Chapter 15

JAPAN'S COMMERCIAL FUTURE

A nation has risen in the Far East that is earning high place among enlightened governments, and in all probability the new-comer may already be entitled to permanently rank with the first-class powers of the earth. Japan is day by day a growing surprise to the world.

That the diminutive Island Empire should have been able to humble the Muscovite pride was no greater marvel than that she should in a brief half-century advance from the position of a weak and unknown country to the station of a highly civilized nation. The government of the Mikado is to-day the best exponent of Asiatic progressiveness. And of a people with a capacity to perform in two generations such amazing things who shall dare say what to them is impossible?

Europe has never been in joyful mood over the rise in Japanese prestige, and she was more than reluctant to recognize the New Japan as the dominant force in the East. That a yellow people should claim fellowship with European countries guided by houses of lofty lineage was never believed to be possible. Continental Europe was unprepared to admit that Japan's triumph proved anything beyond a genius in the art of war that was nothing short of a menace to the rest of mankind, and that luck and geographical position helped the Mikado's legions in all ways. The great Hohenzollern spoke of the Japanese as the "scourge of God"; in France the "yellow peril"--a phrase really made in Germany--was seriously debated; while Russia many times sought sympathy from the Christian world on the ground that she was fighting the white man's battle against paganism. Solitary in her preference for the Japanese, expressed in the form of an astute and fortunate alliance, England gloried when her Oriental ally revealed the weakness of the vaunted power of the north that had dared to cast covetous eyes at India. All these nations hold Asiatic possessions, each has aspired to have a say in Chinese affairs, and each confesses to having a panacea for the innumerable ills of the Celestial Empire--each is hungry, likewise, to extend her trade with the awakening Orient.

Japan intruded, and deranged the plans of all and sundry for rousing China to a realization of her greatness; and in all human probability Japan will do for herself what several European powers wanted to do for Asia. Japan can always justify her claim that she was driven to war to preserve her national existence, by pointing to her rapidly-increasing population, existing in an archipelago incapable of producing food for even two thirds of her people, since every possibility of obtaining a foothold on the adjacent continent had been cut off by self-imposed Russian rule. There was no room for expansion, that was clear.

When Japan shattered the strength of Russia she gained many coveted advantages. One of these was the opportunity to commercialize neighboring Korea, a goodly section of Manchuria, and practically the whole of China--enough to recoup the war's outlay; and once entered upon, why not perfect and extend the enterprise wherever she might, thereby providing occupation for her increasing millions of people?

For a long time to come Japan will remain conspicuously in the public eye, but her achievements and victories hereafter are to be those of peace. Her scheme for national betterment, already well under way, is as thoughtfully prepared as was her war program. The Mikado's people emerged from the Russian conflict with energies enormously aroused, and a few months later every condition was favorable to a realization of the dream of empire giving to Japan an importance amounting almost to sovereignty over a vast section of the Far East. The new treaty with Great Britain, which Germans claimed to be anything but altruistic, is having a steadying influence on the policy of the Tokyo government.

With the conversion of Japan from war to peace, the process of fiscal recuperation and industrial development has been observed by students of Eastern affairs with the keenest interest. The debt of the nation at the close of the war in 1905 was approximately $870,000,000, which sum, apportioned among Nippon's 47,000,000 inhabitants, was $18.71 per capita. The amount properly chargeable to the campaign was $600,000,000, or thereabouts. A characteristic of the war commanding widespread attention was that the Japanese side was conducted from start to finish on the soundest financial principles, with her credit abroad scarcely lessened by successive bond issues. It was the criticism of students of finance that Japan conducted her campaign throughout on a gold basis, as if exploiting a vast commercial program, without subjecting herself to usurious commissions, and without resorting to the issuance of fiat or negligible currency. The financing of the Asiatic side of the great Russo-Japanese conflict was certainly as businesslike as anything ever done by a European power compelled to raise funds by foreign bond sales.

When a candid history of the war is penned, the writer must perforce acknowledge the "luck" attaching to Japan when Russia expelled the Jews, and when thousands of that faith were ruthlessly slaughtered at Kishineff. Whether the purse-strings of the world are controlled by Hebrew bankers may be a moot question, but it was a fact distinctly clear that Japan could place her bonds in any money-lending country in the world, while Russia could scarcely raise a rouble upon her foreign credit. Even Germany, the sentimental ally of Russia, almost begged for the privilege of lending to Japan. There was no disputing that the great Hebraic banking houses of London, New York and Frankfort found it an easy task to supply the Mikado's country with every needed sinew of war, and the massacres of Kishineff may have been avenged in a measure at Port Arthur and Mukden.

The ambitious and sturdy people of Japan are indisposed to regard the war debt as an excessive burden, and it is their determination to treat their bonded obligations as a spur to active industry. It must be confessed that Japan's debt is but a trifle less than that of the United States, and is carried at double the interest rates of the American debt; and further, that Japan's total area is smaller than that of our state of California. The portentous aspect of the national obligation of Japan is that it must absorb in interest charges fully a third of the empire's income for many years of peace and prosperity to come.

