Page:The Independent (January 13, 1909, Page 94) The Japan of 1909 by J. H. de Forest.jpg

 out much better in the blunt expression of those who dislike Japan: "She's an upstart."

In this connection it is persistently stated that while Japan talks "open door," she is shutting out foreign competition wherever she can, especially in Manchuria, where she is freely reported to be letting in millions of Japanese goods duty free; and that she is underhanded in scheming to oust the West the commercial advantages of the East. This whole subject needs a thoro ventilation, and I venture a contribution toward it. 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. On inquiry I found they students for the Japanese "Eastern World School" in Shanghai, where they acquire a perfect knowledge of the Chinese language, both written and spoken. Then they can go anywhere in Empire, and do business directly without the intervention of native compradores. They have the financial and commercial conditions at their finger's end. 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. Moreover, they have a much simpler style of living, can do business on a less expensive scale, and can do it directly. They are naturally disliked. They are "upstarts."

It is the same in Manchuria, where Japanese have immediate access thru language and customs to insides of things. 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. The natural ease with which Japanese enter into the commercial fields of the East brings them a pile of unjust curses.

This is the lesson to be learned from this year 1909. The royal welcome given to our fleet and to the Commissioners of the Pacific Coast, and the expchange of diplomatic notes of friendship between Secretary Root and Baron Takahira of a year ago, seemed to the world an intimation that there could be no more suspicion on the part of the United States toward Japan. Moreover, the welcome extended everywhere in the States to Baron Shibusawa and his company of business men would seem to prove conclusively our entire good will toward Japan. Yet thru more than half of this year there have been perpetual newspaper intimations that the United States had grave doubts over the doings of Japan in Manchuria, and the Crane incident, itself a serious diplomatic blunder productive of a large crop of suspicions, simply added fuel to the fire. What we need is protection against the natural misunderstandings arising from American ignorance of Oriental languages.

Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding of the year was the one between Japan and China over the Antung Moukden Railroad. Month after month China delayed and obstucted, affirming that all the treaty granted was the right to repair the present road, whereas Japan claimed the right by treaty to make the road a part of Manchuria-Korean system, and capable of handling merchandise and passengers in a large way. It would thus be the shortest overland route between Europe and Japan, with only a ferry of 122 miles between Shimonoseki and Korea. I have had the pleasure (?) of riding a short distance on this road with its two-and-a-half foot gauge and its eight-mile-an-hour gait, and it is easy to see that no repairs could make it a passenger route.

Anyway, after Japan had vainly en