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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH rOUSYTH ST.
• Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of
. the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor. #
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Atlanta, Ga.
Cattle Raising in Georgia.
Dr. E. M. Neighbert, director of tbe federal bu
reau of animal industry in Georgia and adjacent
States, calls attention to tbe fact that some thirty-
thousand bead of cattle were recently shipped from
Florida to Oklahoma and Kansas, where they will he
fattened and then re-sold to this section for three or
four times their original cost. What a tremendous
saving it would be not only to individual consumers
but also to the entire economic interests of the
South, if these cattle were fattened and marketed at
home! The difference would amount to millions of
, dollars a year in our favor.
Before this can be done, however, certain practi
cal conditions must be met; and one of them, as Dr.
Neighbert indicates, is the eradication of the cattle
lick. This parasite is the one great foe to Georgia's
progress in the live stock and dairying industry-
Where it prevails, cattle cannot thrive, cannot be
made marketable as beef or desirable for breeding
purposes. The majority of Georgia counties are still
quarantined against the country at large because
they are infested with the cattle tick. It is note
worthy, howeVer, that those districts which have
duly co-operated with the State and federal author
ities have rid themselves of this pest and have been
relieved of the quarantine. What they have accom
plished, every other country can accomplish and
t ereby make itself richer and more progressive.
There is another essential to the success of the
cattle raising industry; and that is the home pro
duction of hay and forage. Georgia soil can pro
duce grasses as nutrious as any grown in the west
and can produce as cheaply. Cattle breeding will not
become profitable or inviting until we take advan
tage of these resources and cease shipping supplies
from distant sections at high prices.
It is doubtful that there is any corner of the
Union or of the entire earth which is naturally bet
ter suited to cattle raising than Georgia and its
neighboring States. This great industry can he con
ducted here at a minimum of expense'and a max
imum of results. The equable climate makes the
problem of winter housing, which in some sections
is so serious, practically negligible- The soil will
. yield an abundance and variety of the best cattle
food. As regards market centers in the East as
well as the South, we are most advantageously
situated, indeed, every natural circumstance marks
Georgia as one of the great beef-producing sections
of the country.
It is cheering to note that these facts are grad
ually impressing themselves upon a larger and
: larger number of our people. Farmers generally are
• realizing the value of raising enough cattle and other
live stock to i^eet their own needs. In fact, there
is a constructive tendency to make the farm self-
; sustaining in all its interests. The folly of devoting
all the land to cotton and of spending the proceeds
oi the money crop for food necessaries is giving way
1 to the wiser policy of producing these supplies at
home.
Some farmers, notably in north Georgia, are be
ginning to specialize on live stock. It is reported
that in several counties large tracts of land are be
ing converted into sheep or cattle ranges. It should
be noted that wherever this is done, the menace of
tne cattle tick has first been overcome and plans
f„.' the growth of hay have been adopted. Let these
i two conditions be met, and Georgia, instead of pay
ing high prices for beef, will fill its larder out of
its own plenteous resources and at the same time
become an expert center-
A flock of microbes may uo more damage than a
flock of elephants.
Georgia’s Corn Clubs
The rapid and substantial growth of the Boys’
Corn club movement in Georgia is shown in a report
recently issued by the State College of Agriculture.
Flourishing clubs are now- organized in one hundred
and forty counties, and their aggregate membership
is practically ten thousand boys.
The significance of this enterprise to the State’s
farming interests and to commercial and industrial
affairs cannot be overgauged. The Boys’ Corn clubs
have not only increased average acre yield of corn
and improved the quality of the grain, but they have
also aroused new enthusiasm in every field of
scientific agriculture. Through their efforts, Georgia
is coming to be a greater food-producing State and,
therefore, more prosperous and independent.
It is also gratifying to note the Girls’ clubs are
thriving. Their membership is approximately twen
ty-five hundred; and if the College is given adequate
means for extending this work, the Girls’ clubs will
soon rival those of the boys.
American Sentiment On
The Canal Toll Question.
