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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1909)
I Premier of ! if f? TOR (Copyright, 1909, by Frank O. Carpenter.) OKIO (Special Correspondence T I of The Bee.) It Is a I I great thing to be a mighty general ana irwa your soiaier to victory In war. It Is greater till to be at the head of a nation during a war and manage Ha fi nances and government In such a way as to bring that war. to a successful con clusion, and greater than all to be able to take hold of tho government when tho war In over and direct It along the linos of prosperity In the arts of peace. Story of Katnnrn. All these things form a part of the past life and the present situation of Marquis Taro Katsura, who Is now the premier and also the finance minister of the Japa nese empire. Born In 187. when James K. Polk was president of the United States, and only six yeara before Commodore Perry made his first expedition to Japan, he fought, aa a boy, for the emperor In the civil war which made his majesty the real rular of the Japanese people. Shortly after that he waa sent to Germany to study mili tary science, and when he returned was made vice minister of the War depart ment. When the Japan-China trouble broke out Katsura waa made the commander of a di vision, and in 1900 he became war minister, and held that position under several pre miers. As such, he has had much to do with bringing the army to Its present ef ficiency, and when the war with Russia broke out, he In the meantime having been elevated to the premiership, waa of the greatest value to his country, In carrying on that great struggle. He waa still In office when peace was declared, but there waa audi public discontent over the terms of the peace that he retired, recommend ing the Marquis SalnnJI as his successor. Premier of Japnn. That was In 1906. Now, only three year later, wa find the great warrior inurquls again at the head of the government. The emperor and his leading advisers. Includ ing the chief statesmen and financiers of Japan, have decided that the country Is going too fant and that its business needs reorganisation. They find that they have an enormous national debt growing out of the war, and that the revenues and ex penditures of the government must be re formed. As their leader they have picked out Katsura. and he again holds the pre miership. There Is no man in the empire so well fitted for the position. He appre ciates the military necessities of his coun try to the full, and he has at the same time a working knowledge of Its financial requirements. He has already Inaugurated a policy of retrenchment, economy and reform which has raised tho value of the Japanese bonds In all of the great markets of the world, and which In time. If carried out to a conclusion, will probably make the Japanese one of the creditor nations of the world. It waa to talk with Marquis Katsura about the financial Hltuutlon and Its pros pects that I called upon him at h!a official residence this morning. Each of these hlgii Japanese officials has an official resi dence In addition to his private home. That of Marquis Katsura ts back of the State department and right next the Chi nese legation. It is a large house, built in foreign style, and It was in a big parlor, furnished In red, witn a red carpet and red walls, that I was received by the premier. His excellency does not speak English and Mr. Saasano of the Depart ment of Foreign Affairs acted aa our in terpreter. But lt me tell you how the premier looks. Ha is of medium Japanese height, which is considerably utider that of the average American. He is atra.ght and well formed, having a big round head firmly set on a pair of broad shoulders. He has a high forehead, short black hair and a thin black mustache. His eyes are very bright, but they grow serious now and then as ha talks. 'For Peaee, Always Peace." During the conversation I referred to him aa a military hero. He replied: "I do not care to be considered as a man cf war. I am for pe ce, p ac , a'w ys pa:e. It la wrung to luck uouii the Japanese as consumed with military ambition and a lust for conquest. We are a peaceful nation and vi have only fought because we have had to do ao. We did not want the war with Russia, and we tried in every honorable way to keep out of It." "Tour excellency had much to do with financing that war. You raised about $)0 000,000 duilng the atruggle. That seems to me a wonderful feat." "It was not difficult," replied Marquis Katsura, "and largely so because the world felt Japan's cause was a Just one. The other nations realised that our war wa defensive and that we were forced into it. Wa pad not expected it and we had made no more than ordinary military preparations. Could we have had time wa might have been in much better shape; but we had to take our army and navy aa they were and to arrange for aucb additional auimuntton and supplies aa were needed.' "Where were your bunds chiefly placed?" "Mostly In I'nlted States and England." Japan's Financial Condition. "What la the financial situation of the empire today?" it Is not bad," replied the premier. "This country has abundant resources and our people are generally wall off. There Is no great suffering in a business way, aad the times are no harder here than in moat other countriea. The curtailment of business has been largely due to tha