About Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920 | View Entire Issue (July 4, 1916)
4 THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST. > Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of the Second Class. JAMES B. GBAY. President and Editor. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE. Twelve months . 75c Six months 4<* c Three months 23c The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tues day and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for early delivery. It contains news from all over the world, brought by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff of distinguished contributors, with strong depart ments of special value to the home and the farm. Agents wanted at every postoffice. Liberal com mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRAD LEY. Circulation Manager. i The only traveling representatives we have are B. F. Bolton. C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kimbrough, Chas. H. Woodlitf and' L. J. Farris We will be responsible only for money paid to the above-named traveling representatives. \ > - NOTICE TO SLdBCBXBEBS. The label iuMd for •ddreaalng your paper chows the time your subacrtptioo expires By renewing at least two weeks be fore the date on tuts label, you insure regular Service. In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention your old. as well as your address, if on a route, please give the route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with back numbers. Remittance should be sent by p ostal order or registered mail. Address all orders and notic es for this Department to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL. Atlanta. G«. Weil. Tipperary is not so far after all. A Highway Commission Needed. TUt practical certainty that Congress will pass the goed roads bill on which the House and Senate conference committees have agreed makes it more than ever important that our own Legislature establish a highway commission in order that Georgia may share in the apportionment of fed eral aid. The bill now near enactment at Wash ington provides for a total expenditure of seventy five million dollars, beginning with five million in 1917 and increasing to twenty-five million In 1921. These funds, to be prorated among the States on a basis of population, area and post-road mileage, are hedged about with many safeguards against carelessness and waste. Only such projects “as may be substantial in character** will be approved, and only such States as have accredited highway commissions will be entitled to share the federal grant. Georgia is one of the two or three States which have no highway commission—no central agency for co-ordinating the road work of the vari ous counties with a view* to efficient methods and well-rounded results. Apart from the questtun of federal aid. which is now involved, the lack of such a commission is a serious hindrance to our progress in good roads. There can be no State wide system of highways unless there is a State wide plan of co-operation and control. The roads of one district will not render due service unless they are correlated with those of other districts. A State department of highways is as essential in this respect as the State department of education is to our common schools or the State department of agriculture t 3 farm interests. As an activity which concerns every province of public welfare, road building ought to be under State guidance and supervision. For years past, highway commission bills have been urged in the Legislature but without result. There should be no further delay in a matter which touches the common interests so broadly and which if still neglected will forfeit the State hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal aid. As for the British, better late than never. The Big Drive. At last the big drive has begun The British hammer, so long in suspense, is pounding as if a thousand Thors were behind it. An army of two million or more men, fully seasoned and equipped, has leaped from months of inaction to the mightiest adventure the war has witnessed. For the first time, the Allies in the West are on the offensive along an extended front. Their one considerable effort of the kind heretofore was that by the British at Loos last September, in which they lost sixty thousand men without winning a decisive result. But the assault at Loos was in no wise comparable to the far-flung action Sow under way. Gains and losses, which hitherto were measured by yards, are now to be measured by miles and leagues. The supreme effort to break the deadlock has been sprung. In this gigantic offensive, the British and French are acting, as they always have planned, in thorough accord. Th<* British did not move earlier because, as Herbert Corey writing from Paris some weeks ago. declared, the time had not come for them to move: “Because they have been fighting ineffi ciently and when they fight again they w*ill fight efficiently; because If they were forced into a little offensive the big offensive would find its claws cut; because for the first time since the war began, the Allies are now work ing in thorough military co-ordination and are not permitting themselves to be betrayed into little futile thumpings that c-tnnot effectually crush the German strength.’’ Whatever may be the outcome of the present offen sive, it is evident that the Alites were prepared be fore they moved forward to their topmost attempt; and it seems, from developments thus far, that the turning point of the war has been reached. The worst evil we have to contend with In the world Is insincerity. Editorial Echoes The black band on the arm which all officers are wearing, in memory of Lord Kitchener is a re minder that the navy has not yet gone out of mourning for Nelson-. Everyone is familiar with the three rows of white tape round the edging of the b»««® collar, and the black silk serrf knotted in front, which form part of the bluejacket’s dress uniform. The former commemorate Nel son’s three most famous victories. Copenhagen, the Nile and Trafalgar, whilst the scarf was first adopted b'y Nelson's seamen as a mark of mourn ing for their dead hero, and has been retained ever since.—London Chronicle. The fact that Ty Cobb Is third in batting averages can't be blamed on the Wilson adminis tration. THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1910. 7 he Only Way. "It Is Germany's military force that we must beat. It is not enough to force her to submission by economic pressure. A peace imposed on Germany exhausted in food and materials only would not be durable. It would be a moral defeat for the Allies. The Germans could say they had beaten us in bat tle and made peace only because we had starved their women and children. That peace we don’t want. Only a crushing military vic tory will bring the peace for which the Allies are fighting, and of which Germany will un derstand the meaning. That victory we shall have; it will be complete and fina».” These lines from a recent statement of David Lloyd-George. British Minister of Munitions, sum up a policy which reason no less than valor con strains the Allies to pursue. There were theo * ♦- who predicted that economic exhaustion would bring the war to an end within six months or a year, but it is approaching its third summer with no sign of collapse on that account. The Central Powers, it is true, are hard presseu oy dearth of food and other necessaries while their financial resources are severely strained, but there is no evidence of them being starved to surrender. If Germany is bent upon resistance at any sacrifice, she cannot be defeated by a lean larder unless the war drags on indefinitely. If her resolution stands unshaken, she can keep up the fight so long as she has men and munitions. A conclusive and lasting peace must be won by a victory of arms. That is the matured resolution, of the Allies, and developments on the several battle fronts in dicate that it soon will be put supremely to a test. The Russian-onslaught in the East,, together with a renewal of the Italian offensive in the Trentlno, seems to point the way to the long deferred British drive in the West. While inaction in that quarter has been puzzling to distant observers, there is evidently a thorough understanding between the French and Britith leaders. The French could re gard the German thrust at Verdun composedly enough so long as it was costing the enemy at the rate of two to one in men wuuout seriously threatening the French army. If the fortress should fall now, it w*ould be of scant military con sequence. An Allied offensive at this juncture, when the Germans have spent their foreq, will prove far more effective no doubt than if it had been undertaken months ago. While victory in the field must be the decisive force in the war, economic pressure is an impor tant influence; and it is counting heavily against the Central Empires. All the belligerents are un der financial strain, but Germany most of all. Be sides carrying her own burden, she has had to go far in financing her allies. It is said that up to last March she had lent four hundred and fifty million dollars to Austria, three hundred million to Turkey, and one hundred million to Bulgaria. Besides her shortage of food, she is beggared of raw material, particularly that needed for textile industries. The New York Journal of Commerce, quoting from the Vorwaerts of recent date, says: The embargo on the raw materials re quired in these trades has deprived quite half the number of workers of their employ ment, and the administrative board of Ber lin has had to consider urgent unemployment measures and relief grants. The Social Demo cratic members of the corporation strongly object to* the “utter inadequacy” of the offi cial scheme, "in view of the unheard of high prices of the necessaries of life and the tre mendous depreciation of the value of money.” This latter phase of Germany’s economic trou bles is, perhaps, the most ominous. There can be no question that the great weakness of the war finance of Germany is the flooding of the country with paper money. About the end of November, 1915, a Sw*iss authority placed the amount of