A large part of the debt incurred before the war was for public works, most of which are productive. Funds realized from early loans, both foreign and domestic, as well as a portion of the income from the indemnity earned by the war with China, were invested in commercial enterprises owned or fostered by the empire, and the government receives a considerable benefit from the public railways, tobacco monopoly, woolen mills, and a few other industrial ventures. The railways are extremely profitable, and the large sums spent in the creation of post-offices, telephone and telegraph lines, port facilities, etc., have proved wise investments.

Observers of national statistics have long known that a country without heavy indebtedness amounts to little in a worldly and industrial sense. Abundantly solvent, France has a debt averaging $151.70 per person, and the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Ireland), a pro rata debt of $91.80. Portugal owes $143.82 per subject, Holland $90.74, and Belgium $75.63. The heaviest governmental obligation is that of Australia, averaging $263.90 per inhabitant; and the lightest responsibility among important nations is that of the United States, gradually lessening, now standing at but $10.93. Our Cuban neighbors, owing $21.88 per capita, make little complaint of fiscal burden. Whether a debt be burdensome or otherwise depends as much upon the character of the people as upon natural resources. Decaying Portugal could not by industry liberate herself from pecuniary thraldom in a century, while the Japanese probably could liquidate every obligation in fifteen years, were they pressed to do so.

No country can present a better foundation for industrial and commercial development at this time than Japan, and the signing at Portsmouth of the peace agreement marked the beginning of an era of national growth that may challenge the admiration of the world as did the feats of arms of Oyama and Togo. The war cemented classes in Japan almost to a condition of homogeneity--practically every subject of the Mikado believed in the necessity for the conflict, and made sacrifices to contribute to the cost thereof. Distinctions of class are now seldom thought of, and it contributes mightily to the material improvement of a nation to have a single language. The descendants of the samurai class acknowledge now the need for trade on a grand scale, and they are only too ready to embark in manufacturing and trading enterprises. There are scarcely ten great fortunes in the realm, and the number of subjects removed from activity by even moderate affluence is remarkably small. Likewise, the number of persons reckoned in the non-producing class, through dissipation or infirmity, is insignificant. And, more potent than all these reasons uniting to assist in the expansion of Japanese industry and thrift, is the intense patriotism of the people, stimulated by glorious success in two wars against foreign nations of overwhelming populations, as well as the recognition from high and low that Japan's golden opportunity has arrived. Almost to a man the Japanese want to employ their sinews and intellect in elevating the Land of the Rising Sun to an honored place among progressive nations.

The Japanese exchequer is at present a long way from depletion, by reason of the $150,000,000 loan secured in America, England and Germany. Probably two thirds of this remained unexpended. Many Tokyo bankers believed the loan unnecessary, inasmuch as there were funds in hand sufficient to finance the war well into 1906, had peace not been agreed upon. But the flotation was deemed wise, not alone because of prevailing ease in the money market, but for the effect that an oversubscribed loan in America and Europe would have upon the Czar's government. The portion of the loan remaining unused for war was employed for giving effect to Japan's industrial propaganda, and presumably has been spent for the endless machinery demanded by the factories and shipyards that are transforming Japan into a vast workshop, for structural metal, and for steel rails, cars and locomotives for railways in Manchuria and Korea; and generally for the hundred and one purposes playing a part in the development of lands hitherto out of step in the march of enterprise, and where strife has until recently stifled the usual manifestations of man's desire to improve his surroundings. The Japanese government in 1906 purchased six railways, which were profit earners, paying for them $125,000,000 in five per cent. bonds that may be redeemed in five years. There is no likelihood of a reduction in Japan's debt for a long time, but its weight upon the people may be reduced by conversions. As the national credit strengthens, the interest on borrowings may be correspondingly decreased. Consequently, there may be frequent funding operations and new issues, until seven and six per cent. bonds have given place to obligations bearing five per cent. interest or less. To provide funds for early railway building, considerable capital was borrowed at as high a rate as ten per cent. When these obligations expire all necessary money can be found in the country at less than half the original rate. Japan is fortunate in having many sound financiers to invite to her official councils, and it is helpful to the country that Tokyo and Yokohama bankers are competent and progressive. These men pronounce Japan's present financial position sound, and claim that the country can easily carry the existing debt.

In natural resources Japan is not well to do, it must be frankly said. Examine the country in as friendly a spirit as one may, little is developed to support any statement that the country may become prosperous from the products of her own soil. In truth Japan is nearly as unproductive as Greece and Norway, for only sixteen per cent. of her soil is arable. The mountain ranges and peaks and terraced hills that make the country scenically attractive to the tourist come near to prohibiting agriculture. The lowlands, separating seacoast from the foothills, and the valleys generally, are given over to rice culture, and these contribute largely towards sustaining the people. Where valleys are narrow, and on hillside patches, cultivation is carried on wholly by hand. In recent years phosphates and artificial fertilizers have been encouraged by the government, and with the educational work now in hand science may give an increase of crops from the circumscribed tillable area. The country's forests cannot be sacrificed, and grazing lands for flocks and herds scarcely exist.

