New-York tribune., 1921-06-19

The Shog4n was that in the ancient days Of
the Mikado, and the Premier is that to-day
To-day, as of DID, his majesty is the Father
of the People - and a pretty indulgent
father at that The people think of him az
the one person always thinking of their vel.
fare, ever ready to come to their help in
the hour Of their troubles, ever eager to en-
courage them in their aspirations; one who
knows better than anybody else in the wide
world how to love them, quicker than any
one else TO applaud them in their good works
and very slow in passing judgment when
they are at fault. More than that, the En-
peror, TO them, is a walking and breathing
incarnation CT the national ideal of the
Iamato race.
japanese people are rather poetcal. They
are fond of dreaming and their Emperor
gives flesh and blood to all their fair dreams
This, and this alone, explains why i. has
come to pass that, in all the twenty-five-cen-
tury history of Japan, there never was a
single, solitary uprising against the throne.
How can children attack the one father 10
whom it is their delight to go whenever they
are hurt? This and this alone, explains
the reason why Japan is the only coun-
try which can boast what is 50 often aGver-
tised the only "bloodless constitution" in
the entire history of the human race. In 1889
the people Of Japan did not want, much less
demand, the constitution. 1t was wished on
them by the Emperor. Indeed, large num-
Der Of them could not see any reason what
ever why the all-gracious Emperor sees fit
to limit his own prerogatives, but accepted
it without word, largely because it was the
wish OF the Emperor.
The people of Japan do not worship the EN-
peror in the sense the American or the Eng
lishman uses the world. They love and adore
HIM not because he is superhuman. Quite the
contrary. They love him because he is human
and so very intensely human. The history
of Japan is full of the popular revolt against
the Shogun, the ruler de facto, and to-day when
a Cabinet lasts more than two years the PED
pie begin to think that something is wrong.
But never thought against the imperial
housel In this Japan differs radically from
China or any other state of the East or the
Occdent.
Therefore, Japanese republic is a next
thing to black snow or square ball And
if it comes at all it would come in all prob
ability through the same road that brought the
Japanese onstitution-through the explicit
will of his majesty.
But democracy. That is an entirely different
story. In fact, it threatens to be a rabid fash
ION among the leading citizens of the Sunrise
Land. An American tourist, strolling through
one OF the busy thoroughfares of Toxic, will
come across sign, not the most modest in the
world, on which he will read:
"Iwakura Express Company"
In the office of the company sits the fifth
son Of the late Prince Iwakura, and every
schoolboy in Japan can tell you that Iwakura is
the name to conjure with in the modern his
tory of Japan. And this young prince husties
around like Yankee manager every working
day on the calendar in manner which must
be utterly repugnant to the lordy scions Of the
Vanderbilt and the Astor dynasties. For he
directs almost every detail of the business IN
person, they say. And it may be of some IN
terest to know that sixty-odd years ago the
merchant--the chonin, the men of the market
was classed at the very bottom of Nippons
social ladder, only slightly above the outcasts'
the descendants of the Coreans and Chinese
prisoners of war
When the May Day parade out of Uyeno
Park was about to turn to Demma Street II
passed through dense crowd of spectators
lining either side of the street. Many chill
dren were out watching the procession.
locke" said one OF the tots, turning to ms
playmate. Funny funeral, isn't it? Locke
1t was a funeral, and no doubt it was
funny, too, in many respects which escaped
the dulled vision Of the grown -ups---thls
May Day procession of 1921. 1t was the
funeral for the autocratc deadwood dry rot
ting at the head of the bureaucratic Japan OF
to-day--the funeral of moss-back officials OF
the Toxic government of to-day who are bold
ing on for dear life to their positions through
sheer power Of inertia, ccaking their utter IN
competence and lead-headedness under the bro
cade of official dignity and owl-like silence
the funeral of the reign of polite grafters and
double-crossers who have Sound man-made
Eden in the government buildings of Toxic for
these many weary years.