It has long been evident that the preponderance
of thoughtful opinion in the United States is in
favor of arbitrating the Panama canal tolls contro
versy or, better still, of repealing that clause of the
canal act which grants toll exemption to American
coastwise shipping- If, nowever, anything were
needed further to emphasize this fact, the recent
meeting of the American Society of International
Law would abundantly suffice. This society, as is
well known, includes many of the country’s fore
most jurists and others who represent the broadest
and truest spirit of our national life. Among its
members are Chief Justice White, Oscar S. Strauss,
Horace Porter, Secretary of State Bryan, former
President Taft and scores of this rank. It is a sig
nificant fact that the dominant thought in the
speeches and discussions of the society sustained the
plea for arbitration or for a repeal of the act which
has provoked the pending difference between our
Government and Great Britain.
The Hay-Pauncefote treaty, which the United
States negotiated with England, specifically provides
that the canal shall he open on terms of entire com
mercial equality to all nations, observing the condi
tions therein set forth. This treaty was adopted in
order that our government might have a freer hand
in the construction and control of the canal than
was possible under the Clayton-Bulwer treaty which
the later agreement superseded- The Clayton-Bulwer
treaty, adopted more than half a century ago, when
It was contemplated that an isthmian canal would be
built by private enterprise under international
supervision, provided that neither the United States
nor England should "ever obtain or maintain for
itself any exclusive control over the ship canal; that
neither country should ever erect or maintain any
fortification commanding the vicinity of the canal;
that neither nation should ever colonize Central
America; that neither country should take advantage
of any intimacy, alliance, connection or influence
with any country in Central America in order to
secure any rights or advantages in regard to com
merce and navigation, not possessed by the citizens
or subjects of the other.”
Such terms were clearly too rigid to warrant the
United States government in building a canal on its
individual responsibility and at its own expense.
They presented divers obstacles and restrictions
which it was the purpose of the Hay-Pauncefote
treaty to set aside. England renounced certain
important privileges it had formerly been assured,
and also granted new and larger privileges to the
United States- One of the essential conditions on
which our Government secured this wider freedom
was that which guaranteed entire commercial equal
ity to all nations in the use of the canal.
The United States is amply warranted in levying
tolls, if it will, but it cannot discriminate in favor of
any shipping, and remain true to its contract. It
cannot honorably or legally exempt American coast
wise shipping and at the same time exact tolls of
English vessels.
The truth la the exemption of American coastwise
shipping is in effect a government subsidy to one of
the most highly protected of all monopolies. This
class of shipping has no more need or right to toll
exemption than the steel trust or beef trust to a high
protective tariff. That clause of the canal act is of
no benefit whatever to the rank and file of the
Amerioan people; it ‘is simply another case of gov
ernment patronage to a special interest, simply
another instance of that unfair and. unreasonable
policy of “protection” which the Democratic admin
istration is commissioned to reform.
It is earnestly to be hoped that Congress will use
its earliest opportunity to repeal this indefensible
clause of the canal act and thereby save the nation’s
honor from a worldwide stain.
But sometimes a bore talks to us abfiut ourselves;
that is different.
Crop reports on the amateur spring gardens
wouldn’t be amiss.
Latest reports were that Charles W. Morse isn’t
suffering any considerable relapse.
The Mexican Loan;
Will It Do the Work?
It remains to be seen whether or not the seven
and a half million dollar loan which the Mexican
government is said to have floated will place the
Huerta regime firmly upon its feet. An impoverish
ed treasury has been among Huerta’s heaviest em
barrassments and it may be that this sorely needed,
though long delayed, assistance' will enable him to
carry out a vigorous and effective program.
