Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-08-10
is JAPAN
CIVILIZED?
BY DIR. FRANK CRANE.

You must Judge whether or not
| nation is civilized, not by your likes
and dislikes, not by your fears nor
your politics. but by certain definite
standards.
/ find the cleanest list of these
standards indicated in the Billings
Lectures delivered by DR.. Jabez II.
Sunderland. 1 Will follow his order.
/. The first mark of civilization
| is public order. No civilization is
possible without a general obedience
| to law on the part of the people. All
| authorities agree that there is no
| nation in the world where public,
order is better maintained than in
Japan.
.. The next test is the spread of
general intelligence and education!
Every child in Japan from six to
fourteen years of age is in school.
DIR. Eliot of Harvard declared that
Japan spends a larger proportion OF
her public money for education than
the United States does, and has
reached higher standard.
3. Japan is full of newspapers and
periodicals. Some newspapers have
a daily circulation of quarter of
InilllOn. LVeTyDOuy, from Tie HI6Hc
class to the lowest, reads.
4. There is as much political free
dom, as much freedom of the press
and OF speech in Japan as In England.
1t has a constitution and representa-
tive government.
). Civilization is tested by the de-
gree to which a nation has turned
from superstition to science. Jap
aneSe have as keen a zest for science
as any other people. Her students
a re N nj world
and many of her citizens have made
their mark in original scientific re-
search.
s. Art is highly developed among
the Japanese. They are Il nation Of
idealists. not materialists. Lafcadio
fiearn said that Japanese art was
hundred years ahead OF western art.
The Japapese have long passed the
period of slaviSh copying, their
thought is of mystical Significance
and symbolic suggestion rather than
OF Photographic reproduction. They
do some of the most elaborate wood
carving in the world, also inlaying
with gold and silver, the making of
fine pottery, also incompara Bile lac
quer work. and no nation surpasses
Japan In the art of landscape garden
ing.
I. In navigation Japan ranks with
the foremost nations of the world.
Her battleships and ocean liners are
as good as any.
$. Scientific agriculture Is taught
extensively. They have two uniyer-
sity colleges of agriculture. five
higher agricultural schools and about
200 institutions of the same kind of
lower grade.
8. Japan has a well developed and
smooth running system of railroads.
10. Her mail service. telegraphs
and telephones are good and extern
sive.
II. The Japanese are probably the
cieanest people in the world, both as TO
their houses and TO their person. They
have excellent sanitary laws which are
strictly enforced.
II. Medical, surgical and hospital
conditions are of the very best.
10. Temperance is a mark of civili-
cation. The Japanese are more tenn
perate than even America under pro-
hibition, and far more than the people
of Great Britain or Germany.
II. Crimes Of violence are fewer
than in the United States and in most
of the countries of Europe. Nothing
i'm Japan is so horrible as the lynch
ings in the United States.
10. AS to the social evil, DR.. Gulick
says that THE shameless immorali-
ties to be found in New York. London,
Paris and Berlin surpass anything in
Japan"
16. The rumor has been widely cir
culated that the Chinese are more
honest than the Japanese, so that
Japanese banks have TO have Chinese
cashiers. This story is absolutely
false. There are more than ESQ
Japanese banks in Japan, and not
one of them employs a Chinese cashier
or general manager.
lf-Stherefore. you think that Japan
is uncivilized. II is about time to
think again.