wcrld Japanese Katsura's JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES MUTUAL FRIENDSHIP AND MUTUAL panic which began in the United States more than a year ago, and which has af fected every trading nation. The chief trouble Is not as to our condition, but aa to our methods of regulating the revenues and expenditures of the government. Japan Is abundantly able to pay all its obligations and to carry out all Its hopes of develop ment for the future; but It must go slowly and along different lines from those of our past administrations. What we expect to do is to take more tlmp In making national Improvements and thus spread the cost over a greater number of years. In the past wo have been regulating our revenues by our expenditures, making up the de ficits. If any, by loans. We shall Issue no more loans for the present, but shall de cide what our revenues arc to bn and regulate our expenditures by them. We expect also to reduce the national debt at least $50,000,000 a year." "Will your new policy curtail the size of the Japanese army or navy or its plans for the future?" "No; the present establishment will be continued, but we shall economize where possible, and as to the military works which have been planned, Including the in crease of our navy, we shall delay the com pletion of them so as to spread the pay ments for them out over more years. For Instance, we have extended the period of six years allowed for such works to one of eleven years. The sum of money thus postponed amounts to about $100,000,000. Business Japan. "Along what lines is Japan to be de veloped from now on? Will it devote It aelf to the attainment of military glory, or to commercial and business prosperity?" "Most emphatically the .latter. No na tion can bo prosperous in any other way. Timely Told Tales Tillman aa a Woolhnt. R. TILLMAN understands poll- I Ing the Ignorance of mankind," writes Airreu uenry uewis in the New York American. "In Ida rattltsnaks ptlmetto state of South Carolina there are two tribes of politics. There are Uie aristocrats, who live on the rich flat lands In the eastern or seaboard half of the state, and there are the "Woolhats" rude moutain people, these whoso range is the rough, hilly western half of the state. Mr. Tillman belongs with the "Woolhats." It was aa populist, not democrat, that Tillman took his seat as governor. Evinc ing the sturdy sort of his populistlc virtue, Mr. Tillman plowed up the lawn In front of the executive mansion, and where his effete predecessors had raised flowers he sowed a crop of oats. These heroic feats In agriculture gave mighty satisfaction to l.ls faithful "Woolhats," whose lack of fineness was only equalled by their lack of common sense. They tell this story. It serves to exhibit the humbug side of Mr. Tillman. A rail way lawyer, Mr. Bpauldlng, came up from Atlanta to talk with Governor Tillman concerning outrages, which, for his glory with the "Woolhats." Mr. Tillman medi tated against Mr. Spauldlng's clients. The two were acquainted, and while Qjvernor Tillman, alive to his own "Woolhat" needs of politics, In no wise abated his anti-railroad attitude had a highly pleasant chat. Mr. Spaulding waa about to leave. Mr. Tlllmm stood waving him an affable "adieu." "Good-bye, Jack," Mr. Tillman was say ing, when, liko a flash, the beaming smile waa supplanted by a perfect thunder cloud of a frown, the friendly voice changed to a grow'.lng threatening roar. "No. sir!" Mr. Tillman shouted. "I'll do nothing of the kind. You railroad lawyera needn't think you are going to run the state of South Carolina while Ben Till man's at the capltol. Get out of my of fice, sir, and tell your scoundrel railroad clients that Ben Tillman Is neither to be bribed or bullied. Mr. Spaulding made no reply. When he wheeled to g.- he was not surprised to see a couple of "Woolhats" peering in the door. Cleveland's Imagination. Some have thought Mr. Cleveland a man witho'it imagination. Hla Princeton life does not confirm tlilfc. The fact that the main buslma of his life was practical statesmanship, and the further fact of his own unlikent'K8 to the dreamer or zealot or artist, may be the ground for the criti cism. But he had hidden depths and imag inings ft his own. Call it by whatever name he showed at times something of the instinct of a seer, writes Andrew F. West in the Century. If we concede high imagination to the man of science, blooding on the deep till some truth of nuture emerges to his sight. then it waa a Like brooding on the troubled flood of human society and government that enabled him to see and utter truths all bad felt, no doubt, and yet none but he had expressed so surely. It Is true he did not rare for the word "Ideals," and did not keep hla own on parade, but well in tha back ground. Yet he said again and again that a man or a community or a business firm or a university or, most of all, a free peo ple, without atandarda of right beyond what they saw or did, without allegiance to something unseen above thorn all, would soon sink below their own level. There was a touch of another Imagina tion In him that sometimes sppeared when he was out of doors. A scene of sylvan beauty In the springtime, especially when the apple blossoms were coming Into flower am; the grecntry, and the songbirds were Empire Outlines Working: Policy of His Country Message to the United States Our