A recent magazine writer, holding a doleful view of Japan's agricultural condition, wholly overlooked the silk and tea crops in his search for native products, an error obviously fallen into through the fact that these are not raised on what governmental reports call "tillable ground,"--meaning that they are produced outside the sixteen per cent. arable area. Silk is Japan's important salable crop, two thirds of which is exported in its raw state. In the past few years the silk exports have averaged $55,000,000. Japan grows the tea consumed in the country, and sends annually $6,500,000 worth to market.

If the rice crop might be exported it would realize $200,000,000 each year. But no food may be sent abroad, for it is a sad fact that Japan is capable of feeding only two thirds of her own people. It is necessary to import foodstuffs to the extent of about $47,000,000 a year. The Japanese benefit by the compensating supply of fish secured from the seas washing the shores of the Island Empire. When it is realized that Japan's rapidly-growing population cannot be sustained by her soil and fisheries, the real reason for battling against Russia's aggression on the mainland is understood, for ten years hence, Japan's crowding millions, confined to her own islands, would experience the pangs of hunger. The Mikado and his councilors foresaw this.

"Having deposits of coal and iron, why may not Japan be developed into the Eastern equivalent of England?" ask stay-at-home admirers of the Japanese, who believe that to them nothing is impossible. The Mikado's territory has coal, iron and copper, it is true; but in no instance is the mineral present to an extent making it a national asset of importance. Bituminous coal of good quality is mined at several points which is used by Japanese commercial and naval vessels; but elsewhere in the East it has to compete with Chinese and Indian coals. It is said in Nagasaki that her coal will last another two centuries, but were it mined on the scale of American and British coal it would be exhausted in a generation. The greatest efforts have been made to produce iron ore in paying quantities. In several instances public assistance has been lent to the industry, but seldom has a ton of ore been raised that has not cost twice its market value. Japan is determined to become a producer of iron, and to this end a long lease had been secured on an important mineral tract in China, whose ore blends advantageously with Mexican and Californian hematite, while it is asserted that the government has secured in Manchuria a seam of coal fifty feet in thickness, covered by a few feet of soil, that is contiguous to transportation, and which cannot be exhausted in hundreds of years. A valuable acquisition in conquered Saghalien--not noted by the newspapers--is beds of coal and iron of vast area. These may enable Japan, in her determination to become a manufacturing nation, to be eventually independent of other countries for basic supplies. But success in this direction is problematical, to say the least.

For two thousand years Japan has mined copper in a limited way, but the production of the metal is carried on at present without much profit. When the Chinese government requires a vast quantity of copper the order is sent to the United States. Japan cannot be considered as a producer of minerals of sufficient importance to aspire to a profitable career through them, for the yearly aggregate value of all minerals, including gold from the Formosa mines, is not more than $20,000,000.

The inevitable query in the reader's mind is, How is the Jap, knowing it is now or never with him--and cognizant that he is poor in all save ambition and enterprise--going to create for his beloved Nippon a position of prominence and security in the fast-rushing, selfish world? Every intelligent Japanese is aware of the slenderness of his country's resources, and yet every son of the Chrysanthemum Realm throbs with desire to see Japan a first-class and self-supporting power, honored and respected throughout the universe.

The Japanese possess some quality of golden value, otherwise cautious capitalists in America and Europe would never have lent them $360,000,000. What is it?

Japan's asset of importance is the awakened energy of her people--this was the soundest security back of the bond issues. It won the war over Russia, and persons familiar with the Japanese character believe it is now going to win commercially and industrially. Better proof of this is not wanted than the fact that Japanese bonds stood as firm as the rock of Gibraltar on the world's exchanges when it became known that Russia was to pay no indemnity. The information provoked street riots in Tokyo, but Japanese securities moved only fractionally in New York and London.

Two countries have long been keenly observed by enlightened Japanese. They study America as a model industrial land, and get manufacturing ideas from us; but they look to Great Britain for everything having to do with empire, with aggrandizement, and with diplomacy. To them England is a glittering object lesson of a nation existing in overcrowded islands extending its rule to other lands and other continents, producing endless articles needed by mankind, and carrying these to the ends of the earth in their own ships. These Japanese have perceived that the interchange of commodities between most countries of the globe is preponderatingly in the hands of the British--in fact, that the enterprise of British merchant or British ship-owner has placed practically the universe under tribute.

May not insular Japan become in time the Asiatic equivalent of Great Britain? Japan is advantageously located, and by common consent is now dominant in the Far East. Years ago England ceased to be an agricultural country, and the products of British workshops now buy food from other nations and allow for the keeping of a money balance at home. Nature has decreed that Japan can never be an agricultural land. Why, then, may she not do what England has done? England has her India, pregnant with the earth's bounty, and her Australia, yet awaiting completer development Kingdom become the handmaiden of Japan, without disturbing dynastic affairs, and primitive Korea be a fair equivalent of the Antipodean continent? It is known to be Japan's plan to permanently colonize Korea and Manchuria, teeming in agricultural and mineral riches, with her surplus population.