German money in circulation at 13,228,355,000. of which new notes created since August 7, 1914, amounted to $2,103,- 335.000. Side by side with this legal circula tion. there exists a circulation of about sl,- 500.000,000 in private bank notes, and of $250,000,000 in war credit bank notes. There are altogether about $4,350,000,000 notes in circulation, all of which rest ultimately, either directly, upon the $625,000,000 gold held by the Reichsbank. These conditions inevitably will tell upon Ger many's nerve and sinew for withstanding the highty offensive which soon or late the Allies will launch. Heretofore her armies have taken the initiative and, though winning no decisive results, have presented a brave and brilliant front. Her people have been buoyed by great expectations. Already they are being disillusioned, and if now they are faced by a retreating army the economic pressure which grips them will become more and more Intolerable. Mexican “Sovereignty." When Carranza laments our Government’s “lack of respect for Mexican sovereignty," he Is talking of something that does not exist. There is no more “sovereignty” in Mexico, as the bewhis* kered First Chief uses the term, than there was among the native tribesmen five centuries ago; in fact, not half so much. The country has no gov ernment which can preserve domestic order or meet its foreign obligations. It is simply a welter of brigandage and strife. There can be no “sovereignty” in a regime such as Carranza's, which is unable to protect a friendly neighbor from bandit raids and unwilling to co-operate in suppressing them. Had this swaggering politician exercised a jot of the “sov ereignty” which he professes, no American expe dition ever would have crossed the border. Had he assisted General Pershing’s troops in putting down the Villa gangs, instead of colluding with the outlaws, the American expedition would have withdrawn long ago. If, as now seems inevitable, the United States is compelled to enter Mexico in force, it will not be an invasion of a sovereign State: it will be sim ply the fulfillment of civilization’s duty in the face of anarchy. For more than half a century, except for the peaceful interim of Diaz’ iron rule, Mexico has been without a government worthy the name. For the last six years, It has been a constant menace to American Interests. During the last nine months, conditions across the border have driLed from bad to worse until now they are in sufferable. American property has been looted and destroyed; Americon citizens, on both sides of the frontier, have been wantonly slain. And Carran za’s only answer to these outrages is to babble of his “sovereignty” and fling insults to the natibn that has done its utmost to prove his country’s friend. Marseilles the Secret Door BY HERBERT COREY. MARSEILLES. —This is the story of the se cret door to France. Through that secret door a large fraction of 2,000,000 soldiers have passed. Just how* large a fraction is not known. It made possible the concentration of British troops on the ninety-mile battle line in France to an extent unknown except to the comparatively few in the secret. Germany would have paid any price for the secrets of that door. It has been one of the great est mysteries of a war made up of mysteries. Every one knows that Marseilles is the south ern base for British troops in France. Early in the war the Indian troops arrived there. A few weeks ago the Russians came. Not a week has passed in the twenty-two months the war has lasted that at least one detachment did not reach the post. A good share of them passed through the secret door. Not even Marseilles knew when they came or who they were, or when they left. The Marseilles harbor is a magnificent one. Its liiouth is guarded by forts and by an unresting fringe of torpedo boats and ships of war. Within are great basins to which access is impossible to the unauthorized civilian. Every gateway leading to the basins is guarded by soldiers. One rarely sees a small boat in the harbor. The venturesome boatman must be prepared to give a good account of himself. Night after night British troopships have steamed quietly up the harbor, every light muffled, in the shadow of the dark hills. Arriving at the docks to which they had been assigned, they were tied up as quietly as though they had been so many hill ponies. On their decks British troops had been standing, perhaps for hours, in full marching kit. The moment the gangplank was lowered they filed off. Last of all came the guns and the baggage wagons and the equipment. “Never a light was shown on the dock, said one who knew. “Orders were given in low voices. The men stumbled on each other’s heels as they tramped toward the secret door.” That door led into the great train shed. As the first soldier put foot to the dock the first train backed into the closed and guarded shed. The ranks passed through the door in silence. The officers in command knew precisely what cars they were to take with their men. There was no noise no confusion, no delay. As each train was filled it moved out of the station. They ran upon