Golden Age, March 2, 1921
Download: PDF — Golden Age, March 2, 1921
Mm. 2.1921. Vol U, Na 38 fSf PulUthst otHer IKI tcselc at 35 Myrtle dveaata, \2|r BrooNym Tew Tor* Ctfff
Tte Onto a Ca*r—SLM ■ Tter
Canada and Boreica Conntrfaa, *2J0
M&x ■ ■ ’ n ~ , •-*
7'^ ... •-
Vo:.VMS S WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2.1P21 MMft
. CONTENTS of the GOLDEN AGE
political—domestic and foreign
Japan and Korea- ---307 Japan and Hawaii---
jtanchuria and Mongolia-308 Japan and Shaatea*— . JOB japan and China
Japan and Siberia—:
japan and Nikolaievsk—311 Japan and Vladivostoekl—312 Japan and Saghallen
Win Japan Fight Aaaerleal 114
CaHftmia's Japan tan Problem_____
CaMforaia'a Allan land Law
ImmigraUon and Natural-laatlon _______2__1
wm n*» Be War?
Japan and the Lord-PadSe lalanda
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
A Tale at Binion Dollar Sweetness
When the Sugar Orgy Started______
Corrective Measures Applied-____________
other Countries SuSer____
Who Got the BUMoa?______.__I
American Sugar Trust___;________________
Breaking the Coben Corns —_________________z
Consumption and Production
HOUSEWIFERY AND HYGIENE
SubsUtatea for Sugar Cane—___
TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY Color and World Empire______________=
In Foreign Landa—Zionism in Paleatine.....
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
Advanced Bible Study
Views of Atheism, Calvinism and Arminianiam 331 The Heathen Not Saved
Through Ignorance
The Ransom to be Teetl-ded In Due Time.
Juvenile Bible Study
The Golden Age (poem)—33*
fc;' . ■ . - . '
The Golden Age
J.,. Vohun^F New York, Wednesday, March 2, 1921 -m-—-a= ynmbgr gg
Japan—The Frankenstein of Christendom <Part Tw°)
TAPAN first went on the war-path about twenty-five years ago, just at the time when the belligerent and hypocritical “Christian” governments of the world were helping them. selves to foreign possessions everywhere. She made a sudden attack upon China, and gained an almost immediate victory, but was deprived of the fruits of it by the Christian powers taking for themselves the things that she had expected to seize.
The second adventure was with Russia only a few years later. Russia was pushing railway terminals and troops into Chinese territory contiguous to Japanese possessions. The two , nations were in diplomatic discussion of the ’ matter when, without warning, Japanese warships entered a Russo-Chinese port, blew up and sunk a great man-of-war with hundreds of men aboard, and the war was on.
Immediately opposite Japan, on the mainland, was the little Christian kingdom of Korea, one of the most peaceful, inoffensive countries in the world, with a history four thousand years old. In order to get at the Russians, Japan deliberately invaded Korea, the same as Germany invaded Belgium in 1914. But in this case, in order u> save their country, the Koreans ' made no resistance. Meantime Japan gave the • governments- of the world the usual solemn assurances that she would not violate the inde-. pendence of Korea. She could not have been more pious and emphatic in these assurances if > she had been Britain making similar promises respecting Egypt. The result in each case was . the same.
In 1910^ after waiting what seemed to her a sufficiently^ decent length of time, Japan for-
1 mally annexed Korea, having previously extorted a treaty of protectorate at the point of the sword. Since then, the Koreans have been clamoring for the independence which the United States, in common with other nations, guaranteed them thirty years ago. Korea has been ruled with great severity by a military governor until recently, when the policy was softened somewhat, and a civil governor appointed instead.
Immediately after annexation, all books and literature dealing with Korean history were confiscated, and a Japanese version of Korean history was put into use instead. The possession of any of the ancient Korean literature is considered sufficient ground for imprisonment. Korean students may not receive higher education in any country other than Japan.
In December, 1918, some of the Koreans made an effort to regain their liberties. Bands of them, cooperating with Chinese, invaded Korea from the Chinese territory which adjoins, but met with a terrible punishment; and this punishment spread to natives throughout the peninsula. . .
Many innocent Koreans were put to death without trial. Two processions of unarmed men and women pleading for leniency were mowed dowm by machine guns. Instances are narrated of students whose finger nailswere torn out by the roots in order to force them to name their fellow-conspirators for the restoration of Korean liberties. Details are given of persons whose heads were screwed under letter-presses to extract confessions, and of women who were subjected to great indignities, such as officers spitting in their faces, and exposing them unnecessarily in police examinations.
Hundreds of houses were burned, including churches, school buildings and other structures. The official Japanese military statement regarding these burnings and the accompanying killings follows:
“All these buildings had been used by the Korean malcontents and were places of inquiry, which disqualified
them from consideration. The burning of houses, whether used for religious or educational purposes, was done only in cases of necessity, after unquestionable proof of their character had been obtained, sometimes from a majority of the villagers. The execution of insurgents, persons whose crimes were serious, took place with the same care as to proof of guilt.”
To read these stories one would think that these bloodthirsty Japanese have as little regard for the natives as have the American troops in Hayti or the British troops in India, Egypt or Ireland.
In 1915 out of a population of nearly 16,000,000 in Korea only 303,000 were Japanese, illustrating that the Japanese are loath to leave their native land even for that nearest them. Those who have migrated to Korea do not mingle with the Koreans, but maintain their own sort of government and schools, the same as elsewhere. The Koreans hate them and show their hatred in every way. The latest report is that they are planting only what rice they need for themselves, being unwilling to do anything that will help Japan directly or indirectly. Many of the Koreans are now becoming Bolshe-viki, as much because Bolshevism is offensive to Japan as for any reason.
Manchuria and Mongolia
S PREVIOUSLY narrated, Japan’s invasion of Korea was in order to gain access to the Russian troops then overrunning Manchuria, China’s extreme northeastern state, lying along the Korean border. Since that time, while agreeing at times to the United States insistence that the integrity of China be left unimpaired so that all nations may trade with her freely, Japan has done all possible to diminish Chinese authority and increase Japanese power in that great state.
