J. H. de Forest

“ It brings a bitter sense of shame to this Bushido land to have the world know that among her statesmen and soldiers are men of such pitiable moral weakness, men who have fallen from the lofty ideals of the Samurai. ”

“ Japan has from the first studied most carefully every phase of international law, and so she virtually never makes a mistake, whether it be in sinking an enemy's ships before any declaration of war, or in the practical treatment of that delicate problem of extraterritoriality. But China from the first has spurned international law, and consequently is always in hot water in her treaty relations It would meana new China if Peking would employ and be guided by an able international lawyer, as Japan always has done even to this day. ”

“ The fact is, Japan is midway between her old Samurai ideals and the larger and universal morality. So that the papers on both sides of this question call the General a coaward--if he does and if he donesn't. It seems that those who have studied in the West have caught the larget view and see that the old code of honor can no longer be defender! One of these men who had studied at Yale wrote a sincere and powerful protest against this Bushido solution of disgrace. ”

“ Japan certainly has a natural inside track here in the East. Her people know the conditions as Westerners do not, and are at home in the language and customs and business methods of this this populous part of the world. And they not only have natural innings, but they constantly seek to improve on what they have.
Here is an illustration of their business methods: I saw scores of young men leaving Nagasaki this summer for Shanghai. ”

“ There is a similar feeling of shame in Christian America that among our princely merchants there are some who carry out gigantic swindles, and in our municipal governments there is so much of abominable graft. ”

“ And as one of them says: "In ten years it will not be the white people, but our capitalists who shall obtain the financial rights of China." Already this one school has over a hundred graduates at work in the eighteen provinces, with intimate knowledge of conditions at disposal of Japanese capitalists.
Now an open door may seem pretty well closed to foreigners who are thus handicapped. Westerners have developed a mighty trade out hare, and have built up such world centers as Shanghai, but there are more Japanese living in that emporium than all the Westerners put together. ”

“ But in one respect Japan's feeling of shame produces a peculiar public sentiment as to the duty of the defaulters. They should commit suicide! The old Bushido sentiment is yet strong, and the story of the two presidents vividly illustrates it. ”

“ As to internal affeirs, Japan has had one of those generous crops of rice, 275,000,000 bushls. that make the farmers feel poor. This magnificent harvest is worth about $300,000,000, but the price having fallen nearly one-quarter, producers get a poor reward for their toil, and so business is generally dull. ”

“ Such men can, of cause, get their goods put thru more expeditiously, can be quicker at buying, can find out changes in conditions more rapidly than foreigners who have to rely so much on compradores and interpreters. ”

“ But the more influential papers recognized that political assassination is something that all nations suffer from and freely cited such cases as that of the Japanese policeman who, twenty years ago, thru his distorted patriotism, almost killed the present Czer, when as Crown Prince he was visiting Japan ”