as close a schedule as the Empire State express itself. The train engineers did not whistle for signals and the curtains of the car windows were drawn tight. By the next night the soldiers were at the front, having seen nothing of Marseilles. Not every consignment of soldiers followed this policy of extreme secrecy, of course. The rest camps about Marseilles are so vast in extent.that it is estimated that they never contain fewer than 25,000* soldiers. This includes the military police, the men in charge of the various camp offices permissionannaires on leave, men on theJ ast of convalescence before going back to the fro , and men on their way to and from England for various reasons. In addition are considerable de tachments of troops, which for one and another reason are here more or less permanently. These Include some of the Indian troops who we re sent to the south of France to escape the bitter winter t“But it is estimated that not less than two mil lion soldiers have passed going and coming,” said a man who knew. Marseu certainly did not suspect even the temporary pres- 6 “f the traiisportation ovqtpm has been the admiration of all who have XX tone'srwlth it. Other items mav have broken down at times. The artme y was frankly bad during the t™" 8 * 10 ” officers fresh from civilian life were put in chai go of brand new guns and equally brand everv- The British had to learn how to do almost .hbm in this war —learn from the bottom up liter the destruction of the original expeditionary force. But they did not hare to ' ear " *°” h ey handle the problem of transportation. That y W “Our detachment was three weeks on boats and trains.” said one officer, "and on the last day we caught the right train at the right hour and the right place. We were on time to the minute. That was not an unusual experience. It might be almost said that it was a common experience. So that the manner by which troops were taken to Flanders through the secret door at Marseille® has really nothing remarkable about it. What is the oddity, perhaps, is the fact that the secret was kept inviolate until a few days ago, by which time the need for secrecy had passed The man who told the story is in a position to know pr - ticallv everything of a transportation sort that "oes on. Not a day passed that he did not meet British officers and aid them in some manner their duties. “But not a man peeped, said he. No one told Those who knew had been selected for their ability to keep their mouths shut. The others merely passed through.” (Copyright, 1916, by Herbert Corey.) The Fifth Regiment We hear the sound of drum and fife As the gallant Fifth goes by; The city wakens into life And the surging crowd draws nigh. We see the cheeks of women pale, The tears make dim their eyes; We hear the saddened mothers wail As they speak their fond good-byes. The gallant Fifth have taken train, The flags are waving high; They are filled with hope of glorious gain In the conflict drawing nigh. And here’s to the Fifth, Atlanta's pride. As to Mexic fields they go; May God be with them, strengthen, guide, And victory bestow’. —SUSIE M. WELLS. Atlanta, June 28. 1916. Quips and Quiddities At a recent reception at the Colony club in the city of New York, the members of the Authors’ League of America were guests, along with a considerable num ber of persons moving majestically in the most frigid and exclusive circles of top society. One of the patronesses, a woman who has plenty of wealth and plenty of literary ability as well, presently espied two delegates from society’s arctic regions sit ting in a window seat, very much alone and apparently not enjoying themselves to any large degree. Plainly they were mother and daughter; a very commanding looking mother and a rather docile, timid daughter. Being minded to make the affair a complete success, the patron lady approached the aloof pair. “How do you do?” she said. “I am Mrs. So-and-So. Wouldn’t you like to meet some of the authors who are present this afternoon?” The senior lady's autere nose went up just a trifle straighter. “No,” she said with congealed politeness; "no, thank you. We’ve met one.’’ • • • After Old Mose had been given a job the foreman saw him comfortably seated on the sand he was to shovel, directing another dusky laborer. “Why Mose!” he exclaimed, “I did not hire that man. What’s he doing here?” “I got him er-ldoing my wuk, sah,” replied Mose. "Who pays him?” “I does, sah; I pays him a dollar a day, sah.” “Why that's all you receive, Mose. How do you profit by the transaction?” asked the amazed fore man. “Well, replied Mose, “I gets to boss de job, doan' I?” “I am a thorough believer in your views on war,” writes a young man, “yet I want to enlist. Will you please state, yes or no, would you advise me to go soldiering in the present Mexican crisis?” My answer is: Yes. And I will tell you why. Whether war making is good or bad depends entirely upon what it is all about, and whether the matter could have been settled some other way. Read Mr. Lansing’s last note to Carranza; go over all the official moves of President Wilson since the beginning of his term, and you will see these factsi 1. The United States has acted toward Mexico with unvarying self-restraint, generosity, and pati ence. It has never bullied, threatened, nor aimed to give offense. 