"Prestige and opportunity make this attainable," insist the ambitious sons of Japan; "and while it is probably too late to expand the political boundaries of our empire, we surely may make Nippon the seat of a mighty commercial control, including in its sphere all of China proper, Manchuria and Korea--welding them into 'commercial colonies' of Japan." This is precisely what the modern Japanese wants his country to do, and this Japanization of the Far East is an alluring project, certainly.

"But are not these 'open-door' countries, stipulated and guaranteed by the powers--meaning that your people can enjoy no special trade advantage in them?" the American asks the man of Japan.

"Emphatically are they open to the trade and enterprise of all comers: but there are four potential advantages that accrue to the benefit of the Japanese at this time--geographical position, necessity for recouping the cost of the war, an identical written language, and superabundance of capable and inexpensive labor. With these advantages and practical kinship we fear no rivalry in the creation of business among the Mongol races," adds the man speaking for the New Japan.

It calls for little prescience to picture a mighty Japanese tonnage on the seas in the near future. Next to industrial development, the controlling article of faith of the awakened Japan is the creation of an ocean commerce great enough to make the Japanese the carriers of the Orient. There can be nothing visionary in this, for bountiful Asia is almost without facilities for conveying her products to the world's markets. Indeed, were present-day Japan eliminated from consideration, it would be precise to say that Asia possessed no oversea transportation facilities.

The merchant steamship is intended to play an important role in Japan's elevation. Shipping is to be fostered by the nation until it becomes a great industry, and it is the aim of the Mikado's government to provide for constructing ships for the public defence up to 20,000 tons burden, and making the country independent of foreign yards through being able to produce advantageously commercial vessels for any requirement. Japan is blind neither to the costliness of American-built ships nor to the remoteness of European yards. The war with Russia was not half over when it was apparent that Japan would not longer be dependent upon the outer world for vessels of war or of commerce. In the closing weeks of 1906 there was completed and launched in Japan the biggest battleship in the world, the _Satsuma_, constructed exclusively by native labor. She is of about the dimensions of the _Dreadnaught_, of the British navy, but claimed to be her superior as a fighting force. The launching of the _Satsuma_, witnessed by the Emperor, was regarded as a great national event.

In the war with China, twelve or thirteen years ago, Japan had insufficient vessels to transport her troops. The astute statesmen at Tokyo, recognizing the error of basing the transportation requirements of an insular nation upon ships controlled by foreigners, speedily drafted laws looking to the creation of a native marine which might be claimed in war time for governmental purposes. The bestowal of liberal bounties transformed Japan in a few short years from owning craft of the junk class to a proprietorship of modern iron-built vessels of both home construction and foreign purchase. In the late campaign there was no comparison in the seamanship of the agile son of Nippon and that of the hulking peasant of interior Russia. The Jap was proven time and again to be the equal of any mariner. Native adaptability and willingness to conform to strict discipline, unite in making the Japanese a seaman whose qualities will be telling in times of peace.

Of late years hundreds of clever young Japanese have served apprenticeships in important shipyards in America, England, Germany and France, with the result that there are to-day scores of naval architects and constructors in Japan the equals of any in the world. Whether as designers, yard managers or directors of construction, the Japs, with their special schooling, have nothing to learn now from foreign countries. The genius of some of these men played a part in Togo's great victory.

Japanese men of affairs pretend to see little difficulty in the way of their nation controlling the building of ships for use throughout the East. Local yards are already constructing river gunboats and torpedo craft for the Chinese government, and it is reasonable to believe that a year or two hence their hold upon the business will amount practically to a monopoly. British firms with yards at Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai are not rejoiced at the prospect of Japanese rivalry. It is possible that, the Japanese may become shipbuilders for our own Philippine archipelago.

Already the shipyards of Nippon are ringing with the sound of Japan's upbuilding; and the plant of the Mitsubishi company, at Nagasaki--among the largest in the world,--has been enlarged to accommodate increasing demands. The enormous _Minnesota_, of the Great Northern Steamship Company, was not so long ago repaired at Nagasaki in a dry-dock having eighty feet in length to spare.

Japanese steamship lines already extend to Europe, Australia, Bombay, Eastern Siberia, China, Korea and Saghalien, and to San Francisco and Puget Sound ports. A company has been formed to develop a service between Panama, the Philippines and Japanese ports, in anticipation of the completion of the Panama Canal: and, further perceiving the opportunity rapping at her door, Japan is preparing to place a line on the ocean that will bring the wool, hides and grain of the River Plate region to Japanese markets at the minimum of expense. The undisguised purpose of this South-American venture is to get cheap wheat from Argentina. Rice eating in Japan is giving way to bread made from wheat, or from a mixture of wheat and rice and other cereals. It is further known that Japan is casting covetous eyes on the trade of Brazil, and the line to the Plate may be extended to Brazilian ports.