The loan Is said to have been obtained through
London bankers and to be secured by the Govern
ment’s holdings in the Tehuantepec railroad. Its
terms are one year, five per cent interest. Presum
ably, the lenders are assured of
restore order and of a comparatively speedy return
to normal conditions. Their confidence is within
itself one of the brightest omens yet offered for the
provisional government. •
It is nevertheless evident that the temper and
drift of Mexican affairs are still uncertain. Felix
Diaz, whose bold campaign was so largely responsi
ble for the fall of Madero, has withdrawn as a can
didate for the presidency and Francisco De La
Barra, minister of foreign affairs, has likewise re
tired as a candidate for the vice-presidency, each of
them giving as a reason for his course the delay of
the Congress in fixing a time for the elections. At
the same time and because of the same dissatisfac
tion, Garcia Granados, minister of the interior, has
resigned his post; other cabinet resignations are ex
pected to follow.
This would seem to indicate a feeling of discon
tent among public leaders. Certainly it does not
augur well for political peace. It has long been sus
pected that the Diaz-Huerta alliance would be dis
solved. Both men are exceedingly ambitious and
each is in the other’s way.
While these differences, suppressed for the time
being, are simmering at the capital, the rebels in
the north and the south continue to make trouble.
Thus far the so-called regular troops have made no
considerable headway. Their number does not ex
ceed fourteen thousand and it is doubtful that a
majority of these would stand squarely by the Huer
ta regimfi in a crisis. In this respect, however, the
seven and a half million loan will probably have a
stimulating and strengthening effect.
It is to be hoped that through some means or
other, Mexico will soon be placed upon an orderly
basis. If Huerta can accomplish this all-important
need, he will earn the gratitude ol’ his own people,
and the admiration of the world. But proof of
what he can do has not yet been given.
Georgia’s Urgent Need
Of Vital Statistics.
Georgia cannot afford longer to neglect the impor
tant and intensely practical duty of establishing a
system of registration for births, deaths and kindred
data. The State’s tardiness in this matter has fre
quently been criticised both at home and abroad, but
never more intelligently than by Dr. Cressy L. Wil
bur, director of the federal bureau of vital statistics.
Georgia, as Dr. Wilbur points out, keeps no record
either of births or deaths. It is thus lagging behind
the progressive States of the Union and is permitting
a grjive injustice to its own people. Sanitary and
sociological endeavors depend very largely, as he de
clares, upon vital statistics in mapping their field
and in producing definite and detailed results.
Reforms of any character in order to be effective
must be more or less specific and must proceed upon
an accurate knowledge of real conditions. We must
know the sources behind a death rate before we can
devise a thoroughgoing plan to reduce the death rate.
We must know where evils of any kind arc most pro
nounced before we make much headway in remedy
ing them.
Vital statistics are essential to truly scientific
work in the great field of public health and, Indeed,
in all efforts to better human conditions. A thor
oughgoing registration of deaths and illness will in
dicate just what diseases demand most attention
and just where they should be most vigorously coped
with. Such records will often lead to the discovery
oi unhealthful conditions that impede the progress
and endanger the life of thousands of people-
Furthermore, a Statewide system of vital statis
tics would serve to stimulate every county and every
town in Georgia to more earnest efforts in behalf of
public health. Each community would aspire to a
worthy rank in the State’s health record and those
that did good work in this respect would receive
due and valuable credit.
It is to be hoped that at the next session of the
General Assembly legislation to this enu will be
enacted. There can he no doubt that the great ma
jority of thoughtful Georgians realize the benefit
which a system of vital statistics would assure, and
also the injury which further neglect of this impor
tant task would mean.
A New Menace in the Balkans.
Just when the Balkan fire was considered practi
cally out, little Montenegro has blown forth a spark
that may kindle a conflagration. Should Austria per
sist in its plan to invade the tiny kingdom and to
force an evacuation of Scutari at the point of the
bayonet, there is no reckoning what the consequence
might be. If all the great nations act in concert
and adhere to their original demand that Montene
gro give up Scutari, the problem will then become
comparatively simple; but it is just here that the
crucial question arises.