The principal avenue of trade is the Chinese Eastern Railway, the Chinese terminus, so to speak, of the Trans-Siberian system. A great battle of financiers and governments'is going on for the control of this road; and in spite of all efforts to dislodge them the Japanese have the best if; and have succeeded in virtually monopolizing it.
In March, 1920, the road was reorganized, securing a Chinese majority on the directorate; the next month the Japanese seized the control of it. They have troops stationed all along from Peking to the northern terminus, at all the ports, and at all the strategic military points, such as Shan-Hai-Kuan, where the Great Wall runs into the sea.
In July an international commission of American, French and British representatives stated that the Chinese bandits operating in Manchuria along lines of railway coveted by. the Japanese are found to be armed with Japanese guns "and that a foreign influence is exercised in favor of the bandits for the evident purpose of destroying Chinese authority”. The same report states that the Japanese neglect ho occasion to interfere with the administration of the railroad, its grounds and its buildings. This road is an extremely valuable property and is now being electrified on a grand scale.
What is true of Manchuria is almost equally true of Mongolia, the great state which lies to the west of Manchuria, and which at one time was China’s most northern state. Mongolia seceded from China in 1912, but is now sorry for it, as she sees herself being drawn more and more into the meshes that have made Manchuria practically a Japanese province.
The railway lines in Mongolia have also beeK overrun by Japanese troops, the weakness or absence of Chinese governmental authority in these states being given as reasons for Japan’s continued presence of troops within them. The Japanese claims have been helped along by an agreement between Japan and Soviet Russia in which the latter, in order to secure peace, conceded to Japan “all Russian mining, railway and forestry concessions in Manchuria and Mongolia, either developed or undeveloped”.
The international financiers have seen the pie disappearing from the counter, and anxious to participate in the profits, have joined together to practically force a loan upon China in which the revenues from these railways would pay perpetual interest on the loan, and afford an excuse for at least delaying the day when Japan would seize these states outright, as she did Korea.
Japan was invited to go into the consortium of American, British and French bankers. At first she 'demanded special rights and privileges in Eastern Mongolia and Southern Manchuria, but finally yielded the point verbally, and her bankers, “with the express consent and approval of the Government”, withdrew their
reservations. So the “open door” in these states is still "or-en”, even if precariously so.
Japan anti Shantung
THE Shantung story has already been told in The Golden Age No. 3. We will not repeat the story hero of the perfidious arrangement by which 36,000,000 Chinese Republicans, in the best part of China, were gobbled up by Japan, after China had been virtually forced into the World War by the United States, and had been assured by the United States Ambassador at Peking that her rights in Shantung would be championed at the peace convention. But they Were not.
At the time of the peace negotiations, and periodically since, Japan has been guaranteeing and promising and assuring that she would leave the province. But she does not leave, has no intention of leaving and will never leave. She repeatedly offers to negotiate with China as to the return of the province, but China holds her nose high in the air and declines to negotiate. She cannot understand why she should negotiate to get back what belongs to her, something !of which the Japanese have not even a remotely just claim.
Does any one suppose that the militarists who are making fabulous fortunes by smuggling opium by the ton into Shantung will find no excuse for staying there • or that the wonderful iron ore deposits which Japan needs so much, or the coal fields that produced for her a million tons in 1919, -will be straightway turned over to their legitimate owners?
Even if all these reasons could be set aside, there are still Japanese shippers who are profiting by rebates not granted to other shippers, and favored by having their own goods hastened forward while the goods of other nationals’ lie at the docks, who will see all kinds of reasons why Japan should at least continue to manage the railways.
Japan and China
AFTER , seeing what Japan has done to China’^ neighbor Korea, and to the interests of the Chinese Republic in Manchuria, one might think it strange that more could be said of Japanese relations with China. But the fact is that Japan has aspirations to overrun the whole of the most populous country of the earth, and to reduce it to vassalage, and is moving to that end in ways that are peculiarly oriental, or at least Japanese.
In the first six months of the war, when the hands of all the other great nations of the world were fully occupied, Japan issued her notorious twenty-one demands upon China, presented in the form of an ultimatum, and virtually demanding complete control of the country. The London Daily News says:
“Japan’s whole policy during the war was to destroy the independence and integrity of China, to make it her own property and to exclude every other nation from the opportunity of trading on fair and equal terms.”
For years China has been trying to establish an effective government; and for years Japan has maintained at her capital, under salary, peace disturbers whose duty it has been to see to it that a unified government should not be established. Opposing factions have been multiplied and liberally financed in order to keep the country prostrate while Japan slowly penetrates deeper and deeper into her vitals.
The Chinese have not been entirely asleep all this time. They have remarked the "fortuitous concourse” of affairs by which "Chinese bandits” always make attacks in places the Japanese are anxious to obtain, thus necessitating the garrisoning of those places by Japanese troops. In the effort partially to square the account, there has been a widespread boycotting of Japanese goods by Chinese; and while this has hurt Japanese trade in Northern China, what has been lost there has been made up by the monopoly in Shantung. But all Chinese are as bitter against Japan as are the Koreans.
Few people realize the greatness of China. It contains one-fourth of all the people of the world; and though it has no roads and almost no railroads, yet between its canals and rivers it has more miles of waterways than the United States has of railways. In pursuance of her cold-blooded plan for the domination of this great and peaceful country, Japan has for nine years maintained a body of troops and a big wireless station at Hankow, nearly six hundred miles up the Yang-tse River.
Stung into a realization that her attitude towards China was at last placing her in odium with all other nations of the world, Japan, in November, 1920, decided voluntarily to aban-
3 io The Golden Age for March 2, 1921
don the arrangement, forced upon China during the war, by which, since that time, she has held a controlling hand over Chinese military forces. Japan is said to be worried by the spread of Bolshevist doctrines in China.