2. Our government has repeatedly declared that we do not seek to conquer Mexico, we want no inch of her territory, and we stand ready to help her bring order to her distressed people. 3. Outlaw bands have repeatedly invaded our territory from across the Mexican border and com mitted outrages. As the existing government of Mexico did not restrain these marauders, it became necessary to send our troops into their country to disperse and punish the criminals. That is the only reason our troops entered Mexico, and the only reason they remain there. When the Mexican authorities show they are willing and able to pre vent their bandits from crossing our border and committing crimes, we will gladly get out. Me don’t like the job, and do it only because we have to. These are the plain facts. The mischief makers on both sides, those here who cry for intervention and those there who fan the flame of anti-gringo hate, are the usual flies and mosquitoes that infest every situation, and have nothing to do with the case, except to complicate it. You will, therefore, see that your enlistment to serve in our army in its dealings with Mexico TODAY is Independence Day in the United States. It will be a day of freedom from the routine of toil, a day of festivity and merry making. And, indeed, every anniversary that commemo rates an outstanding event in the history of a na tion ought to be set apart as a holiday. But also it ought to be something more than an ordinary holiday. It ought to be a day for national meditation as well as national jubilation. . Unfortunately many people are too intent on the holiday aspect of an anniversary to give thought to the meaning of that anniversary. The projected picnic, baseball game, or other mode of amusement claims all their attention. It is wrong. It is wrong for several reasons. Especially is it w’rong because those who neglect to ponder the meaning of the day they celebrate miss the real purpose of every anniversary holiday —namely, to help keep alive in successive genera tions ideals and impulses necessary to national well-being. Os course this does not mean that an anni versary holiday should not be a day of relaxation. Everybody ought to get as much fun out of it as he possibly can. But some time ought to be devoted to think ing about its sign-iflcance. The circumstances which gave warrant for the holiday should be recalled. And the effort should be made to recall con cretely and vividly the people who, in the distant past, made the present holiday possible. There is a tendency in human nature to look upon those who lived in remote times as vague, shadowy, unreal figures. They become idealized, thereby losing much of their flesh and blood HOW ABOUT JAPAN? II _ BY FRRDERH WASHINGTON, D. C., June 24.—The statesmen of Japan have announced that the ambitious Japanese program for military and naval ex pansion is fixed and unalterable. It is beyond human power to change or amend, because the late Emperor sanctioned it, and now that the Emperor is dead, no man may modify a line of it. The people of Japan take this for an adequate ex planation of the government's course. The more intel ligent may see that the nation is already staggering under a bigger debt than she can carry, that the people are being taxed to the limit, and under the projected program will have to be taxed still more—but when the statesmen are called to account, they have only to fall back on the sanctity of the Imperial approval for their battlships and battalions.. The incident is significant. It is worth careful consideration because It brings out a condition running all through Japanese society, that constitutes one of the principal safeguards of the Japanese state in its present form, as well as one of the greatest menaces to any nation which will ingly or unwillingly, is forced to oppose Japan. No country whose relations with Japan promise to be as complex and delicate as those of the United States can afford to be ignorant of the immense part played in Japanese life by the sentiment of loyalty to the Emperor. It is more than loyalty; it is worship— not the worship men pay to a hero, but the worship men give to a god. The Emperor is a direct descendent from Heaven. He can not be said to rule by divine right, in the old European sense of the term, for he himself is divine. Japanese loyalty to the Imperial line has all the combined forces of patriotism and religion. The Japanese citizen exists for the greater glory of the Emperor. Service of the people is no pro gram for a Japanse politician. Service of the Emper or must be the main plank in his platform. It is possible to serve the people by lowering taxes, by introducing industrial reforms, by sticking to a policy of peace and quietude. Such a* program makes a poor sort of glory for the Empire and the Mikado. To magnify him before the nations of the earth, to carry his flag