cab inet At the same time the genro. who now number fewer than half a aomsn very aged men. were severely onndn1sned by the press as no longer rsnrqewez4inG the new Japan which de- szred .thmt the government should pass fruzn Eh@ hands of few men into the hnznHB ~of the people. Count Okuma svenarsn .but his radicalism mad C. him no 1rnger welcome among the bureau rrn4s and he resigned
 The astonishing feature of this most reuax1az,zs chapter i'm recent Japan ena history is the shift from man oe ths Kzyour3 type to Count Oi<unaa- The 7at1zr has always joyfuiIy preach s<z his belief that he will live to be 125 vezzs ozd This gives some inkling of the 5oeu7ar democratic nature of the u,an zzimsezf- 4
 Vg1,en he formed his cabinet he cnzlsd the newspaper reporters into tte ofUce and said. Now want you fs to remove all the forces oE bureau cre1y which have irnpeded the pro- eress or constifut tionaz government, es-t pecta1Iy when it has joined hands with the so-calIsd political parties am. going to be the captain The crew Ind paagengers must trust the captain [ have a good deal to dp. am an oFd sea commander but if keep aboard too long will have to take back my old declaration about living to be 12s-'' The new premier is now Te.
 Count Okuma said he wanted to get rid of the evils of clan government ana clan favoritfs1n- He wanted to stop the friction between the army and navy and establish harmony on questions of national defence He would stop all corruption- He was op- tfnaistic about Japanese finance, be- lfexzne 1t to be on healthy and sound stiI1 more stable. The people were f,esrf1v burdened with taxes. but this was to be relieved by administrative reforms he had in mind
 The new premier has gathered af5oszt him 8 striking corps of minis fers. Baron Takaaki Kato. the for eissn minister, is one of the ab1est men in Japan today He has served in the office before and was once ann bassa5or to Great Britain He is re- Ear1eH as forcefu1 diplomat and aa the probable heir to the premier ship
 But perhaps the most interesting personality in the new cabinet is Yu- kio Oxazd. former mayor of Tokio, and one rf the leaders of the opposition i'm the lower house He has been warning always for d more represen- tat1ye g0vernnnezaI ana ne 1s especlaiiy opp.osed to the domin a.tion of the army and navy clans He has just written a series of papers on constitutional xovernn1errf with such headings as s.C1an influence in 1awmal<ing, How the 1eppze have been kept under con troll and szE L1e z< zzzfzzst H1e cleaned before it is expanded.
 He declared that the trus consti- t11tdnnnlists in Japan demand fair field and no favor. z At present. he zsad. s~tzaev are bound hand and foot In the iron chains of laws and regu- lafions and conventional official ideas, while their opponents are quite free under the protection of the same laws ana regnlat5ons-
 The .reformer concludeds +AH intel lirenf observers have recently noticed great changes in the political psycho1- 0gv of Japan, but few see it's true cause The mobs, the demon strations and all kinds of excitement have but one root clause, namely, the strong desire and increasing struggle for equal opportunities.