In 1894 Japan had only 657,269 tons of merchant shipping; she has now upwards of a million tons, represented by 5,200 registered vessels. Almost half the steamers entering Japanese ports fly the flag of the Rising Sun, and Japan's tonnage at this time is greater than that of Russia, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Denmark or Holland. In the matter of oversea tonnage, Japan is far ahead of the United States. One fleet of Japanese mail steamers, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, whose president, Rempei Kondo, is one of Japan's most progressive men, is numerically and in tonnage larger than any ocean line under the Stars and Stripes. It has seventy ships, aggregating 236,000 tons. A dozen of its vessels, making the service between Yokohama and London, are fourteen-knot ships.

These facts should be considered by every American complacently believing that the traffic of the countries and islands washed by the Pacific is open to American enterprise whenever we bid for it. When Eastern trade develops in magnitude, it may be found that the Japanese have laid permanent hold upon its carriage and interchange. John Bull, be it remembered, drove the American merchantman from the Atlantic; and likewise Japan may capture the carrying business of the Pacific. It must be obvious that the nation controlling the transportation of the Far East will seek to control its trade: and it is sounding no false alarm to cite facts and conditions showing that the awakening lands of Eastern Asia have more in store for energetic Japan than for the United States, now fattening inordinately on home trade--when overproduction comes, as it surely will, it then may be found difficult to supplant another people in the occupation of conveying American commodities to Eastern markets. There are persons in the Orient, none too friendly to America, who expect to see the commercial flag of Japan paramount on the Pacific eight or ten years hence.

If it be conceded that Japan will absorb the bulk of the shipping of the Pacific as it develops, valid reasons for fearing Japan as the trade competitor of the United States do not exist. Unquestionably Japan is to exploit the industry of her people; but the same poverty of resources making this imperative insures for Uncle Sam a valuable partnership in the program. Japan is bristling with workshops and mills in which a hundred forms of handiwork will be developed--and in a majority of these the adaptive labor of the empire will fabricate, from materials drawn from America, scores of forms of merchandise, which the Japanese propaganda will distribute throughout China, Manchuria, Korea and Japan--the "Great Japan," British publicists are calling it. Methods, materials, machinery, tools--all will be American.

Having made no systematic appeal for the trade of the Far East in its broadest sense, America enjoys but small share of it. In the past few years our exports to Japan, however, have grown rapidly--chiefly in raw cotton and other unmanufactured materials. With Japanese selling agents canvassing lands inhabited by a half billion people, the products of America are to have enhanced consumption. This trade in Mongol countries, although vicarious, may run to large dimensions.

The leading item of Japan's industrial promotion program is to become manufacturer of a goodly portion of the textiles worn in her vast "sphere of commerce." The Japanese have seen that the British Isles, growing not a pound of cotton, spin and weave the staple for half the people of the earth, and wish to profit by the example of their prosperous ally. To this end, cotton mills have sprung into being throughout Japan, in which American-grown fiber is transformed by the cheapest competent labor in the world into fabrics sold to China's and Japan's millions. It is certain that the controlling manufacture of Japan will be cotton, and the production of woolen cloths may come next. It is interesting to know that Japan increased the value of her exports of cotton manufactures to China from $251,363 in 1894 to $16,126,054 in 1904.

"Why not fabricate her own raw silk, and send it to market ready for wear?" asks the foreigner reluctant to believe that Japan can hope to compete with Lancashire in the spinning of cotton. The answer is simple--it is because America is the principal purchaser of the raw article. Were it brought across the Pacific in manufactured form, the duty on it would be almost prohibitive; in its unwrought state it enters the country free.

Great progress must be made before Japanese business may be considered a "menace" to any nation enjoying Eastern trade, for the yearly value of Japan's manufactures is now only about $150,000,000, an average of about $3 per capita of the population. America has single cities that produce more. The combined capital of all organized industrial, mining, shipping, banking and agricultural undertakings in Japan is $475,000,000, or less than half the capital of the United States Steel Corporation. The Mikado's empire is bound to Great Britain by a political alliance of unusual force, but industrial Japan must of necessity be linked to the United States by commercial ties even stronger. Distance between Europe and Japan, and excessive Suez Canal tolls, give unassailable advantage to the United States as purveyor of unwrought materials to the budding New England of the Far East.

The custom of speaking of our friends of the Island Empire as "the little Japanese," is a fault that should be promptly mended. Japan is small, it is true, but the people are numerous to the point of wonderment. Consequently, it can do no harm to memorize these facts: That Japan has an area actually 27,000 square miles greater than the British Isles, and 5,000,000 more inhabitants; in other words, the population of Japan is 47,000,000, while that of Great Britain and Ireland is but 42,000,000. That Japan's population exceeds that of France by 8,000,000, of Italy by 14,000,000, and of Austro-Hungary by nearly 2,000,000. That outside of Asia there are but three countries in all the world with greater populations than Japan--Russia, the United States, and Germany. There was reason for calling the Jap the "Yankee of the East," or the "Englishman of the Orient," for otherwise the phrases could not have been forced into popular use.