supreme over the Pacific, to make his army and his navy invincible, to make him the wonder and the master of the Orient—that is the sort of thing that makes an Emperor’s glory, and a consideration of Japan s history, ever since she grew’ big enough to fight shows that she has stuck to it closely. She has fought three wars in the last two decades; her arms have never met a serious reverse. Her place has been won by the sword. She has gotten great areas of new territory, she has taken a high place among the nations that have to be reckoned with in world politics, she has annexed a three-thousand-year-old kingdom, she has startled the world, In away; and yet, the mass of the Japanese people might be better off today if she had stayed at home and attended to busi ness. The people were never consulted. Their well being never came into consideration. It was the glory of the Empire. This creed of loyalty to the Mikado is not a pacific creed. It is a creed of militarism, as it has proved again and again. The exaltation of loyalty into the chief of the vir tues has other significant results. It explains a great many things about Japan. It throw’s light on the mar velously rapid way in w’hlch Japan look on all the trappings of western civilization, and at the same time it casts a certain doubt on the old idea that her progress in western ways entitles her to infinite credit. Japan took up the industrial culture of the Occident because the little group of men who ruled her fifty years ago, had the intelligence to see that she must either join the procession or be tramped under foot by it. The people were never consulted. The ignorant and superstitious masses regarded railways and tele graph lines with all the fear and hostility that might have been expected from them. They offered no ap preciable opposition because they had been trained for centuries, as no other people have been trained, in the custom of yielding to authority The relation of every rank to every other rank was fixed and Ironbound. Retainer ow’ed allegiance to his lord, and the lord bow’ed to the mandate of his overlord. At the head of the complex system stood the Mikado, whose word was law’. When that word went forth, to disobey was not only a civil and political crime, but a moral offense SHALL HE VOLUNTEER? 3Y DR. FRANK VKANK.- THE ANNIVERSARY SPIRIT by H. ADDINGTON BRUCE. amounts to exactly the same as if you volunteered as a policeman or special deputy in case a group of hoodlums were making unlawful disturbance in your own town. We have no quarrel with Mexicans. Our quar rel is with outlaws and criminals, who have no country, and we will have trouble with the Mexi can government only in case it seeks to prevent re pression of these criminals. This is not war, in the sense that Europe is at war. It is a big posse organized to keep the peace. Thanks to President V.Tlwn s infinite patience and steadfast adherence to friendliness toward Mexico, the young volunteer may rest assured that he is not going into any war to subdue a neighbor people, to do them any wrong, nor indeed to treat them any differently than we w*ould treat the citi zens of Illinois if they should break out in criminal violence. The fight in Europe is due to militarism, to the fact that all countries there were immense armed camps. There is no militarism here, and will not be. Our army exists only to keep the peace. Even if we should have to conquer Mexidb. to compel her people to observe law’ and order, we should not retain It. We handed Cuba over to the Cubans. We will give the plnl 'W' ne! ! ’° T l ' n ninos in due time. And if we take Mexico it win only be to deliver it promptly to the Mexican peo ple whenever they can conduct a civilized govern ment. __ . You go as a soldier of democracy, know exactly what the row is about. You go not as one of the whipped janizaries of a military autocracy for purposes you know not what; but you go as a citizen soldier for a definite purpose, a purpose , that is just, intelligent, and humane. Go. And when you get through you can come back home and go to work. In this country soldiering is an emergency, not a life job. . (Copyright, 1916, by Frank Crane.) This is unfortunate in so far as it gives rise to a feeling that they are models Impossible of imitation by reason of their transcendent great ness. People need to be reminded that, after all. the heroes of other days were men like them selves, hence men whose lives and achievements they can study to advantage. If these heroes achieved great things It wras not because they were super-men. No, it was simply because they made wise use of abilities that are the common heritage of mankind. As they have done, all men can and should do. Every national anniversary, consequently, ought to be made an occasion for renewing our acquaintance with the ’people who lived in the period the anniversary commemorates, and for pondering the principles which animated these Pe °That is the best, the surest way of getting the anniversary spirit, and of profiting from it for our own good and for the good of the nation to which we belong. Every American has in his home —or should have in his home —a graphic, well-written history of the stirring days of the struggle for national freedom. Tonight, on the eve of the Fourth, or some time during the Fourth itself, let him take this history down, read of the events leading up to the Decla-» ration of Independence, and read of the men who took part in the declaration movement. Let him read of these events and these men, and let him think of them. This can be done without interfering in the slightest with one’s holiday activities. It should be done as an essential element in the proper cel ebrating of this particular anniversary. (Copyright, 1916, by The Associated Newspapexg-X I.