aim la to develop our agricultural, manufacturing and commercial possibilities to the full." "What are you doing along agricultural lines?" "We are trying to learn how to make two blades of grasa grow where one haa grown before. We are studying intensive farming and by artificial fertilizers are materially increasing our rice and other products. We are planting forests and are bringing under cultivation a great deal of land which has until now been idle. We are also educating our farmers, and we have many experiment stntlons as well as some agricultural schools." Foreign Trade and Ship Mnbuldies. "How about your foreign trade? Is It increasing?" "It has been doing so almost steadily until within the last year. During 1908 the whole world has been spending less than usual. The hard times have cut down the purchases of every nation, and Jioan ha's had to suffer with the rest. As to tho increase of our trade. In 1877 our exports were a little more than 23,000,000 yen. Thlity years later they were more than 4,r, 000,000 yen. In that period they rose from 31 cents to S4.43 per head. This Increase of our exports has continued, and in 18M they reached more than $100,000,000 per year. They have since exceeded twice that amount in several years, and they will piobably amount to more than $200,000,000 In 1900. Aa to our Imports, In 1877 they were almost $14,000,000, and In 1907 they ap proximately $1),000,000. The Increase In tho.e thirty years in our foreign trade, including both exports and imports, aggregates more than 875,000,000 yen, or almost $140,000,000. I see no reason why this .Increase should not go on." back again, moved him to deep silence. "I can't find a word for It," he said quietly on Just such a day, after a flood of aun shine had burst through a light April hower. "What makes It so beautiful? There is no word good enough. 'Ravishing' comes nearest, I think. Where does it come from? Do you know what I mean? It Is too good for us. Do you understand me? It is something wc don't deserve." Well, If one of our acknowledged esthetes had said this to anybody we should not soon hear tile end of it. Then another incident. One bright, still day In September he was fishing on a clear lake circled by hills covered with the green forest, and only here and there were the leaves touched with crimson and gold. It was too much for him, and he stopped fish ing. Then he gazed long and tranquilly at it all, as If spellbound. There was a look of Joy in his face like that Fenimore Cooper gives in his novel to the old huntsman walking through the sunlit woods In calm communion with something beyond and ba.ck of what eyes could see. Long after ward he apoke of It, and with hesitation. He had felt it all. Mark Twain and the Indian. The days when "Sam" Clemens "stuck type" on the Hannibal Union are recalled by this anecdote. One morning "Sam" came into the office very thoughtful, hung up his coat and went to the frame. He worked diligently for several hours with out any copy cn his small cap caae In front of him. He waa setting up the story of a wonderful find he and some ot his comrades found In McDougal's cave the Sunday before. The narration waa to the effect that a crowd ot boys, while explor ing the great cave on Sunday afternoon, ran acroas a petrified Indian. The citizens were greatly worked up over the story and they hired a scientist from Qulncy to look the dead Indian In the face and report. The man who came to perform this task wore gray mutton chop whiskers, a thoughtful brow, and spectacles of course. He was an unemotional chap and he looked letrned and the committee waa sat isfied ot his ability. By the terms of his contract he was to write a complete report, detailing every possible feature of tha discovery for his torical preservation. The investigator re Champion of the HAMPION pants patcher . of I 1 the United States " is the I B. I unique title won during the 1 1 KjtHnn&l Porn y nnnttt,in mt Ml Omaha last year by Miss Selma Fredeen of Aurora, Neb., who In competition with girls and women from twenty states, beat them all for neatness. In addition to the title, the championship' carries with It $50 in gold. Miss Fredeen is only 1? years old. There were over 600 contestants in tho patching class, but the young Nebraska girl romped home, ap easy winner, over women who declared they had been patch ing pants fur fifty years, and certainly ought to know more about It than any 17-year-old girl in the country. But the Judges decided tbst the girl waa right on the Job and gave her tha geld and the title. This Is not the first prise for neat needle work the little lady has been awarded. Some time ago. In her home town, she car ried off a prise as the nicest and neatest apron maker In the county. She ts as modest as she Is successful with her needle and the honors she has won rest lightly upon her. THE OMAHA SUNDAY HEE: JANUARY .11, 1909. HARMONY (SIQNID AND SEALED) KATSUR A." "Has your foreign trade been much bene fited by the subsidies which you give your merchant marine?" "Yes, we must have shipping, and with a country like oura it la impossible for us to build up a merchant marine without sub sidles. We think It has paid ua to give them, and they will be continued for some yeara to come." Japan for the Japanese. "Does Japan need foreign capital?" "If you mean foreign loans, 1 should say no," replied Marquis