It appears in no wise certain that England, Rus
sia and France, constituting the Triple Entente, will
follow the Austrian lead to the extent of forcibly ex
pelling the Montenegrins from territory which the
latter have fairly won. Indeed, it is well known that
Russia has from the outset been lukewarm in its
support of the Powers’ plans with reference to Mon
tenegro and the Russian people indignantly oppose
a policy that looks to the coercion of their Slav
brethren in the Balkans. If, then, Russia should
withdraw from the international agreement, England
and France would scarcely continue to sustain it; in
which event the Triple Alliance, or Austria, Germany
and Italy would stand alone. Nor is it entirely
probable that Italy and Germany would stick to
their ally through all emergencies. Certa.i it is that
Italy would he chill toward an adventure that
promised it nothing in return for its possible sac
rifices.
The burden of a campaign against Montenegro would
thus fall for the most part on Austria and while the
physical demands of this would be small, its political
responsibility would be grave, indeed. The fact is
it is doubtful that the other Powers would consent
to an Austrian campaign in the Balkans or that
would consent to a campaign undertaken singly by
any one of their number- Austria’s ambition for
territory is well known; its every move is watched
with suspicion. Its plea for an autonomous Albania
is considered merely as a mask to its purpose even
tually to take that territory under surveillance.
The tone of Austria is now very peremptory. It,
in effect, has notified the Powers that they must im
mediately take combined measures to turn the Monte
negrins out of Scutari or Austria will do it alone.
What will be the outcome of such a situation? Will
the great nations fall apart on this issue? If so, how
will their differences be harmonized? The acutest
stage of the Balkan crisis is at hand.
Needing an audience for a job lot of hard luck
stories, misery loves company.
President Wilson will solve the Japanese problem
satisfactorily in spite of the colon'1.
The so-called baseball trust apparently doesn’t
want to undergo the ordeal of being busted.
BMsimiess AdmMstratfloini
BY 2>R. FRANK CRANE.
(Copyright, 1913, by Frank Crane.j *
The Mountain School Movement.
One of the distinctly Interesting and useful con
ventions of the year is that of the teachers and in
dustrial school worr.ers in the Southern Appalachian
mountain districts, which met yesterday In Atlanta;
Two circumstances made the occasion particularly
notable. It was a review of ten years of endeavor
in this important field of education and it was the
first conference of its kind in which representatives
of all the churches and all allied interests took part.
The need of establishing and maintaining good
schools in the remote mountain regions of the South
has long been recognized and many independent ef
forts to that end have been made- Philanthropists
have given substantially to such work. A number
of churches have entered this field and hundreds
of men and women have dedicated themselves to
its service. But the Atlanta conference represents
the first effort all these forces to combine their
strength and to work out a plan under which they
can co-operate for the attainment of their common
purpose.
For that reason, the convention is distinctive
and it should result in more rapid and more uniform
progress in the great task of carrying education to
the once neglected byways of our Southern country.
It is not expected that any one group of workers
will lose their identity or will he turned from the
particular path they have been following. But it is
certain that througli a union of their various enter
prises, they will .acquire an impressive status before
the country as a whole; they will be able to conve;-
more directly and mo.-o strikingly the appeal of their
splendid undertaking.
When the people of the isolated mountain dis
tricts are brought into touch with modern conditions
anu with the South’s common life, a vast deal will
have been done toward the progress of this entire
section.
One of the most honored pieces of humbug is the
cry of “a business administration.”
A mayor is elected claiming to represent the “busi
ness element,” and announces that his program will
be '‘strictly business” economy and without sentiment
and fool reforms.
A governor gives forth that he will make the busi
ness interests paramount in his plans.
Political parties adopt business platforms, with
issues of tariff reform or free silver or reduced gov
ernmental expenditures.
Even the college president, the pastor of the
church, and the superintendent of city schools are
anxious to be known as “good business men.”
Business is all right in its place, which is an im
portant one. But also it is a secondary one.
What we need everywhere, more than we need a
business administration, is a HUMAN ADMINISTRA
TION.
