New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-24
Japan in the Pacific

THE JAPANESE MENACE. By Frede.-ieek M ,'..,-
mick With Map $40. pp. 5s2. lAtie.
Brown 4 Go.
Il is not really so much the menace
of Japan as that of the inept Admin
istration at Washington. At any rate,
il is the ineptitude Of that Admins
tration which has permitted Japan TO
become whatever menace she is TO US.
That is the true lesson OF the book.
Saws Mr. Mccormick. with some not
oyer-emphasis at the
very beginning:
Owing to the collapse Of our Gov
ernment and political institutions in
Pacific affairs. the diplomatic post
at Toxic. which Mckinley. Roose-
Welt, Taft and many others found
to be the most important TO
US in the world, has been vacant,
so far as diplomacy and construc-
tive relations are concerned, since
1906. The post at Picking, since it
was filled by Rockhill, has been one
of fruitlcss humiliation and trial to
successors under the insults applied
to US there BY nations who discount
our national policies and resent our
diplomatic practices, while Con
gress. sensibly breaking down under
the Philippine question, IN 1913
reached a state of collapse. showing
we had practically thrown up the
sponge throughout the Pacific.
The government which
was to deal with the greatest for
eign questions and Interior dangers
i'm history was found to be one OF
the most provincial we ever mad.
The very first act of the
government in its new policy was TO
erase the Pacific from it@ admins
trative map. Our failure in
foreign affairs was complete. g.
The American sponge seemed 10 hit
the ceiling Of the worlds interna-
tonal habitation when one chamber
of Congress passed a bill for aban-
doning the Philippines.
Now that may sound like slashing
journalese rather than judlcious his
tory. But in a discussion concerning
its essential accuracy, the affirmative
would have hundred per cent adj
vantage over the negative side.
Mr.. Mccormick does not, however,
confne himself to attacks upon the
Wilson Administration and It's Con-
gressional supplement He deyotes
the major part Of his work to a com
paratively dispassionate though al
ways tremendously earnest story OF
the decline of American influence in
Asia and in the Pacific. and the man
ner in which Japan has taken adyan-
tage Of our weakness and laundering
to increase her influence, until now
she has the indisputable prmacy in
both diplomacy and commerce. II Is
-. lfns, frr M
who recall the earlier history OF our
policy and our achievements in the
ocean of the Future" and in the
lands upon its Asian shores; but II
is unhappily only too true. For eX-
ample, to quote again:
On March Is. 1913, President Will
son gave the death blow to the de-
fence and salvation Of the pin
ciples Of the Open Door doctrine,
and to our financial and industrial.
enterprises for the protection or
our commerce in China, by with.
drawing support Of the interna''on'
al loan and repudiatlng our own
governments position. Presl-
dent Wilson's declaration traversed
at least the practice respecting
East Asia of every other President
since POLK. ret ne ana NOT heSl-
tate. In rights and advantages Sc
cured. that constituted a great as
set to the nation. he took no ac-
count Of the government. Of Con-
gress. lie assumed that what had
accrued By the acts Of the Pres
idcnt and Cabinet could be flung
away by it. lie answered for
everybody.
That is not exsReeration. II is not
slanewhanging. IL is what Mr. Bal
four once called "cubical, CONCEALED
fact" Our Administration has been
stunning and scuttling its responsi-
biities in the Pacific, entailing upon
its successors, upon the nation. the
awful burden OF undoing is monu-
mental misdeeds. and Of dealing with
the menace which IL has permitted to
grow up. Mr.. Mccormick does not
take n red-seeing, alarmist view OF
Japan's aggressions. but one tenn
pered with judgment and based upon
truth. and IL is not Japan that he
chiefly blames. Who could reasonably
blame any nation for taking advan-
tage of opportunities which were
onened before It?