Japan and Siberia ’
ON AUGUST 9, 1918, while the war was still on, an arrangement was effected between America, England, France, and Japan, by which troops were to be sent into Siberia to facilitate the movement eastward of a detachment of . Czech-Slovak troops, originally forced by German commanders to fight against their Slav brothers in Russia, subsequently captured by the Russians and sent to Siberia, and now eager to return to France to fight against Germany, under the allied promise, made and kept, that they should have a separate country of their own when peace should be established.
The agreement was that the troops that went into Siberia should not interfere with Russian affairs. The United States was to send in not over 10,000, England and France a less number, and Japan not over 12,000. As soon ,as the doors were opened, the Japanese rushed in troops to the number of 150,000, although the usual assurances were made that the number did not exceed 46,000, or later 73,000. The fact remains, however, that the bill which provided for the payment of the wages of these men called for payment of 150,000. The United States sent in 9,000. The Siberian expedition was undertaken at the suggestion of the United States Government.
By consenting to intervention in Siberia the United States deliberately put into J apan’s hands the opportunity for domination of that country which she has coveted for years. The minute they got into it, the Japanese acted as though they were the divinely appointed custodians of the whole country. It is claimed that not only did they not assist the Czechs to leave, but that they actually hindered them; and yet their only excuse for being in the country was that they were supposed to help the Czechs to get away. Certain zdnes; set apart for the Chinese to guard weredaken over by the Japanese without so much as a “by your leave”. .
The Japanese displayed great efficiency in furnishing supplies and relief of all kinds for stricken parts of Siberia, whereas the United States promised much and accomplished little. But, at the same time, the Japanese shipped in vast quantities of goods as military supplies, and hence free of duty, which were subsequently turned over to Japanese merchants and sold to the people at fabulous prices. .
In a brief time, Japanese troops were in all that portion of Siberia east of Lake Baikal establishing garrisons, buying land, forests and all sorts of enterprises, mines, public utilities and other concessions to so great an extent as to give Japan a perpetual excuse for maintaining or sending in troops unless things go.to suit her.
Difficulties began to arise. The expedition was expensive, costing $100,000,000 a year. It was unpopular at home. The soldiers did not like the intense cold and had to be frequently relieved. The United States became inquisitive, taking the position that anything that tends to close up Russian territory is a direct violation of the open door policy in the Far East, and asked Japan to define her policy in Siberia, no doubt realizing that with the Mikado in possession of Korea, Shantung and Siberia, the Japanese domination of China and of Asia is a certainty, liable to carry with it the domination of the world.
Japan and Nikolaievsk
B'Y THE close of 1918 the Czechs were all out of Siberia, the excuse for allied occupancy was ended, the Americans were returning home, and there was every reason for the Japanese to do likewise, when an occurrence took place that gave them just the excuse they desired for remaining.
One of the' points the Japanese had garrisoned was the port of Nikolaievsk, twenty-five miles up the Amur River from its mouth in the Okhotsk Sea and five hundred miles down that river from Khabarovsk, the point where the Northern Siberian railway turns straight south to go through the Ussuri valley to Vladivostock. Any Czech who wanted to get to Nikolaievsk would have had to travel five hundred miles out of his way, and that distance away from the nearest railway. The region is valuable for its fisheries and forestry, and would be a valuable asset to Japan.
On March tenth the Russian officer, Trapit-sin, in charge of Nikolaievsk, called upon tbc-Japanese garrison to give up the post and ga . >
7v?:- .
Isf • -. ■
£ > , z.j2 The Golden Age for March 2, 1921
' - them two days in which to arrange to do so. At
’ five o’clock on the morning of March eleventh the Japanese garrison surrounded the building
■: sheltering the Russian staff, bombed the build
s'. ing, set fire to it and killed or wounded those who endeavored to escape. Their expectation was to destroy the lives of the officers at one blow, no doulfi calculating that they would then be able to subdue at once the unorganized army of Soviet troops.
The attack was not a success. The Japanese J were driven back to their barracks, and were subsequently put to death for their treacherous night attack upon those with whom they had for 1 weeks been fraternizing on the best of terms. ; The Russians then destroyed the city by fire and explosives and retreated into Siberia, i knowing that an avenging expedition would be ! upon them as soon as navigation opened, which - was true-
j The Japanese have made a great outcry about
the "massacre” and look upon the soldiers and
i others who died at Nikolaievsk as martyrs, for whose.death full atonement must be made as ’ soon as Siberia shall come under the control of t a Russian government that the Allies see their way to recognize. Meantime the Japanese con-
7 tinue to retain the city, together with Alexan-drovsk, a warmer port, two hundred miles farther south on the Siberian mainland.
I -
। Japan and VladivOstock
TTTjADIVOSTOCK is the most important । V point in Siberia; for it is the only outlet of
that vast country upon the greatest of all the * oceans. From this port the last of the American
troops, sailed for home April 1, 1920. On the I night of April 4 the Japanese suddenly seized t the city, their lines having been previously ex
tended so as to cover the hills commanding it.
. There was no disorder in Vladivostoek at the , . time if was seized. The signal for its seizure
was the statement published by the Japanese Government, on April 3, immediately after the t departure of the American troops, that the
- Japanese troops would be withdrawn as soon as the "unrest” in the city was ended.
People*, who were in the city at the time the ’ seizure occurred report that they saw no armed
men at any time except the Japanese, although they did see unarmed civilians shot down with-
• out warning. The cannonading took place .at
night. Some women and girls were killed. One girl was bayoneted for calling the Japanese monkeys. Some dead bodies were thrown into wells, and some men were buried alive, with at least one instance where the victim revived sufficiently to crawl out of the dirt in which he had been buried. Pedestrians were searched, their papers destroyed and money taken. Stores were burned and documents of public buildings destroyed.
The usual official statement appeared in due course that the seizure of the city, following so opportunely the disappearance of the'American troops over the horizon, was due to “threatened and aggressive acts", leaving it to the imagination whether the acts were “threatened” merely or “aggressive", and if so in what respects.
As early as December, 1919, it was reported that a “gentleman’s agreement” had been entered into between Washington and Tokio to the effect that Japan should retain control of the Maritime Province of Siberia after the withdrawal of American troops. If so, it was a deal between burglars as to what disposition should be made of another man’s property.