It is the judgment of many who have studied the Japanese at close range that they are endowed with attributes of mind and body which make them equal, man for man, with the people of America and Great Britain. Asiatic though they are, it will be unwise to permit the brain to become clogged with the idea that they are "Asiatics" in the popular acceptance of the word. The Japan of the present is the antithesis of "Asiatic," and the Japan of the near future promises to be a country best measured by Western standards.

The Japanese are athirst for knowledge, and impatient for the time to arrive when the world will estimate them at their intellectual value, and forget to speak of them as the little "yellow" men of the East. This is manifested to a visitor many times every day. Their greatest craving is to know English, not merely well enough to carry on trade advantageously, but to read understandingly books that deal with the moderate sciences, and other works generally benefiting. Yokohama and Tokyo possess a score of establishments where practically every important volume of instruction, whether it be English or American, is reproduced in inexpensive form, and widely sold. For many years English has been taught in Japan's schools, but thousands of boys and men in cities and towns are each year acquiring the language by study in odd hours.

Examine the dog-eared pamphlet in the hands of the lad assisting in the shop where you are purchasing something, and you are almost certain to find it an elementary English book. Merchants know English well, as a rule; but with many of them the desire for knowledge is not satisfied with the acquisition of English--they desire to know other languages. In Yokohama I know a merchant of importance whose English is so good that one is drawn to inquire where he learned it. The answer will be that he studied odd hours at home and when not serving customers. And the visitor may further be informed by this man that he is also studying German and French. A teacher of German goes to his house at six o'clock each morning and for two hours drills him in the language. Then, in the evening, after a long day spent at business, a French teacher instructs him in the graceful language of France. And this merchant is but a type of thousands of Japanese who are daily garnering knowledge.

It is a pleasing incident for the visitor from America to read of a meeting in the Japanese capital of the local Yale Alumni Association--quite as pleasing as to see base-ball played in every vacant field convenient to a large town. Returning schoolboys have carried the game home to their companions, and in the voyage across the Pacific it has lost none of its fine points. For thirty years and longer the Japs have been learning English with the industry of beavers. And ambition has been responsible for this, the dogged determination to be somebody, and the patriotic wish to see Japan stand with the progressive nations of the earth. The power to keep such a people down does not exist. Preparation is a subject never absent from the thoughts of the Japanese. It was preparation that gave them victory after victory over the creatures of the Czar. Now they are fairly launched upon a brilliant career in trade and commerce. But Japan can merely fabricate our raw materials, thereby occupying a field in Asia that up to now Uncle Sam has made no determined effort to secure.

INDEX

Agra, Indian city of unrivaled interest, 168; its Taj Mahal, 168-184

Ambir, old capital of Jeypore state, 166

America, interest in Suez canal as forerunner of Panama, 16; flag not represented by commercial vessel at Suez in generation, 18; President Roosevelt's insistence for Panama canal, 19; value of Oriental trade, 21, 22; cotton of wrought in England, 22; trifling exports of manufactured articles, 22; diminutive trade with South America, 22; desirability of trade extension in East, 23; government's tariff at Panama, 24; how to make Panama canal pay indirectly, 27; demand for creation of merchant marine, 27; to have 100,000,000 inhabitants when canal is completed, 28; commercial supremacy without merchant marine, 29; government's insistence on "open door" in China, 303; seeming indifference to Chinese trade, 310; waning cotton exports to China, 313, 314

Arabi, rebellion of, resulting in control of Egypt by Great Britain, 9; Kandy, place of his exile, 110

Arjamand, consort of Shah Jahan, for whom Taj Mahal was erected, 171

Benares, headquarters of Hindu religion, 185-202; burning ghat and cremations, 189-194; Monkey Temple, 196-200

Bombay, headquarters of Parsees, 126; a city gone sport-mad, 133, 134; race meeting at, 137, 138 important cotton port, 139 superb railway station, 139

Buddhism, Kandy the Mecca of the faith, 95; tenets of faith, 96, 97; reputed tooth of Buddha, 97, 98, 101; pilgrims to Kandy, 101, 102; cremation, 102

Calcutta, 205-219; Hooghly pilots, 206; Job Charnock, founder of, 209, 210; under Lord Curzon's viceroyship, 217, 218

Canals, no more inter-ocean canals possible, 4

Canton, unique and important commercial city, 244-266; strenuous and monopolistic guide, 249; street scenes and experiences, 250, 251; executions, 255; funeral procession, 256, 257; educational center, 257; educational examinations, 258, 259; "literary poles," 260, 263; boat-life on river front, 263, 264; leper village and boat toll, 266

Caste, Rodiya people of Ceylon, 103, 104, 107; British rule recognizes no distinctions of, 107; as seen in Bombay, 140; hereditary throughout India, 143; man servant who could not carry his own packages, 144, 145, 146

Ceylon, where "only man is vile," 30 Cingalese, 34, 44; area, population, and races, 44; England's conquest of, 47; railways, 47; exports, 48; elephant kraal, 48, 49; an island paradise, 50; the cadjan, 62, 63; tea as "king crop," 117; when coffee was chief crop, 121; details of tea cultivation, 122, 125

