Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1919-01-22
WORKING IN UNITY
Japan and the United States EX-
change Ideas.
island Empire Owes Its Systems OF
Technical Education to an Ameri-
can, and in Return Has
Taught Us Much.

The arrival here sometime ago of a
mission of eight officers of rank and
distinguished record from Japan is
proof of at least two things. 1t wit
nesSes to the SteadfaStneSS of the ma
tiOnal character, in seeking progress
siveness as well as progress; and to
Japans purpose to keep in the fore
ground of invention and achievement,
remarks New York Sun. No other
nation realizes more keenly that In the
rivalry of civilization the old must per-
petually be renewed There can be no
standing still.
From the dawn of history Japan has
excelled in fine and dainty work. Her
museums illustrate the fact that her
craftsmen invented and adapted. A lit
tie more than Il real, not a pOetiCal,
"cycIe Of Cathay," that is, sixty years
ago, according to oriental reckoning,
the hermit nation suddenly found her
self in the market place Of the world.
Though at first dazed, resources of
mind and material were not lacking.
Age-old taste, skill, experience and
reserve armies of trained craftsmen
were at hand Foreign teachers con-
ferred no gift Of brains or secrets of
cunning They simply pointed out the
new paths and taught the modern
methods of meeting the nations needs.
AS early as 1S61-63, after three years
labor, our own Raphael Pumpelly, still
among us in vigor, revolutiOnized min
ing methods in Japan. When, in 1868,
the intense inward political struggles
between the old and the new were over,
and Japan had truly national govern
ment, the alertness of her people to the
new situation supplied u striking fea-
ture in the history of modern educa-
ton.
At a date when in Europe manual
and technical training was still new,
and among US the Rensselaer, Polytech-
mic school at Troy was a lonely vet
eran, Yale and Harvard were at be-
ginningS in this form of education, and
even the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology a baby, Japan had started
In the race. Even before the depart
ment of education had been created,
the necessity of Japan's training her
own engineers, chemists and masters of
applied science was pointed out to the
important government. The newly
elaborated scheme dividing the empire
into eight great educational districts
was, with the Curricula, submitted to
an American for criticism. He noted
the serious defect of no provision for
technical education. A long letter out
lining courses of technical education
and addressed to the Dai 10 Kuan the
supreme council, fell as spark upon
powder. The department of education
was created and a chronological school
started simultaneously in Tokyo. The
system has ever since that time had q
healthful development.
In addition to the eight universities
and 37,S10 lower schools of all sorts,
there are now in operation under the
government eighteen technical schools
of the higher order, requiring a four
years course after graduation from the
middle schools, while those under To-
cal or private auspices number many
more. 1t was settled at court, by the
United States minister in YeddO, in the
case of Raphael Pumpelly, that an en-
gineer, civil, mining, or mechanical,
was gentleman and eligible to audi
ence of both the president of the Unit
ed States and the emperor of Japan.
Ever since, the official and social status
of man trained to use his hands and
brain in unity has been secure in the
mikadOS empire. At least two score
of Americans have received imperial
decorations for promoting technical
science in Japan.
Nothing but good can come of mu-
tual exchange of ideas. What the Jap
aneSe have borrowed from us is in the
limelight, and we boast of it; what
hundreds of American inventors and
seekers for knowledge have found in
Japan and taken as loan is cryptic and
untrumpeted. Yet our debt is none the
less real. 1t is well for the two civili-
cations to enrich each other. If, in adj
miring legend, King solomon set the
mechanic on the throne to signify the
basis of his realms wealth, none the
less should both republic and empire
honor the teChnician who unites power
of brain and the discipline of education
to dexterity of manipulation. Honor
to the technical workers of Japan and
America!