Anyway, that is what happened. The Maritime Province of Siberia is a great strip of country of the size of California, eight hundred and fifty miles in length, from Nikolaievsk, at the mouth of the Amur River, on the western edge of the Okhotsk sea to Vladivo-stock, the eastern terminus of the Siberian Northern Railway, in the northwestern corner of the Japan sea.
Half way between, at the junction of the river and the railway, lies Khabarovsk, also held by the Japanese. East of Khabarovsk, on the sea coast, is Alexandrovsk; and the Japanese hold that, too. They have the Maritime Province in their grasp, and they will never let it go. The rich mines of the Ussuri valley are all included in this area. _
The Japanese troops have been withdrawn from other Siberian provinces, but they can be sent back conveniently at anytime their presence is desired. Just now the Japanese Government does not care to have them in too close contact with the Russians; for they come back well tinged with the propaganda of the Soviets. December 4,1920, the Japanese formally shut the Pacific Coast and the Manchurian frontier to the Soviet Republic.
It is not considered likely that very many Japanese will emigrate to Siberia. The climate is too cold for them. But Japan alone is now in position to control the vast resources of that country for her own aggrandizement. The Japanese are particular where they go. They want . nothing but the best climates, and the most fertile, spots, and have been very successful in obtaining these in California, as will be shown hereafter. If they cannot colonize Siberia they will at least see that those who do develop it ..shall pay tribute to the Nipponese empire.
Several months ago Washington D. Vander-lip and a syndicate of California bankers announced that they had received concessions from the Soviet Government authorizing the exploitation by them of the mines, forests and fisheries of Northeastern Siberia, the section north of that now controlled by Japan, and inaccessible to Russia except through the ports now in Japanese hands.
But the Japanese foreign office has stated that in view of the fact that the Russian Soviet Government has not been recognized by the .world powers, it will not recognize the agree-'inent with Vanderlip, probably on the principle that before gentlemen enter into an agreement they should consult highwaymen in the vicinity to see whether these have objections to offer. As the United States Government itself refuses to recognize Soviet Russia, it is, in this, playing directly into Japanese hands.
Another little item has helped along nicely in the same direction. There is a Japanese fishing company which has been engaged in fishing along the shores of Kamchatka, a part of the area in question. The president of that company is an American gentleman. When the opportune time arrived, he persuaded the Japanese Government to send warships to patrol the Kamchatkan shores “to protect the fisheries of his company from raids by the Bolshevists”, or, in plain English, to prevent the Russian owner? of the country from controlling their own property. This means that Kamchatka, too, is lost to Russia qnd gained for Japan.
Japan aneTTSaghalien
TO THE north of Japan, and between it and Kamchatka, is the great island of Saghalien, originally discovered, so the Japanese claim, by a Nipponese traveler, Mamiya, about two hundred years ago. Thereafter, until 1876, the whole island belonged to Japan; but in 1860, when Russia took away from China the adjacent Maritime Province of Siberia (the same that has now passed into Japanese hands) they compelled the Japanese to exchange their hold upon the northern half of the island for less important islands of the Chishima or Kurile group. At the couclusion of the Russo-Japanese war the lower half of the island was restored to Japan by the treaty of Portsmouth.
Saghalien has an area of 29,000 square miles and a population of 30,000, one-half of whom are ex-Russian convicts, or their descendants. This is nothing against these people; for under the Czar the usual procedure with a man in Russia who showed that he was beginning to use his brains was to ship him off to Siberia or Saghalien. The island contains rich deposits of iron, coal, oil, gold and silver. ,
When the United States Government invited Japan’s cooperation in Siberia the Japanese saw their opportunity and helped themselves to everything Russian, including the upper portion of Saghalien, which has no connection whatever with the Siberian mainland. This finished the job; and the Japanese now have in their control all the Asiatic coast north of Hongkong, except a British post, Wei-hai-wei, on the gulf of Peking.
Everything having been promptly removed from the stable, and the United States Government noticing the empty look, it proceeded to examine the lock, and inquired why Japan had stolen the Saghalien horse. With assurances that everything was all riglit, Japan thereupon sent in four thousand more troops and completed the occupation of the island.
This is the usual Japanese method, to wait until a protest is made and then do in the most conclusive and effective manner the very thing protested against. Meantime, of course, Japanese feelings are hurt because the United States should notice this little theft and shut its eyes to all the big ones that have taken place in Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia and elsewhere.
Japan and Mid-Pacific Islands
MIDWAY between the Hawaiian Islands and the Philippines is the island of Guam, all of which are United States possessions. About the island of Guam, on all sides, north, south, east ami west, are the three groups of seven hundred islaads which formerly belonged to Germany; namely, the Caroline Islands, the Marshall Islands and the Mariana or Ladrone Islands, which came into Japanese control during the war. These islands are now being heavily fortified by Japan. Converted into submarine bases they would render the Philippines incapable of defense by the United States.
In a straight line between Guam and the Philippines is the Island of Yap, the former center of the German cable system to these Mid-Pacific islands. In many respects this island is the key to the control of the United States route to its possessions in the East. It was the only thing that the United States asked as a result of its participation in the World War, involving such huge sacrifices of millions of men and billions in money.
There is a deadlock over this island. Japan has control of it and refuses to give it up, as usual. The United States demands that the cable from Yap to Guam, at least, should come exclusively under American control; but Japan insists on a half interest in it, and it is hard to see how her decision can be overturned without severing the cable.
In the Philippines themselves, in April, 1920, three thousand Filippino farmers walked eighteen miles to Manila, to the Governor General’s office, to protest against the sale of a 13,000 acre Spanish hacienda to Japanese owners. Eighty percent of these depended upon this estate for their living. Farther south, thousands of Japanese are taking up homes in the Dutch East Indies.
Still farther south, the Australians are reported as much alarmed at the prospect of complete Japanese domination of the Pacific and are said to be hoping for a war between Japan and .America, in the belief that at this time America could gain a victory, and delay the rising tide for a long time, now that we have come to barbaric days wherein the victor in a war virtually exterminates his opponents.
