:
The Commonero
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
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Vol. 6. No. 4
Lincoln, Nebraska, February 9, 1906
Whole Number 264
CONTENTS
Me. Bryan's IiETTEB ,'.,
"Commoner Day""
'
"Honest" OPPOSITION'
Fedeeai. and State Author ity
Directors who Don't Direct
A Shameful Fact .
The Ship Subsidy
Weighing the jMails
A New Diversion
Washington City Letter
Comment on Current Topics
Home Department
Whether Common or not
News of the Week
J&panHer History and Progress
MR. BRYAN'S FOURTH LETTER
&
COMMONER DAYSATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24
Complying with a suggestion made by Gen
eral James B. Weaver of Iowa, Saturday, Febru
ary 24, has been designated as "Commoner Day."
Ontnaday any "onelnay obtain -one. year's,
subscription to The Commoner for $6$ cents:" '''
Commoner readers everywhere are aslced to
devote at least a portion of the day to an effort
to increase The Commoner's circulation and thus
widen its sphere of influence.
Further reference to this plan is made on
page 5 of this issue."
The congressional campaign is coming on, and
those who believe that The Commoner is doing a
good work will find ample reason for participating
in this effort to give The Commoner an increased
circulation in every congressional district.
If every reader of The Commoner would se
cure aj; least one new subscriber on "Commoner
Day" The Commoner's list would be Increased to
300,000. Five new subscribers by each present-day
subscriber would mean a circulation of 900,000.
Six. new subscribers for every present-day sub
scriber would mean more than one million.
Every Commoner reader in sympathy with
the work The Commoner is striving to do is re- -quested
to tell his neighbor of the program for
"Commoner Day." The active co-operation of
those in sympathy with the principles for which
The Commoner stands is invited. ' .
If we may depend upon your assistance on
"Commoner Day" send us a brief note, to that
effect. v :v -
J J J
WHY?
The Kansas City Journal, a republican news
paper, says: "Jt is generally conceded that the
government wants railway rate legislation and the
leading rail way men stand pledged to help Presi
dent Roosevelt to secure the passage of any just
and equitable measure." Then how does it happen
that the recognized representatives of railroad In
terests in the senate and in the house are doing
all in their power to embarrass Mr. Roosevelt in
his efforts Ho meet this popular demand?
As for the islands themselves they are large
ly of volcanic origin, and a number of smoking
peaks still give evidence of the mighty convul
sions which piled up these masses of masonry.
Asosan mountain, on the island of Kyushu, has
the largest crater in the world.
V Japan is the home of the earthquake. The
' Japanese Year Book of 1905 is authority for the
statement that Japan was visited by 17,750
earthquakes during the thirteen years ending
1887 an average of more than thirteen hundred
a year, or three and a half each day. It is need
less to say that a large majority of these were
, so trivial as to be unnoticed, oxcept to those in
charge of the delicate instrument which registers
them.
If the average is as great at this time, there
have been more than seventy-five since we landed,
but we have not been aware of them. The severe
shocks have come at periods averaging two and
a half years and the really disastrous ones have
been something like fifty years apart. The coun
try about Toldo is most subject to earthquakes,
'the number recorded there averaging ninety-six
a year during the last twenty-six years. The
la3t severe one was in 1894. According to an
ancient legend Japan rests upon the back of a
large fish and the earthquakes are caused by the
moving of the fish. There is a Seismological
society in Japan which has -published a sixteen
volume work-giving all that is spientiflcally known
., .of the cause and recurrence of Cfteto distiu;bahces
v? ;; Of 'ihaorfgln of .theJapan.ihraseiyesiHlhs,
ms cerium jm khow. jlub; uest auuuviuutfs-, pitynif
iney came jroin me comment in an.eariy lviongoji
invasion, while others believe that the"y came
from the islands which stretch to the south. One
writer announces the theory that they are the
lost Israelites. It is quite certain that when the
first Japanese landed on the islands they found
an earlier race in possession. Some seventeen
thousand of these, called Sinos, now occupy the
northern extremity of the empire an indication
that the migration was from the southwest. The
Sinos have remained distinct; where they have
inter-married with the Japanese, the half breeds
have died out in the second or third generation.
They are a hairy race and in physical character
istics quite different from the Japanese. Their
religion is a sort of nature worship and It is
their custom to say a simple grace before eating.