Katsura. "It is a part of my policy to curtail rather than In crease our foreign indebtedness. We wish to cut down our national debt and to put ourselves In the way of gradually paying It. I would like to see our bonds held more largely at homo." "Tell me something about your banks and Industrials, your excellency. Are such combinations of capital proving profltablo?" "Yes. Most of our banks are paying good dividends, and they have been doing so for years. It is the same with many of our factories and with our street car lines and other such Institutions. We are doing what we can to encourage combinations of cap ital, and the bigger the combination the better it will pleaso us. We believe such things to be necessary to our home and foreign trade and to our commercial de velopment. At present the dividends paid are very high, but that Is always so in a new and fast growing country. We have a high Interest rate. I should like to see it reduced, but not too much, as when money is easy to get our people are lluble to run Into all sorts of speculations, and that always means panic and financial dis aster. Military Party. "Is there not a commercial party devel About People in Public Life turned at nightfall, covered with clay, with clothing torn and skin barked In countless places by falls of rock. He sought out the chairman of the committee that employed him and silently delivered to htm this statement: "Mileage in looking for dead Indian, $20; reading story about dead In dian, $5; bruised shins on the way to dead Indian, $10. Report: There was no dead Indian." A Popnlnr Book. One can imagine a book which would be well worth $300,000 to any publisher who could get hold of the necessary material for it. This would be a volume containing Mr. Roosevelt's table talk or some of It since he first came to the presidency, says Harry Thurston Peek in the Forum. For frank indiscretion, absolute bluntness and the most Irreverent pungency of phrasing, the table talk of Mr. Roosevelt is extraor dinarily interesting. No matter who hap pens to be his guest, the president always speaks without the slightest reserve, giv ing his actual opinions of senators, repre sentatives, public men in general, ambas sadors, and even foreign potentates, in a way that makes one's head swim with as tonishment. One might name at least half a dozen persons who are by n.i means the especial Intimates of the president, but to whom, nevertheless, he has blurted out enough of this extremely piquant talk to fill a vol ume. The extraordinary part of it all la that very few, indeed, ot those to whom he talks have yet betrayed his confidence. Of course, they tell other people, but only those, who like themselves, can keep these biasing Indiscretions from getting into the pages of the newspapers. In a few instances, to be sure, table guests of President Roosevelt have In perfect Innocence revealed some of his care less words; but then he has promptly en rolled them In the Ananias club and every thing has gone on as though nothing at all had happened. Where In Europe there would be Issued In some gazette an offi cial dementi, our president gives out a state ment to the press that the story teller has uttered what be knew to be "outrageously and absolutely false." It is odd that none of the White House United States BEI.MA FREDEEN. CHAMPION PANTS k. i A , I s. oping In Japan? t understand that the military party still controls everything." "It is true that the most of the officer of the government and the administration of affairs are In the hands of what yof might call the military party," said Mar quis Katsura. "But the military party of Japan Is different from that of any other nation. This Is naturally so from our his tory. Before the restoration, which marked what might be called the practical begin ning of the New Japan, we had a feudal system consisting of several distinct classes.. There was the upper class, em bracing the daimyos and their retainers, who practically governed the empire, and there were the common people, consisting of the farmers and those engaged In man ufacture and trade. The daimyos and their retainers went about with swords and they cut off the heads of such Individuals of the common class as displeased them. When the time of the restoration came it waa this military class that did the fight ing, that reorganized the government, and that practically made the Japan of today. It waa the educated class, and, necessarily, it waa given the chief of the official posi tions. Theoretically, all men woie equal, and the merchant or mechanic had an equal chance with the othera, but in reality It was not so, on account of his antece dents, training and education. This has been the case until recently, but mem bers of the other classes are rapidly com ing into the government, and what you might call a commercial party is being de veloped." "But you must not consider the words military paity in the sense that the of ficials composing it are all soldiers, and hence anxious to direct Jittan along mili tary lines. They are merely the descend ants of soldiers, educated to civil admin- servants have carried their master's in teresting mots to the newspapers, for the president often talks quite as freely In their presence as hen he Is alone with his Invited guests. Some day or other in the distant future many of these inter esting and very pungent