Away1 to the southeast, in Peru, a Japanese drug syndicate has purchased 800,000 acres of land and is negotiating fdr 300,000 more. In recent year# there has been a considerable Japanese immigration to Peru with a consequent moaopblization of many of the small industries; but owing to the business boom in Japan in 1919 there were only 1,200 immigrants that year. In the same year Japanese immi-grants to Brazil fell off to 2,500 as compared with 5,500 the year before.
Japan and Hawaii
THE population of Hawaii ia 255,912, of whom 102,470 are Japanese. This large Japanese population was brought into Hawaii at the request of American sugar manufacturers, jrho persuaded the Hawaiian Government to solicit the Japanese Government to send them. The Japanese have found the climate congenial and evidently expect to stay.
Before and after going to the American schools, the Japanese children must attend schools of their own, some of which are in. session as early as six o’clock in the morning. These schools, taught by Shinto priests, thoroughly instill into the minds of the young Japanese the twaddle about the Mikado; and that their first duty is loyalty to that particular pope, even if they do become American citizens. In Hawaii, as elsewhere, every Japanese is supposed to remain a Japanese citizen, subject to the call to arms.
Following the annexation of Hawaii many of the Japanese there came to the mainland, as they call the United States, attracted thither by the relatively high wages. In a few years they have, by their superior industry, ability and resourcefulness, taken over most of the hotel, wholesale grocery and movie business of Seattle, the Alaskan fisheries, a generous share of the Hood River apple district, 85 percent of the Rocky Ford melon business of Colorado, and are now in large numbers in the wonderful Imperial Valley of California. In 1918 the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (Japanese Mail Steamship Company) paid in taxes to the city of Seattle the sum of $2,924,000.
Will Japan Fight America?
IN SEPTEMBER, 1910, the American Veterans of Foreign Wars went on record as expecting trouble with Japan in the near future. A month later, the American Associations in Tokio and Yokohama sent cablegrams to the State Department, warning that the situation in California (which we shall discuss presently) had aroused intense feeling, and threatened the destruction of the friendship W’hich had hitherto existed between Japan and America.
Tn the same month the Japanese Government began sending circulars throughout the country, asking physicians, surgeons, dentists, pharmacists, tailors, blacksmiths and others, whether they would be willing to serve in the army in case of war.
The month following, thousands of Japanese students met in Tokio to discuss the question, "Shan Japan Fight America!” The opinion was prevalent among them that they were justified m going to war, but the advisability of doing so was not fully agreed upon. At the same time ^mobs in Tokio twice broke up Salvation Army 'meetings.
On November 18, the Chicago Tribune stated that it had received information from a source of unquestioned integrity, supported by secret documents, which led it to believe that the Vatican at Rome confidently expects war between Japan and the United States in the near future. They may even be working to bring it about
_ About the same time a Japanese Representative, General Kodama, who undertook a series of lectures in the Japanese Y. M. C. A. stating .what would happen in the event of war between the two countries, was silenced by the authorities, who issued warnings to the newspapers 'against inserting defiant utterances or indulging in lies.
It is common talk among the schoolboys of Japan that they are studying English in order that they may be able to govern America after they have conquered her, and Marshal Petain, commander-in-chief of the French armies during the World War is of the opinion that war between the two countries will not be long delayed. He has expressed the thought that the Japanese will content themselves with trying to seize American possessions in the Pacific, but thinks that after a terrible war they null be the losers in the conflict.
The Japanese are equally confident there will be a war between the two countries, a recent widely-sold Japanese book stating in its preface, “Those who do not foresee the future war between Japan and the United States are either blind or imbecile”. They see a different ending to it, however, with the Philippines, Hawaii, Panama Canal and California all in Japanese hands, at its conclusion.
California's Japanese Problem
THERE are not many Japanese in California, but those who are there are so industrious and frugal that the native Americans cannot compete with them. Within a few years a common laborer earns enough to become a land owner, or amasses sufficient capital to purchase standing crops.
They are all law-abiding; there are no Bolshevists or communists among them; they have been found so capable as workers in the hot fields of the interior that they are paid $4J0 to $5 per day as workers as compared with $3.50 to $4 per day for white help. Land owners testify that they would rather lease their lands to Japanese than Americans because the Japanese take better care of the properties.
Out of a total population in the state of about 3,000,000, the Japanese number 87,279 or percent; but they have concentrated in favored spots of seven of the fifty-eight counties to such an extent that they have secured control of the production and marketing of the potatoes, tomatoes, berries and spinach of the State, and in these sections have driven out the whites and displaced the white children in the public schools. They are not assimilable in a white community, and as they grow in years they become less so. The Californians force them to herd by themselves, usually in very cramped quarters.
The first complaint of the Californians was that the Japanese sent their savings home. This was true, owing to the fact that the first arrivals were heavily mortgaged to the immigration agencies that had sent them hither. The second complaint was that they did not send their savings home, but bought up the best and choicest lands in the State.
Out of 11,389,894 acres under cultivation in California it is variously estimated that the Japanese own 30,000 to 75,000 acres, and have under lease 250,000 to 400,000 acres, out of the total of 29,000,000 acres of arable land in the State. It is estimated that the Japanese in California are producing property of the value of $100,000,000 each year. When San Francisco burned, the people of Japan sent the city a gift of $250,000, and during the war the Japanese residents of the State of California bought Liberty Bonds to the amount of $2,000,000.
In the last ten years the population of California has increased 1,648,987. Of this in crease 38,500 were Japanese, or 3.6 percent of the total increase. But it is not past peri; ■•'.nances that are worrying the Californians so . ueh as future possibilities. Until six months after February 1, 1920, at which time th? Japanese Government refused to issue any more passports for them, the Japanese laborers already here continued to receive wives selected for them in Japan by the postcard picture method.
These wives made a. most as efficient laborers in the fields as did their husbands; and they presented thoir husbands with a remarkable crop of young Japanese Americans, so that while, ten years ago, the Japanese population of California was 41,356 it was reported at the end of the decade as 87,279.