China, Singapore and Hong Kong as places of residence for Chinese, 227, 237; cession of Hong Kong to British, 235; Canton, unique city, 244-266; Macao, Monte Carlo of East, 267-289; love of fan-tan by Chinese, 284; Germany's play for trade prestige, 290-310; land of meager commodities, 295; what her "awakened" trade would mean, 297; Germany's colony of Kiau-chau, 304-309; America and Chinese trade, 310-314; plans for rousing country, 316

Colombia, loss of Isthmian territory, through Panama canal scheme, 4

Colombo, approach to harbor, 33; landing jetty, 33; port of call between Occident, Orient and Australasia, 34; medley of races, 35; westernmost limit of 'rickshaws, 36; hotels, 39, 40; population, 44; Clapham Junction of East, 61; route to Kandy, 92

Cotton, Bombay as port, 139; Great Britain and America as manufacturers, 313-314; expansion of fabrication in Japan, 340

Curzon, former viceroy of India, 217, 218; Splendor of rule at Calcutta, 217

De Lessep's craving for greatness, 5; obtains concession for constructing Suez canal, 6; raising money for canal scheme, 6; death of, in madhouse, 10; monument at Port Said, 11

Egypt, loss of self-rule through Suez canal construction, 4; date of Suez canal concession, 6; no debt when concession given, 6; to subscribe nothing for construction of Suez canal, 6; Arabi rebellion, resulting in British control of Egypt, 9; deriving no advantage through canal, 10

France, how bankers of, lost controlling Suez shares, 15, 16; susceptibilities of, how preserved in Suez management, 16; ally of Russia, 296

Germany, second in list of Suez patrons, 18; Kaiser's fight for new markets, 18; friendship for Russia in war, 290-297; Kaiser's play for Chinese trade, 290-310; Emperor as Trade Lord, 292, 295; Kaiser's disapproval of Monroe Doctrine, 298; plans for capturing Oriental business, 301; subsidized steamship service with East, 302; "leased" colony of Kiau-chau, 304

Great Britain, benefits accruing from Suez canal, 15; how control was secured, 15; preponderance of flag over Suez traffic, 18; control of interior of Ceylon, 95; rule in, Asia recognizing no caste distinctions, 107; restoration of Taj Mahal by government of, 183; Job Charnock, founder of Calcutta, and pioneer empire-builder, 209, 210; great work in India. 220; Penang, 227; Singapore, universal sea-port brought to Empire by Sir Stamford Raffles, 227; Hong Kong, important port and naval base, 231-238; no permanent control of Eastern business, 301; tenure of Wei-hai-wei, 308

Hinduism, orthodoxy of Maharajah of Jeypore, 156, 159; animal sacrifices to goddess Kali, 167, 199-202; Benares, head of religion, 185-202; scenes on banks of sacred Ganges. 193-196; cremation of dead, 190-194; incomprehensibleness of merits of, 201, 202; habits of speech of illiterate, 223; curse of widowhood in India, 224

Hong Kong, island link in Britain's chain, 231; rains, 231, 232; city wrested from mountain side, 232; cession from China, 235; guarding northern entrance to China Sea, 235, 236; population and traffic, 236; Happy Valley race-course, 238, 241; benefits and pitfalls of the chit, 241, 242; convenience of bills of fare, 243

India, Bombay and its Parsees, 126-133; scenes at Bombay race meeting, 137, 138; caste, 140, 143; people not readily convinced of advantage of modern implements, 143, 144; Jeypore, 149-167; Ambir, old capital of Jeypore, 166; Agra and Taj Mahal, 168-184; Benares, fountainhead of Hindu religion, 185-202; Calcutta, capital of British India, 205-219; viceroyship of Lord Curzon, 217, 218; Viscount Kitchener, head of army, 218, 219; facts and figures of, 220, 223, 225; the "L. G." of Bengal, 219

Ismail, Khedive, lured into assisting Suez scheme, 6; prodigality of, 10; personal holding of Suez securities, 10

Jahan, Shah, builder of Taj Mahal, 168, 171; interment beside wife's grave, 179

Japan, commercial future, 315-344; best exponent of Asiatic progress, 315; "scourge of God" and "yellow peril" of German origin, 316; advantages secured by defeating Russia, 317; process of industrial development, 317; national debt, 318, 321, 324; homogeneity of people, 322; resources, 325-330; desire to emulate England, 331; why country can exploit near-by lands advantageously, 332; mighty tonnage on Pacific, 333, 334; shipbuilding, 334, 335; no real "menace" to American trade, 341; athirst for knowledge, 342-344

Jeypore, capital of Maharajah of, 149-165; fondness of women for jewelry, 151; benevolent ruler of, 156, 159; astronomical apparatus of Jai Singh, 164

Kandy, ancient capital of Ceylon, 43; journey from Colombo, 92; city of Buddha's tooth, 95; Buddhist pilgrims to, 95, 96; natural beauty of, 108; atrocities of a king of, 109; British rule of, 110; Peradeniya tropical garden, 110, 113, 114, 117; executive seat of Ceylon's tea industry, 117, 118, 121