bits of phrase and characterization will be carefully col lected and published, but probably not until many men now living have died. A Standard Oil Lawyer. One hundred thousand dollars a year as a retainer, and $1,000 a day when he is actively on the Job, Isn't half bad as a salary for a 41-year-old lawyer, is it? That's what Mortis Rosenthal, the Stan dard Oil attorney, once of Chicago, now of New Yoik, has to struggle along on, any way. The Standard Oil, which has made so many men famous, and not a few in famous, did not have to serve as a public ity promoter for Merits Rosenthal, says Human Life. His ability aa a lawyer of mark brought him before the public eye long before his connection with the Oil truBt, although his brilliant defense of this corporation during the many law suits, especially the recent most threatening one, where John D. Rockefeller and John D. Archbold were.( subjected to a grueling or deal of testimony, has certainly augmented his fame. Born at Dixon, III., May 4, Xh&i, Morlts Rosenthal graduated from the Michigan university in 1888, and after studying law at Dixon, was admitted to the bar in 1890. He went to Chicago In 1831 to hang out Ms shingle, and formed a partnership ot Moses, Rosenthal & Kennedy, which still exists, despite the death of Judge Moses several years ago. Early in his legal carter, from 1894 to 1897, Mr. Rosenthal was assistant United States attorney In Illinois and fought the very trusts he Is now defending. As a state attorney he taved Chicago from a hold-up epidemic, sending twenty or more thugs to the peni tentiary. He especially represented the city of Chicago in the traction fight, and was associate counsel with Jrhn 9. Miller in administering the internationally famous Immunity baths to the packers charged with violation of the Sherman anti-trust lr ws. His defense of Inspector Lavln of the Chicago police departn.ent, charged with being an accessory to burglary and other Irregularities, was one of the meat specta cular and sensational cases in the history of tho Chicago bar, and he also attained some note, but little public esteem, by serving as attorney for the owners of llie Iroquois theater, and saving them from prison after tne fire which cost UM lives. Soon after he became associated with the Standard OH company, and was one of the attorneys In the rase in which Jui'ge Landis a "eased the $-'9,000,000 fine. Betsldes tlie federal suit to dissolve tho Standard Oil company and thu $2.000.KA fine case which Is now pending In the 'iiipreme court. Mr. Rosenthal is also as K dated at prtscnt In another cuse of na tional importance, that of the United Kail ways company of San Francisco. Eighty Years' Retrospect. F'fhty years ago In an old hcue of an old Engrail town, writes Ooldwln Smith in the Cornell Era. a l.ttle boy wns lying In bed listening to the Christmas chim-, rerhaps to the last call ot the watchman rn tho street, and looking at the servant lighting the fire with the flint steel and tlnderbox of the olden time. Since that morning what changes! The main storm of the French revolu tion may be said to have ended at Waterloo- But there have been a series of after- MARQUIS TERA KATSURA. JAPAN'S GREAT WARRIOR STATESMAN. Isiratlon. It In true that many of them are members of the army, but their aim is the Adevelopment of Japan along jieoce lines." Japan and Cores. The conversation here turned to Oorea, and I asked Marquis Katsura whether It was the Intention of the government to make the Coreans Independent under Japa nese protection. He replied that It was; that the Japanese did not want to crowd out the Coreans, and that they hoped that Cores would be able to govern Itself with the advice of Japan. He denied that tha Japanese are overrunning tha country and said tha door there Is practically open to foreign trade. I asked him If the Japanese expected to colonize any part mt the country. He re plied that they did not, and that they would only attempt to fill up the unoccu pied spaces and develop the waste lands. He spoke highly of Marquis Ito's work In Corea, and he evidently thinks that the blasts whioh has changed the political face of all Europe and Is now apparently extending Itself to the hitherto stagnant east. We may aet down In some measure to the same account the overthrow by civil war of the same power in the United States. The Impelling force everywhere has been democracy, generally triumphant, advanc ing to rule apparently, even In Russia, and In England completely possessed of the leg islative seat ot, real power, the House ot Commons, though a remnant of aristo cratic control still retains a precarious ex lbtence In the House ot Lords. The United States now. Instead of being the vanguard ot democracy, might almost be said to be Its rear guard, the power of the president and the senate making the constitution In some respects the most con servative of the set. Not less, but rather more, momentous than the political movement, and fraught with ultimate change. Is the advance of science, which In two or three genera tions has been almost miraculous, and has carried mechanical invention with It. Me chanical invention, with steamship, rail and telegraph. Is bringing the nations Into far closer communication and making of them In some respects almost one common wealth. In one way, unhappily, invention has been retrograde. It has always been