There are no new laborers coming in, and there have not been for many years, under the so-called Gentleman’s Agreement with Japan; and there is no proof that this agreement has ever been violated, so that the increase is to be accounted for partly by the 28,037 children born during the decade, partly by the picture bride arrivals, of whom there will be no more, and partly by the arrival of dependent minor children and aged parents, permitted to come in under the agreement.
What frightens the Californians is the carrying out by the Japanese of their declared plan of filling California by the natural method of births, though for political purposes the problem has been staged as an immigration problem. This it is not, however. Californians claim that with the Japanese population increasing 111 percent in ten years they foresee by 1972 a California in which half of the babies born in the state will be Japanese.
They object, too, to the system of so-called Japanese Associations in America, of which practically all Japanese in the country are members, paying taxes in the form of dues, reporting all births, marriages and deaths, and always dealing with their own Government, if at all, through such Associations. Japanese Associations and Japanese schools together make the Japanese in America a race entirely by themselves. The fees for membership in the Associations vary from $3 to $24 per year, depending upon the income of the member.
California’s Alien Land Law"
I'N THE effort to preserve California as a white man’s country, citizens of that State at the 1920 fall elections, passed by an overwhelming majority an anti-alien land leasing law, which Vent into effect December tenth, forbidding-aliens not eligible to citizenship to hold land in the State, or to lease it, or to hold it for minors eligible to citizenship, or to hold it by means of land-owning corporations. Severe penalties are provided.
It is not unusual for a state or nation to prohibit foreigners from owning or leasing land, particularly agricultural land. California’s attitude in this respect is identical with that of Canada, New Zealand and Australia, except that Australia’s act is more severe. Japan herself has had for years a law forbidding land ownership to aliens, but has recently drafted a new land law under which foreigners whose native countries grant the same privileges to the Japanese residents may own land in Japan.
The aspect of the matter which irritates the Japanese is that the California law so particu-. larly marks them out and has the effect of destroying the values they have so industriously created, although, as a matter of fact, the law, if upheld by the Supreme Court, cannot fail to grant indemnification to those whose lands are expropriated.
Japan fears also that the California spirit of exclusion may spread to other states and countries. There is no real reason why it should, in view of the fact that between 80 percent and 85 percent of all the Japanese in America are in California, and they are only a handful even there. Yet it is said that legislation will be introduced in the Texas legislature this season tq prevent Japanese holding land in Texas. There are 8,000,000 foreigners in America who are not naturalized, and the Japanese think too great an effort is being made to single out their 80,000, which is but 1 percent of the total, for treatment of this kind.
The California question has become the main political question of Japan, the Government party, the Seiyu-kai, maintaining that the question will be amicably settled, while the opposition party, the Kensei-kai, is urging that a strong stand be taken. Marquis Okuma, former Japanese Premier, in an address at Tokio, November 15, declared that if California’s law is supported by America nothing but force will remain. And it should be added that when Japan feels that she has reached her limit in any matter she strikes and strikes without warning. ,
’ The Japanese attitude is summed up by Viscount Kato, former Ambassador at Washington ;
“That America, which constantly is advocating the cause of righteousness and humanity, should dare, without giving proper reasons, to deprive Japanese of the fruits of many years of painstaking labor, is an act we can never overlook. That America, of all countries, should resort to an act so cruel and inhuman is really inexplicable.”
Immigration and Naturalization '
NO OBJECTION has ever been made by the
United States to the admission of Japanese professional men, financiers, merchants, trav-dors, students or religious teachers; and for ten years there have been no others coming from Japan, as already explained. Students of international law recognize the absolute right of every ’union to regulate immigration as it 'deems best. Japan prohibits the immigration of Chinese into Japan, and America prohibits their immigration into the United States.
One reason for the bitter hatred of the Japan-esc by the i 'hinese is that after the Russo-Japanese war Chinese laborers came into Japan in large niu.sbers, attracted by the high wages caused by the war. This led to the Japanese' imperial ordinance number 352. prohibiting the coming of these laborers. The race prejudice which developed is mutual, even the little children, from one end of Japan to the other, holding the Chinese in great disesteCm.
There have been Japanese in America for sixty years. During that period foreign immigrants to the United States have been 27,000,000, of whom 101,000 only have come from '‘ Japan. In the first ten years of the present century the total immigrants were 8,785,000 and only 62,452 of these were Japanese.
Large numbers of Japanese residents of California, especially fanners, spend their winters in Japan, as they have the right to do under the agreement, returning in the spring.
The Gentleman’s Agreement to stop immigration of Japanese laborers went into effect in 1908, and not an instance of its violation has ever been proven. Moreover, to appease some Amer- • icans who claimed the Japanese were coming in over the Mexican border, the Japanese Government ten years ago strictly prohibited the emigration of her subjects to Mexico, and more re-rtcently arranged to prevent their coming into Mexico even from South America, by instructing consuls not to grant passports. Immigration does not seem to present any serious difficulties to the statesmen of the two countries, although there is a great amount of clamor on the subject by the uninformed. -
Foreigners who have lived five years in Japan can be naturalized, by being adopted into a Japanese family and taking a Japanese name; but if they ever leave the country they cannot return and repatriate themselves, although a Japanese can be repatriated at any time.
Will There Be War?
WHO can tell? The matter will probably be decided in Japan—upon the advice of London—for no one believes America would ever attack her first, although in Japan America is considered a warlike, avaricious country, that in a short time has robbed Mexico of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California; has taken Cuba, Porto Bieo and the Philippines away from Spain; Hayti from the Haytians, Nicaragua from the Nicaraguans, Hawaii from the Hawaiians and Panama from the Colombians and claims a suzerainty over all the Americas. There is much talk in Japan of restoring some of these possessions to their original owners. -
During the Russo-Japanese war all the sympathies of America were with the Japanese people, but it would be hard to explain why; for Russia was always one of America’s truest friends. Since then, until recently, America lias been greatly loved in Japan; now she is hated and distrusted and feared, as Japan herself is hated and distrusted and feared in America and all over Asia. Under .such circumstances war is easy and peace is hard to maintain, especially if in both countries there are insane militarists whose whole life is bound up in the joy of destroying human life. Americans in Japan are said to be too aggressive to suit the Japanese, as the Japanese are too aggressive to suit the Chinese.