Kitchener, Viscount, commander-in-chief of Indian army, 218, 219

Macao, journey to Portuguese colony from Canton, 267; pioneer European settlement in East, 272; Eastern Monte Carlo, 272, 283-289; political refuge, 274; Camoens, 278-282

Manar, pearling-ground of Gulf of, 50; advertisements announcing a fishery, 56, 57; period of, 66; scene on banks during a fishery, 76, 77; profit of fishery, 87

Marichchikkaddi, pearl metropolis of, 58, 61, 62, 64, 65; how reached from Colombo, 62; population, 63; fishing fleet, 71, 72; scenes in camp and at kottu, 77, 78; where oysters pass current as money, 79; selling the oysters at auction, 79, 80, 81; health of camp, 85; illustration of white man's rule, 86, 87

Merchant Marine, necessity for creation of, 27; American commercial supremacy without help of, 29

Panama Canal, antiquity of project, 4; President Roosevelt's insistence for, 19; use of, by South American shipping, 21; drawing traffic from east of Singapore, 21; vast Eastern area to be served by, 21; destined to make America trade-arbiter of world, 23; prediction of cost of construction and maintenance, 23; question of annual tonnage, 24

Parsees, their home in Bombay, 126; followers of Zoroaster, 127; Towers of Silence and method of disposing of dead, 131, 132, 133

Pearls, Swedish, Chinese and Japanese methods of inducing pearl formation, 55; Indian and Cingalese expert dealers, 66; Indian grandees chief buyers of, 88

Pearl-fishing, scene of, in Gulf of Manar, 50; description of, 51, 56, 57; Professor Hornell's theories, 52; divers, 66, 69; the shark-charmer, 70, 71, 72; time of divers under water, 75, 76 scene on Manar banks, 76, 77 devices for stealing pearls, 79 process by which pearls are extracted from oysters, 81, 82

Penang, leading tin port of world, 227

Raffles, Sir Stamford, pioneer of Singapore, 227

Russia, friendship of Germany during war, 290-304; benefit to have accompanied victory over Japan, 296

Said, viceroy, date of giving Suez concession, 6

Singapore, a turnstile of commerce, 227; universal character of, 228

South America, use of Panama by carrying trade of, 21; trifling imports from United States, 22; importance of exports to United States, 23

Suez Canal, antiquity of project, 3, 4; Persian oracle's warning against, 5; personages who had considered, 5; to pay Egyptian treasury part of proceeds, 6, 15; Ismail's interest in scheme, 10; perpetuation of names of Egyptian rulers, 11; simplicity of construction and cost of, 12; international character of, 12; Disraeli's purchase of control for Great Britain, 15; physical statistics of, 16; tariff of, 16, 17; value to world's commerce, 17; statistics of tonnage and income, 17; average daily use of, 18; European shippers' choice of canals, 20; shareholders in no fear of Panama competition, 29

Taj Mahal, tomb of Arjamand, wife of Shah Jahan, and world's most exquisite building, 168-184; cost of, 173; burial-place of Shah Jahan, 179; restorations by British government, 183

Tea, cultivation in Ceylon, 122, 125

Widowhood, curse of Indian, 224

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:

In the original text, contractions had a space at the word break, e.g. "would n't, does n't, I 'm". In this ebook, such spaces have been removed.

Pg. 70, added missing period (a stove-polish advertisement.)

Pg. 315, inserted missing period. (growing surprise to the world.)

Index entry "America, interest in Panama....", stated page number was "14" which is a blank page. Page number changed to "16" where content appears to match.

Index entry "China, America and Chinese trade", stated page numbers were "312-314" but "312" is a blank page. Page number "312" changed to "310" where content appears to match.

Index entry "France, Ally of Russia", stated page numbers were "2, 96". Changed to "296" where content appears to match.

Index entry "Hong Kong, Happy Valley racecourse", stated page numbers were "238" and "239", but "239" is a blank page. Page number "239" changed to "241" where content appears to match.

Index entry "Japan, homogeneity of people", stated page is "323" but content begins on "322". Page number changed to "322".

Index entry "Kandy, Peradeniya tropical garden", last of the page numbers was "115" which is an unrelated illustration. The age number "315" changed to "117" where content appears to match.

Index entry "Kandy, executive seat of Ceylon's tea industry", last of the page numbers is "127" which has no relevant content. Page number "127" changed to "121" where content appears to match.

Index entry "Suez canal, Disraeli's purchase of control for Great Britain", stated page number was "13" which is an unrelated illustration. Page number "13" changed to "15" where content appears to match.

Index entry "Suez canal, physical statistics of", stated page number is "14" which is a blank page. Page number "14" changed to "16" where content appears to match.

Index entry "Suez canal, tariff of", first of stated page numbers is "14" which is a blank page. age number "14" changed to "16" where content appears to match.

End of Project Gutenberg's East of Suez, by Frederic Courtland Penfield