Business means economy, and economy means lit
erally “housekeeping.” Now, good housekeeping de
serves attention and praise; but it 'Is not the main
thing. It is very necessary that father make a living
and good investments and have a paying position; also
that mother see to it that eggs and butter are bought
cheap, that waste is guarded against, and that food
is good and plenty; biit what shall we think of the
parents who are so wrapped up in these affairs that
they allow their children to be abused, poisoned,
stunted, and morally perverted, possibly kidnaped or
murdered?
The state is but a large family. It is the first
concern of a state to see that its citizens have justice,
protection in their rights, and relief from their wrongs;
and that it3 children ar e properly trained for citi
zenship. All this comes before saving and making
money. Better a hundred times over that the state go
bankrupt than that “one of the least of these” be
‘cheated of justice.
Young girls are duped, assaulted, entrapped, and
ruined by an organized band of rakehelly cadets in our
big cities, while the police guard our “property.”
Children of tender age are drafted into factories
and their lives stunted, while legislators are busy ar
ranging “business” regulations with a lively lobby.
The people are not only ill-served, but brow-breaten
and abused by our common carriers who declare fat
dividends on their transportation of human live stock,
while highly paid legislative railway commissions are
considering everything else but protecting life and mak
ing travel as easy and cheap as possible.
The able business folk who occupy the seats of au
thority among this people should be reminded that the
first purpose of a railroad or street car line or sub
way is to carry human beings in safety and in com
fort; that the first people to turn to, when the com
monwealth needs money, are the common people, and
not the bankers; that the first thing to regulate about
a theater, “movie,” or other public hall is that in
case of fire or panic the audienc shall be able to walk
out without trampling one another to death; that the
most vital thing about automobiles as far as the gov
ernment is concerned is to see that they do not run
down pedestrians; that the first building law is safety,
and that always and everywhere the life and health of
men and women is to be th© state’s chief concern.
America, supposedly the world leader in democracy,
is more careless of human life, and more contemptu
ous of human interests, when they conflict with prop
erty interests, than any nation in Europe.
Above all, can you conceive of any charge against
our lawmakers so terrible £s that they allow rotten
and diseased meat, poisoned canned goods and unnutri-
tious bread to be publicly sold to families, while chil
dren in the streets are tempted to buy candies made
of carpenter’s glue and coal tar sweetening?
I hope to live long enough to see mayors, governors,
and president* elected upon a platform pledging safety
and health protection to the people, and to the chil
dren of the people support and proper training during
adolescence.
Without despising ’’ue business efficiency let the
state recognize that its only real wealth is in the
health and intelligence and industry of its people.
Captain
Barnacle’s Travelogues
BY JOHN H,
WISHAK
"I have never been able to eat olive oil since the
time I had command of the old iron hark Gough,” de
clared Captain Barnacle, shoving his plate of salad
away, and eyeing the dressing meditatively. "Although
it was olives and olive oil that saved us all, I had so
much of both it took me months to get the grease
out of my system.
"On this voyage we were bound from Palermo, Italy,
for New Tork, and were loadid with 98,000 cases of
green olives. This was a very valuable cargo and I
was ordered to make a fast trip if possible. The
Gough was one of the old-time iron barks, a stanch
and speedy little craft. So when we left the Mediter
ranean I was in hopes of a record passage. But luck
was against us. First we ran into a hurricane which
dismantled the vess and then we ran into a calm
belt, just north of the equator.
"For three weeks we lay there in that broiling sun,
trying to rig up some kind of a jury mast. One morn
ing the carpenter rushes up to me and says there’s
six feet of water in the hold. My heart sank and 1
gave up for lost, for six feet of water in the hold for
an iron ship with no lifeboats left meant sure death.
But I went below to investigate and what do you
think I founds Why, the ship was half full of pure
olive oil,!