The greatest business men of the United States are a unit in their opinion that there will be no war. They point out that for economic reasons Japan’s best interests are served by remaining at peace with a country that supplies her with so much of her raw cotton, iron, steel, machinery, engines, kerosene oil and chemicals, and that provides such a ready market for her silk, tea, camphor, beans, peas, soya-bean oil, peanut oil and hat braid.
Cuba and Canada are the only countries in the world that surpass Japan in the value of imports into this country. During last year they were as great (nearly) as those from Argentina and Brazil combined. On the other hand Japan, as a purchaser of American goods is exceeded only by the United Kingdom, France and Canada. Her purchases exceed those of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru combined.
Japan’s principal exports are goods such as the United States does not produce. Her output of camphor, which constitutes the bulk of the camphor supply of the world, is largely
used in America in the manufacture of the cel’ luloid for which America is famous. Not only is America the chiefest consumer of Japan’s products, but she is so very far away that, on » the heavy goods in which America specializes, the two countries can never be close competi-> tors on account of the freight charges. Yoko-
r harna is 4,536 nautical miles distant from San
’ Francisco and 9,699 miles distant from New
York, via the Panama Canal.
- While many Americans are alarmed at
1 Japan’s great standing army and great array
of unequalled battleships, and her rapid growth and warlike attitude and history, yet apolo-» gists, like Judge Gary, President of the Steel Trust, speaking on behalf of one of his greatest customers, says that if trouble ever arises be-r tween the two peoples it will be the fault of the United States more than that of Japan. He
■■ thinks that Japan is rushing the preparation of her great navy of twenty-four new warships » - (all to be begun within the present fiscal year), , only to be used as a last resort in case of an attack.
, Others point out that American military esti
mates are approximately four times those of
1 the-Japanese, and that Japan is not so foolish
as to wish to rush into war with a nation that
1 can call to the front four million men, half of
1 them veterans of the war in France, and that
has a navy now fast approaching in size that of Great Britain. Moreover, Japan lives on rice and fish. War would put a stop to fishing and endanger the import of the three million bushels of rice without which she cannot exist.
Still, with all these good reasons for not committing such an act of folly as to attack the United States or her possessions, if the militarists of Japan should see themselves in danger of losing their jobs, they would not hesitate to do as did the Kaiser—ruin their country, and complete the ruin of the world, by risking all upon such a course; and it seems likely to The Golden Age that that is just what will happen. If so, there will be a very literal fulfillment of a very terrible prophecy:
“I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses; I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled. Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and. there shall be none. Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients. The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of .the people of the land shall be-troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know [afterward, in the Golden Age] that I am the Lord.”—Ezekiel 7:34- 87.
A Tale of Billion Dollar Sweetness
NOT every country can boast of professors that have cost it more than a billion dollars • apiece, but America can do so. And yet a billion dollars is not such a little sum for even a great j people to lose. It was about $10 for every man, woman and child in the United States; and we I think almost everybody should be interested to
. know how it was lost and who got it. It makes
quite an interesting story, even if it is a sad । one. Yet some would call it a sweet story; for it is about sugar.
To begin at the beginning, sugar is a com, paratively recent addition to the diet of civi-' Hzed man, It was first made in India, and when sold in Europe three centuries ago was marketed under theTiame "Indian Salt”. In early colonial days it was considered a drug, available only for the wealthy, and a little later came slowly into use as a rare and valuable delicacy.
Most of the sugar of the world comes from sugar-cane grown in the tropics. The land available for cane culture is limited. The usual process of manufacture is to crush the cane, clarify the juice with powdered sulphur and lime, boil it slowly, run it through centrifugal machines, and then ship it to refineries, w’here it is melted, washed and filtered through animal charcoal to take out the remaining coloring matter and otherwise processed. It is shipped to the refineries 96 percent pure and comes out about 99 percent pure.
The greatest sugar-using country in the world is the United States, and with its dependencies it produces but forty percent of the amount it consumes. The greatest sugar-pro-ducing country in the world is Cuba, and it consumes but a small portion of the sugar it produces. Cuba lies but eighty miles from the
United States, and it has come about quite naturally that the United States has been Cuba’s chief and almost her only customer.
For fifteen years before the war the average price for 96-degree centrifugal sugar-at Cuban ports was slightly over two cents a pound, the usual world-price for the commodity being two cents at port of origin. The duty' on sugar is one cent per pound. A little is lost in refining, but the refining process is an inexpensive one, and for a generation sugar could be bought at retail in the United States for five cents per pound. Before the war the refiner’s price for standard granulated sugar, in barrels, was 4.75 cents per pound.
During the war the price of raw sugar at port of origin gradually rose from two cents per pound to the price per pound shown in the following table:
February, 1917, 3.81 February, 1918, 4.6 February, 1919, 5.36 - February, 19'20, 9.44
In order to prevent fluctuations and panics during war-time the Government organized a corporation known as the Sugar Equalization Board w’hich, during the year from July 15, 1918, to July 15,1919, took over the Cuban crop at 5.5 per pound, paid the duty of 1.0 and the freight of 0.4 and sold it to the refiners at 7.28 per pound. They in turn sold it to the wholesalers so that it reached the people at an average price of 11 cents per pound. It is estimated that the operation of this Board saved the American people $256,000,000 in the year ending July 15, 1919, and additionally it accumulated profits of $30,000,000 which it turned over to the’ Government. This was all good business for the people, and it was to their interest to .have the arrangement continued. The board consisted of eight men. Herbert Hoover was its chairman, George A. Zabriskie its president.
On July 29, 1919, the president of the Board received a letter from Manuel Eionda, the accredited representative of the Cuban sugar growers, ^offering the continued control of the Cuban crgp, “under such terms as may be agreed upon by the contracting parties at a price moderate but compensating to the producer and well within the economic reach of the consumer’. This price Mr. Rionda has since repeatedly stated need not have been more than 6.5 cents per pound, and the contract was desired on that basis. It would have yielded the planters a net profit of $40 on each 326-lb. bag.
