Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-08-19

chance, for all her geographical adj
vantage and she knows 1t. II is a fact
that plays havoc with all her most
vital institutions, from her pride to
her pantry. So she comes to the
relief of her industries with subsidies
and the sword. She alternates freight
rebates with the domination of Chi
nese provinces.
Her pride cover more thar the
military commercial glory of the En-
pire. 1t extends to the ace itself.
Japanese seriously believe that they
are the most remarkable of the peo-
pies of earth. Perhaps it is partly our
fault; we AVE been telling them so
for fifty years. They believe in their
mission, which is to unite East and
West, to dominate the Orient and act
as a mediator between Orient and Oc-
cident. Their great men tell them,
and they believe, that the Japanese
is the moral and intellectual superior
of any other human being. For his
reason, race prejudice against them
has never stirred them deeply. Race
"a OJdblNS Ollly CulS WIlSn Inc 1lJuTGd
race has a consciousness of Inferior
ity.
!. But the Japanese pride is affronted
by any discrimination against Japan
as a nation. Her pride and herNcreed
demand that the proudest of nations
recognize her as an equal. Anything
less is an insult to the whole fabric of
Japanese society from top to bottom.
Japan will go to any length rather
THAN IN Ia hnr in6n6nifo1U .ttndar The
least stigma of inferiority.
Another effect of the japanese re-
ligion of loyalty worth considering is
its effect in questions of war, and the
declaration of war. 1t prevents. the
forming of an opposition party under
such circumstances, because such op-
position is deprived of the sanction of
principle which it often has in a west
ern country. There are what purport
to be powerful peace societies in Jap
ran, yet neither before the Chinese, nor
the Russian, nor the present German
war did they make any opposition
worth mentioning. Neither do. the
peace advocates of Japan, either Jap
anese or American, attack the Japanese
army n navy expansion schemes.
They content themselves with attack
ing the military program of the Unit
ed States of America.
An understanding of the two closely
related elements OF national pride on
the one hand and religious loyalty to
the Emperor on the other is vitality
important to an understanding of Jap
an and the Japanese. These elements
explain largely the aggressive militar-
ism of Japan in the past, and her
Wanting and ruthless ambition to-day.
They explain the perfect solidarity
of the nation in the face of a foreign
opponent. They hint at the lengths to
which Japan will go in her effort to
put herself in the front ank CONNER
cially and industrially in spite of nat
ural handicaps. They give a signif-
cant indication of Japan's real atti-
tude toward such matters as exclu-
sion and discrimination.
These national characteristics mean
more than that. They mean also a
nation militant. the sitting of paeifst
protest, the moral justification of war
as a means of serving the state-they
mean the placing of the nation as an
instrument in the hands of a few men.
That instrument has been turned
against. China, against Russia, against
Germany. 1t behooves the United
States of America to consider whittier
it may be turned next.