—The Religion of Loyalty J J. HASKIN. —— of the blackest, and a sin against divinity. Ages ®f this form of government made the Japanese nation, the most docile and tractable people on earth wher® their own authorities were concerned. So when the statesmen at the helm used the imperial) rescript to back up a scheme of railways, the swallowed its objections and built railways. In the same spirit, it accepted all the new things. The creedi of loyalty had robbed it of the privilege of protest, by. making that protest a sin. Even so today, the creedl of loyalty makes it a sin to tamper with things soi mundane as plans for dreadnaughts and half a dozen new army divisions. The late Emperor gave them( his approval. There is no more to be said. Another side of the creed of loyalty is the exaggera-i ted national pride that degenerates into national self consciousness. All casual observations of Japan muate be discounted by remembering that the Island empire, is probably “showing off.” Japan is worried about what the world thinks of her, to an extent that it 1» hard for an American to appreciate. We would like, to have the world think well of us, but if the world, can not see the manifold virtues of these United States of America, then so much the worse for the world- Not so with Japan. She is determined to appear before the nations la the best possible light, and to that end she conducts press campaigns, grants great subsidies to her enter-, prises, covers up her real industrial conditions and her* industrial inefficiency from the visitor, makes a show ing out of all proportion to her real wealth and com mercial importance. This Japanese characteristic could be passed over with a smile, if it were mere puerile vanity. But it is deadly serious pride and Japan is ready to flght it. Japan gets great credit and admiration from the thoughtless for her industrial advance, that carried her from the middle ages to the twentieth century al most at a bound. This advance is taken as evidence that Japan can become an England of the Orient, a great factory for eastern Asia. Japan herself cherishes and encourages the illusion in characteristic fashion. It la no more than an illusion. Japan might become the the England of the Orient if there were no England, and no America of the Occident. In straight, free competition with the west, Japan stands hardly a chance, for all her geographical advantage and she knows it. It is a fact that plays havoc with all her most vital institutions, from pride to her pantry. So she comes to the relief of her industries with subsidies and the sword. She alternates freight rebates with the dominaton of Chinese provinces. Her pride covers more than the military and com mercial glory of the Empire. It extends to the race itself. Japanese seriously believe that they are the most remarkable peoples of earth. Perhaps it is partly our fault; we have been telling them so for fifty years. They believe in their mission, which is to unite east and west, to dominate the Orient and act as mediator between Orient and Occident. Their great men tell them, and they believe, that the Japanese is the moral and intellectual superior of any other human being. For this reason, race prejudice against them has never stir red them deeply. Race prejudice only cuts when th® injured race has a consciousness of inferiority. But the Japanese pride is affronted by any discri mination against Japan as a nation. Her pride and her creed demand that the proudest of nations recognize her as an equal. Anything less is an insult to th® • whole fabric of Japanese society from top to bottom. Japan will go to any length rather than to labor In definitely under the least stigma of inferiority. Another effect of the Japanese religion of worth considering is its effect in questions of w*ar, an* the declaration of war. It prevents the forming of an opposition party under such circumstances, because such opposition is deprived of the sanction of principle which it often has in a western country. There are what purport to be powerful peace societies in Japan, yet neither before the Chinese, nor the Russian, nor the present German war did they make any opposition worth mentioning. Neither do the peace advocates of Japan, either Japanese or American, attack the Jap anese army and navy expansion schemes. They con tent themselves with attacking the military program of the United States of America.