Seven of the eight men on the Board, on August 4, 1919, submitted Mr. Rionda s letter to President Wilson, recommending the advisability of buying the Cuban crop. But .here entered into the transaction the professorial act which cost the United States a billion dollars. One man on the Board, a University professor, disagreed with the other members of the Board and recommended to President Wilson ’hat the purchase should not be made. The latter was busy at the time trying to force through his League of Nations program, and heeded the professor’s advice. September 20. 1919, the president of the Board made another and final effort to obtain President Wilson’s consent, with no result. On September 22. it eame time for the Cuban planters to consult their own-interests, and the offer was withdrawn.
There was no profiteering in sugar up .to November 8, 1919. Nobody dared to profiteer. Some grocers asked a eent or two a pound more than they were permitted by law to charge, but always at the risk to themselves of being indicted and possibly fined and imprisoned.
When the Sugar Orgy Started
HE sugar orgy started where much of the lawlessness of the past few years has started —in the management of the department which is euphoniously entitled the Department of Justice. The specific thing which started it was the following telegram, which, to be read intelligently, should be supplemented with the statement that the wholesale market rate for Louisiana sugar on the day this telegram was dispatched was just nine cents. With this explanation the telegram follows:
November 8, 1919. Mooney,
United States Attorney. New Orleans, La.:
Your wire of the 8th (Nov. 1919) detailing results of conference. Consider agreed price rather high, but hereby concur in maximum fixed price of 17 cents for Louisiana plantation clarified, 18 cents for Louisiana clear granulated, understanding that all contracts for a higher figure to be abrogated. Farther suggest, If possible yon secure an agreement In writing by authorized committee of Louisiana producers and refiners, to be used as primu facie evidence where prices are charged In excess of agreement. You are hereby Instructed to immediately prosecute any violator of this agreed price. Palmer.
Thereafter the Roman Catholic statesmen of the United States, and their friends, the Roman Catholic sugar planters of Louisiana and Cuba, took a very happy view of the sugar situation of the country, but there was no one else who shared it. Congress was so disturbed that it passed a new law specifically conferring upon the President of the United States again the power to purchase the Cuban crop. But upon receipt of this legislation at the White House Acting-President Patrick Tumulty admitted that it would be ignored, adding (January 1, 1920), "Much Cuban sugar is coming in now, and the indications are that prices have reached their peak [but they had not, by a mile], and that there will be a tendency for prices to fall in the next few weeks”. (But instead of falling they took wings and flew sky high)
On January 2,1920, dispatches went out from Washington that a nation-wide cleanup of profiteers in sugar was about to be made, coupled with the information that a sufficient supply was available, and that high prices were “unwarranted”. What a joke I A billion dollar one! In the same month the Sugar Equalization Board became discouraged with the situation and gave up the fight of trying to get sugar into the hands of the retailer at ten cents a pound, right while the profiteer-hunters were encouraging a wholesale price of eighteen cents in Louisiana.
The cleanup of the profiteers which followed was not the kind of cleanup which some of those who believe everything that they read in the papers, especially if it has a Washington date line, might have expected; for it was a cleanup of the American people by the profiteers.
From the latter part of April to the early part of June there was a sugar panic in the United States. On April 29th sugar sold at wholesale in Chicago at 32 cents per pound. On May 27th, at Anderson, Indiana, there was a sugab riot, the streets being blocked by thousands of persons who impeded traffic when a merchant sold quantities of sugar at 17J cents per pound. Housekeepers were urged to put up theix fruit with barely enough to preserve it; bakers solemnly promised to put less sugar in their pies; hotel and restaurant keepers went back to sugar rationing as in the days of the war. Sugar refineries were running the same sugar through the refining process over and over again—to sweeten the situation.
Sugar transactions became as crooked as gambling in grain on the Chicago Board of Trade. In April it is said that sugar could be bought at wholesale in New York at 24 cents; but the purchaser must pay cash, and in return for the cash receive neither receipt, bill of sale nor shipping receipt. In Illinois, in June, sugar purchased from a Chicago broker was billed out by a concern which manufactures machinery.
In one instance 100,000 pounds of sugar were sold by a Saginaw wholesaler to a Chicago concern. They sold it in turn to a dealer in Jonesboro, .Arkansas, and from there it was finally resold to the original dealer and reshipped to Saginaw. One man went to prison on a two-year sentence, for this job.
Sugar stood on the tracks in Chicago yards for six months, and meantime was resold six times at an increase in price of two hundred percent. In May is was claimed that at one time there was $75,000,000 worth of it in Chicago freight yards and warehouses, being sold over and over from one broker to another, always at an advance in price, and that at one time there were fifty carloads of it on the Illi--nois Central Railroad tracks near the Field Museum, interfering with the movement of other freight.
New York was said to have 250,000 pounds at this time locked up in warehouses, with speculators holding the keys. In Omaha 150,000 pounds that were being held in a warehouse on speculation were seized. Meantime all authorities agreed that there was no actual shortage of sugar in the country, but simply that the machinery for getting it to the people did not work, for reasons some of which we hope to make clear a little later.
Corrective Measures Applied .
FTER a time the Department of Justice got corrective measures under way. Resales to dealers were forbidden. Wholesale profits were limited to one cent per pound, and retail profits to two cents. Mr. Riley, in charge of this work; made quite a roundup of Hebrews, Mormons and persons with German names. Particulars of these raids were widely published, and had a calming effect on the public and a more or less deterrent effect on the smaller profiteers. The higher-ups were not put to much inconvenience, as they never are.
Tn June, when the American Sugar Refining ' Company was openly quoting sugar at wholesale in New York at 22.5, the Mormon president and six other officials of the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company were arrested for selling at $23 per hundred-pound sack sugar which cost $9.50 to produce. It was claimed on their behalf that as early as February 65 percent of their output had been sold at about 10.5 cents per pound. No doubt they were after a share of the one hundred fortunes of ten million dollars each -which somebody made out of the American people, but they obtained relatively little of it.
…