The remoteness of the settlement of Japan
is shown by the fact that the reigning family,
which claims descent from the gods, has held
undisputed sway for twenty-five hundred years,
although the record of the first thousand years
is so dependent upon verbal tradition that the
official history can not be verified. As concubi
nage has been practiced from time immemorial,
the heir, the oldest son, has not always been born
of the empress.
Soon after the beginning of the Christian
era the influence of China and Korea began to
be felt in Japan, the written characters of the
language being quite like the Chinese. Koreans
and Japanese do not agree as to the influence
which the former have had upon the latter. A
very intelligent Korean informs me that his is
the mother country and that Japan was settled
from Korea, butthe Japanese do not take kindly
to this theory.
The feudal system, of which I shall speak
more at length in another article, was early es
tablished in Japan, and society was divided into
well defined classes. First came the members
of the royal family and those admitted to the
circle of favor; next, the Shogun (of whom more
will be heard under the subject of government)
and his relatives.
Next in rank were the daimios, or Iord3, of
varying degrees of importance. Each daimio had
a large number of retainers, who were called
samurai, and below these were a still larger num
ber of peasants who tilled the soil and did the
manual labor. Some of the early pictures show
the gorgeous dress of the daimios and portray
the elaborate ceremony employed on state occa
sions. . The samurai were the warriors and had no
other occupation than to defend their lords in
the struggles between the clans. They corres
ponded to the knights in Europe during the days
of chivalry, except that there were no romantic
adventures over women woman holding until
recently a very subordinate place as compared
with "her lord and master."
The samurai were given an annual allow
ance for their subsistence and felt that toil was
far beneath tlleir dignity. They wore lacquered
armor and costly helmets and carried two swords
a. long one for the enomy and a short one for
themselves.
It was with .this short sword that the famous
hara-kiri was committed. This ancient form of
suicide by disembowelment was considered an
highly honorable death and has been practiced
until within a generation. General Salgo, one
of the great men of Japan and one of its popu
lar heroes, was the Jast man of prominence to
terminate his life in this way. He was one of
the leaders in the movement to restore to the
emperor the authority which the shoguns had
usurped and was for awhile close to the throne.
In 1874, however, he organized an army for the
invasion of Korea, and coming into conflict with
the forces of the emnlre. which -wnm smMoii nui-
PsMWFP nvaaion, hQ wa3 defeate(1 m
: ;;,' v- ., ""wmo tc. mw j'"u.w.: enjoy w v,
by his eldest son. One otyhBdR8B't1ierpr&kQn,
muyur oi avyoio anu anotner a colonel . In the
Imperial Guard. A bronze monument of heroic
slzetho gift of admiring friends, has recently
been placed in the principal park in Tokyo.
Only a few years ago a young Japanese com
mitted suicide in this way in order to emphasize
his protest against the encroachments of the Rus
sians, but a strong sentiment Is developing
against hara-kiri and it will soon take its place
among other obsolete customs.
The samurai represented the Intellectual as
well as the military strength of the nation. The
daimios have furnished few, of the men of promi
nence In modern Japan, nearly all of the leaders
in government, education, literature and the pro
fessions having come from the samurai class.
Now, however, that all social distincclons have
been removed and the schools opened to the
Children of all, the old lines between the classes
can not much longer bo traced.
The merchant class has always been looked
down upon in Japan. In the social scale they
were not only lower than the samurai, but lower
than the tillers of the soil. It was probably
because of the contempt in which they were held
that so low a standard of integrity existed
among them at least this is the explanation
usually given. Even now Japanese, as well as
foreigners, complain that the merchants impose
upon their customers, but here also a change
is taking place andca new order of thing3 be
ing inaugurated. Tnv ce are in every city mer-
chants of honor and responsibility who are re
deeming trade from the stigma which it so long
bore. Still, unless the stranger knows with whom
he is dealing, it Is well to have a Japanese advisor,
for we found by experience that the price named
to foreigners was sometimes considerably above
the regular price.
For centuries Japan liyed an Isolated life
and developed herself according to her own
Ideas. Of her native religion, Shintolsm, of the
introduction of Buddhism and of the first Chris
tian missionaries l shall speak in a later article.
She repelled an attack of the Mongols which
micrhfc have hfiftn rHsnsfrniiR .r hor hnf- fnr thn
fact that a timely storm destroyed, the invading
neec, mucn as tne apanisn Armaaa was destroyed
She has from time to time attempted the inva
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