Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-07-04
THE IMMINENT ISSUE.

Ruerrllla ngntlnS III MeAlCo, Del ou w
turn American attention from the 1s-
sue most vital to American well-being
vital, even, to American safety?
Have we become so absorbed in the
European drama that We stand all un-
conscious while in the orient stage
is set for drama where we may no
longer be spectators. but leading play
ers with q life-and-death interest IN
! the issue of the plot?
That such Is the case Is the sober
opinion of some of the keenest and
most experienced students of the far
eastern situation. Their reiterated
assertions as to the dangerous state
OF our affairs in the east Is causing
Americans to turn their eyes inqutr-
ingly across the Pacific, in spite of
many assurances from other author
tiles, who ridicule any talk Of serious
trouble as a hybrid creature Of the
lingo and the yellow press. II we are
faced by the necessity OF action, to
avert situation where We shall have
! to choose between war and surrender
! ing certain of our rights, then such
action will have to be motivated prim-
arily by the attitude of the American
people. It follows that knowledge
of the actual state Of affairs is essen
tial to every citizen; but for variety
, of reasons that knowledge Is one OF
! the hardest things In the world to get.
| 1t Is hardly possible for any EURO
, pean country long to keep secret the
state of it's public opinion toward the
United States. Take the case OF Ger
many for instance, when from time to
time there arises the question OF
strained relations over points OF inter
national law. A score Of correspond
ents keep us posted on every new
shade of feeling in the German ma
tional mind. We know how the Ger
man people receive our suggestions
and offers almost as soon as we know
how the American nation as whole
regards them. It would be impossible
for Germany, or any other European
nation to adopt a national attitude
that would take us by surprise. With
fatally different.
Japan is a nation that speaks
language so totally different from ours
that 1t is an immense task for an
American to learn it, and one that
comparatively few undertake. Japan's
written word is built on a system
basically opposed to our script; 1t is
even harder for an alien to master
than the language. AS result Amen.
cans who speake Japanese are few and
far between, Americans who read 1t
fewer and farther Add to this the
fact that Japan has today the strictest
and most effective Of press censor
ships, and two facts become evident.
First, that behind the wall OF an
alien tongue reinforced by the censor
ship, almost anything might be going
on in Japan without our knowledge,
and second, that whatever does get
published in Japan, even in the "yel-
lowest" section of the press, has a
certain smack Of the authoritative
that a similar utterance in this coun-
try would lack, because every Jap
anese paper has been passed by the
official censor.
The Significance of this state Of af-
fairs as applied to the United States
lies in the fact that it obliges us to
give different reception to news from
, Japan the case Is fundamentally and
almost incredible, than we would
give to similar news from any other
country. II we were told that public
sentiment in Germany or Russia had
shifted In a few years from a friendly
attitude to one violently hostile, that
this change was being deliberately en-
couraged by at least section OF the
government, and with sinister pur-
pose, we would be justified In laugh
Ing. When the same charges are
made by men of high standing, as
they are made, against Japan-then 1t
is time for US to do some serious
thinking.
It is charged, and backed up by
numerous quotations from Japanese
vernacular and English papers, that
there is a deliberate campaign going
forward in Japan to arouse anti
American sentiment throughout the
nation. It is no news to Americans
that there has been an increasing lack
of cordially in Japanese-America re-
lations, but that affairs have come to
the point where the United States is
conceived in the popular mind as Jap
ans active opponent and logical enemy
does come as news, and news OF a
somewhat startling character.
Side by side with this campaign to
plant hostility against America In
Japan, 1t is charged that parallel
! campaign is being conducted in Amer
ica-a campaign whose object is to
! spread abroad in the United States the
idea that Japan cherishes only tho
| friendliest intentions toward US, a
campaign in other words, to lull our
suspicious, to discourage any tendency
Americans may have toward making
preparations for possible emergency.
Thus should the clash come and Meth
er side give ground, fiercely inimical
and heavily armed little empire would
have to deal with big, unready re-
public, whose national attitude toward
her antagonist could best have been
described as one of complete indiffer.
ence. The issue Of such possible
conflict is not pleasant to consider.
! 1t is fact that except along the
Pacific coast and certain tracts of the
Rocky mountain region, American
feeling toward Japan has vacillate>
between a rather sentimental sym
pathy, an honest admiration, and a
great Indifference. On the other hand