“Well, sir, I was some surprised. I found that the
intense heat of the tropical sun on the sides of the
iron ship had made a regular oven out of the hold and
that the olives in the cases had . een fried out, the
oil running down into the hold. It was a puzzler what
to do. All our food had been spoiled, so all we had
to eat was these dried olives, mixed with some of the
oil, and it wasn’t bad, either. Then I took about five
hundred cases of the olives and with a barrel of cement
which we had on board I built three masts. I would
fix a layer of olive pits and then a layer of cement,
and so on until the Gough had masts and spars as
fine as when she sailed from Palermo. I had plenty
of canvas on hoard, so we were soon under sail again.
“Then I had 1 the olive oil drained off into bar
rels and canvas bags, and when we reached New York
I sold this oil myseU and turned over t. the company
the cases of dried lives. And, sir, do you know thej-
tried to get the $11,000 which I go for this oil, but I
maintained that this belonged to me, as I delivered the
cased olives, unopened, with the exception of those
used for the masts and spars. Well, do you knojv, they
took it to court and I believe the case is still dragging
on, for Attorney Tim Healy told me he was going to
appeal. But I got my money and the Gough still has
her olive seed masts.”
JUST SMILES
The Crisis in Japan
POLITICAL RIOTS.
By
Frederic
J. Haskin
“May it please your honor,” said a lawyer, ad
dressing one of the judges, “I brought the prisoner
from jail on a habeas corpus.”
“Well,” said a man, in an undertone, who was
standing in the rear of the court, “these lawyers will
say anything. I saw the man get out of a taxi at the
court door.”
* * •
“I had always thought the public servants of my
own city were U e freshest on earth.” says a New York
man, “but a recent ex'perien^e in Kansas City has led
to a revision of that notion.
“One afternoon I dashed into a railway station of
that totfn witli just half a minute to buy my ticket
and enter a train for Chicago. 1 dashed through the
first gate and, pointing t a certain train, asked hur
riedly of the gateman:
“ ‘Is that my train?’
“ ‘Well, 1 don’t know.’ replied lie, with exasperating
deliberation. ‘Maybe it is. but the cars have the coni-
1 pany's nime on them.’ ”—Harper’s Magazine. *
Americans seem greatly astonished over the In
sults which Japanese crowds are heaping upon their
public officials. It has always been thought through-
out the world at large that
I _ - everything in Japan worked
f from the government downward
* instead of from the people up
ward, and that officialdom was
specially sacred. All this has
been true to a great extent on
the surface, but underground
forces have been at work for a
long time to loosen the grip the
bureaucrats so long have had
on public affairs. Foreigners
in general, and Americans in
particular, have known little of
al this, and even alien resi
dents in Japan are surprised at
the vehemence with which the
Jiji and other influential news
papers are lampooning such re
vered statesmen and military
patriots as Yamagata, Katsura
and Terauchi. Th e stoning of
Katsura himself and several members of the diet, and
the wrecking of several standpat newspaper plants
seem quite confounding to the conventional estimate
of the Japanese people, but the world forgets that)
similar tactics were employed in 1905 to show the
disgust of the people with the treaty of Portsmouth
which ended the war with Russia.
• • •
What does make even the expert foreign observer
open his ey^s is the fact that the people have suc
ceeded in their protest. They not only brought about
the downfSTl of the Katsura ministry in less than
two months after its inception, but they did so in the
face of an imperial rescript from the emperor himself.
This particular phase of the situation really is amaz
ing. Heretofore a rescript from the throne has been
binding law upon th© people, and it has always been
supposed that not even a douot of an emperor’s right
eousness could be breathed by any loyal subject of the
Son of Heaven. All of which goes to show that the
Nipponese have had good reason for acting violently
and that they are not so very different from the rest
of mankind in the way they go after what they want.
• * •
A long, bitter fight for constitutional rights is the
cause of the trouble in Japan. Th© sudden effacing
of Prince Katsura and the appointment of Admiral
Count Yamamoto to the premiership has not brought
complete victory. The people are demanding the large
share in governmental affairs guaranteed them by
the constitution of 1889 and they are determined that
th e cabinet shall be more responsive to the will o. the
diet than to the nod of the emperor. Before success
crowns their efforts they must crush clan influence
on the one hand, and on the other hand they must
make worthy the rather unworthy diet which they
would exalt.
