The sun., 1918-08-21

TELEPHONE. BEEKMAN 1900.
what Is tho Meaning Of the Food
Riots In Japan?
Students familiar at first hand with
economic conditions in Japan have
been long expecting the outbreak Of
the people in violence. The food riots
are rather a symptom Of human ma
ture than Of the success or failure Of
q theory Of government. One need
not be a partisan and blame Premier
UkRAucH1 and his Cabinet. Neither
need one hail the disorder as an out
break of socialism. The existence
and needs Of the human stomach, and
the complete overturn-sakasama. the
natives say-of old conditions explain
the situation better than any AGA
demic explanation.
At midnight Of January 20, 1872,
The population Of Japan, in her first
scientific census, was 1910, 1896 {;
when for four years previous all the
pld feudal. sumptuary and social
checks on population had been re-
moved. Then, also, like smallpox pits
on q fair face, all over Japan there
was many an unsightly ash heap
the debris Of the cremation fires.
These were the tokens Of famine,
when population had overpassed the
production OF food and crowded
cities walled its stroke" In some
years Of rice crop failure 100000 Of
people died within twelvemonth and
whole villages became empty and as
fields strewn with skulls and bones.
There were no railways, steamers or
fast vehicles to bring relief from
points at which nature had been more
generous.
To-day, after the iron horse and
propeller, gasolene and electric cur
rent have been domesticated, manu-
features and commerce have en-
abled the islanders to tap the worlds
stores and the reclamation Of land
and scientific agriculture have nearly
doubled the food supply, the old
famines are over and the ash heaps
forgotten under a growth of bamboo
scrub. Yet the clamorous human
stomach is still far from full and vio-
lence breaks forth.
Why? Well, at midnight Of Janu-
Rry 81, 1914, the population Of the
Japanese archipelago was officially
counted at 54,142,441. While also the
rural population Of soil-tillers re-
manned much the same as 1t was
forty years ago, the cities were, al
most every one, larger. Relatively,
tho food pressure on Japan's area
was not doubled. but tripled. From
another point Of view, this meant also
that there had come into edstance
IN entirely new class Of human be-
mgs-min workers, machinists, ship
builders, mechanics and manual toll.
ers of all sorts and of both sexes. A
numerous class also of money makers,
the new rich, profiteers and corner
ers OF the markets, whether of food
or OF any other haman necessity, had
arisen. Most of the shipowners were
the creatures Of the great world war
since 1914. In 1915 there were o,2O1
families owning each more than 500.
600 yen ($25o,000). OF these 2,2O1
two possessed over 20o,OOO,OOO yen
two over 100000 and thirty-nine
from 100000 to 100000 yen
each; "the total plutocratic wealth
being 47,0O00 900 yen" Nine-tenths
of these men Of wealth--improved in
their fortune, but not usually in their
morals or humanity-have amassed
their fortunes within forty years
Oficial Hgures show an increase
within five years of 115 per cent.
Is 1t not automatic that, unless
broad views and sympathies should
increase with the hoard of gold, the
social system would be strained?.
For all this took place amid an un
paralleled era of dlsintegration of tn,
olo baifNboA1o the Tram
ing Of novel and reciprocal duties
The new social classes had broker
loose from old demarcations. Granted
that feudarism was bad, yet eact
class, in each social stratum. knew its
place. These people then expected tc
bear equally the yoke that tradition
and custom had put upon them. More
over, In no land was the idea underly
ing the motto "noblesse oblige" bette,
understood than in Japan. Nor i.
Japan unique in having food riots.
Let others blame TERAucHI and hi.
fellow Ministers If they will; O,
shower their maledictlons-in thi
case, righteously placed-on the prof
iteers and commercial gamblers, a,
well az on the new rich who grind the
faces OF the industrious wage earn
efs. No Roubt, as EMERSON says, ma