• • •
The insistence of th© army on two new divisions,
or -40,000 men for Korean defense, in the face of the
nation’s virtual bankruptcy, was the immediate cause
of th© recent upheaval. Other elements were the ri
valry between the army and th$ navy, the hoary feud
between the Choshu and the Satsuma clans, and the
growth of party politics. The waning influence of
the elder statesmen and the fact that the new mikado
does not command the worship so freely given to his
father, also are factors. But the movement for great
er liberty is the prime agency, and it will be well to
consider for a moment the constitution which the peo
ple wish to strengthen and the governmental form?
which that document set up for them nearly a quar
ter of a century ago.
• • •
While Mutsuhito, th© late emperor, was put on the
throne in 1868, thus restoring the imperial family to
power, and starting the country on the road to prog
ress, a constitution was not granted until February
11, 1889. It is modeled after that of th© German em
pire, the ministers being responsible only to th© em
peror, with consequent discretion in ignoring the diet,
which has been done frequently. The emperor’s pre
rogatives are:
• • •
First. Right of convoking, opening, closing or
proroguing the imperial diet, and of dissolving th©
house of representatives. *
Second. Right of issuing any urgency ordinances
when the imperial diet is not sitting, to be submitted
to it for approval at th© next session.
Third. Right of issuing or causing to be issued the
ordinances required for putting the laws in operation,
or for maintaining peace and order.
Fourth. Right of taking the supreme command of
the army and navy, and of determining the organiza
tion of th© service.
Fifth. Right of declaring war, making peace and
concluding treaties.
Sixth. Right of determining the organization of
the governmental department, limiting the functions
and fixing the salaries of civil and military officials.
Seventh. Right of conferring titles of nobility, hon
ors and decorations, and to grant pardons and de
crees ofi amnesty.
• * *
The usual executive, legislative and judicial di
visions are provided, the first and last named being
appointive, while the legislative is elective. The suf
frage is limited. The people elect all the members
of the house of representatives, but only 43 of the 371
members of the house of peers, and they are chosen
by a select group of wealthy taxpayers in each elec
toral district.
* * •
The upper body of the imperial diet, the house of
peers, is composed of fourteen princes of the blood,
thirteen princes, thirty marquises, all of whom sit
for life upon becoming twenty-five years of age, also
seventeen counts, seventy viscounts and sixty-three
barons, all of whom are elected for seven years by
members of their own orders of nobility. The empe
ror appoints 121 men, notable for learning, patriotism,
philanthropy or any other worthy trait, regardless of
their origin, and who sit for life. The forty-t£ree
members who represent the highest taxpayers in th©
empire serve seven years. The non-titled members
must never exceed the titled ones. The body cannot
be dissolved under any circumstances, but can be con
vened at any time.
, • • •
The house of representatives consists of 379 mem
bers elected for four years. The electors must be at
least twenty-five years old and be paying a direct
tax of not less than the equivalent of $5 per annum.
Candidates for the house must be at least thirty years
of age. Over 300 of the total membership come from
the rural districts, the average being one member for
every 130,00ft of the population. Members of both
houses are in session three months every year, and
are paid 2,000 yen ($1,000) per annum besides free
passes ana traveling expenses.
* * *
In case a member is unseated, dies or r©©igris
within a year of election the opponent who had the
next highest vote succeeds him. There are only 1,600,-
000 voters out of a total population of about 60,000,-
000. Th e averag^ expense of a campaign for a seat
in the house is 7,000 yen or $3,500, although in <Jne
district in 1908 two rivals spent 50,000 yen each. Th©
house meets every'other day, the alternate day being
given to committee work. Farmers represent 38 per
cent* of tne membership, merchants and manufacturers
12 per cent, lawyers, journalists and authors 22 per
cent. The other vocations absorb the rest. At the
first election in 1890 the average age of members was
forty-two, but it has risen steadily until now a new
nan averages forty-eight upon his entry into the
house.