in creasing the construction of new Instru ments of war, the Incentive to enmity bo tween nations or the appeal to violence and destruction. The growth of physical science, or the Increase of its Influence over the mind, has had the most momentous effects In another sphere. Those Christmas chimes, when the child first heard them, spoke to all hearts alike, both of home and the church. To not a few they now speak of the home alone. This change has come rapidly and startlngly over the intellectual world. The child when still a youth heard a great professor of physical science strug gling to reconcile geology with Genesis. Now he reads the work of a religious writer, such aa Gladstone, struggling to reconcile Genesis with geology. Let the evolutionists, however, remem ber two things: First, that evolution can not have evolved Itself; second, that un like brutes, humanity, as w have been here noting, advances, and we cannot tell what the c-nd will be, whether It may not be the flnul ascendency of the splrituul over the material In man. Man, let the evolutionists remember, advances and rises. The beast d'es not. lirlef Kills Hitrona Man. Intolerable regret, crumbling u 11 the vital forces of Ills being, is believed to have caused the death of Charles Wlngren. who lived with his wife and seven children la Inez, tn-ookston ruunty, Minn. Wlngren, who was only 27 years old. as strong and healtny until a few weeks ago, when lie shut and killed a neighbor, his closest friend, in mistake for a deer. The official report of Wlngren's death stated he died of apoplexy, a rare complaint for a young nan who has lived his whole life in the healthy open air. Those who knew Win gren best say he di d of a broken heart. Wii.gren shot Ms friend when hunting a few weeks ago, and his remorse was so keen that, after giving himself up, ho pleaded guilty to a charge of inan.-lu igluer as soon as he was biougiit L tnal. li was sentenced to a term In the reformatory, but public opinion was so strong that he was morally innocent that petitions in his favor poured in, and the pardon board, taking into consideration the needs of his family, which was left destitute without him. released blm on parole a week ago. V ''' ,-" v-. . '. country will rapidly Improve under his ad ministration. Our next subject wss Manchuria, con cerning which I asked his excellency if Japin expected to maintain the open door there. He replied: "Most assuredly so. We hope that the trade of Manchuria will be free to nil na tions. It Is so now. Indeed, the greater part of the trade there ts In the hands of nations other than the Japanese. Both the United States and Oreat Britain do con siderable business In Manchuria." "What are the prospects of the Chinese combining with the Jspanese to furnish capital for Its development?" I asked. "They are not good Just now. Both coun tries are In need of money, and they have but little for undertakings outside their own territories. There Is a union , of Chinese and Japanese capital as to the ex ploitation of large tracts of forest along the Yalu river, and this promises to pay well. As to Manchurlt Itself, It Is an enor mous territory, with vast tracts of rich land and great mineral possibilities. The country has not been carefully prospected, and no one knows Just what It contains. It has a large population and tt will eventually be a valuable market. We are anxious to see the country develop, and we want, of course, to get aa much of the market as possible." "aarhallen. "Tell me something about your posses sions in Saghallen, that part of the island which the Japanese got from Russia as a result of the war. Is It of any value?" "We call that territory by the name ot Karafuto," said Marquis Katsura, "Wa have had the country but a short time, and are not able to say yet Just what It is worth. The fisheries are considered valuable, and this la especially so of her ring and trout. We are experimenting there along agricultural lines. There Is considerable land fitted for farming, and since 1908 agricultural settlers have been quartered In certain localities and hare been suprlled with seed and domestlo animals. We have afso established govern ment experiment farms, and we find that we can grow not only barley, wheat and potatoes, but peas and beans of all kinds. The Island Is rich in coal and there ts con siderable alluvial gold. The forests also are valuable." Formosa nnd the Philippines. "How are you getting along with For mosa? You were once governor general of that province?" "Yes, I went there In '1897, at the close of the military administration, and did some thing aa to reorganizing the Island. It was my aim to make It pay its own expenses, and this policy has been carried on by my successors, Baron Nogl, the late Viscount General Kodama and General Sakuma. A great work was done in the civil adminis tration by Baron Goto. The island has now been brought into thorough subjection. Its finances have been reformed and Its resources so developed that It la now pay ing its own way. It Is a valuable territory and will become more and more so as time goes on." "How about the Philippines? Haa Japan any ambition to posses them?" "No," said the premier, "Japan Is glad that the Philippines belong to the United States, and we believe that It means much to the peace ot the Orient and to the peace of the world that it Is so. This sentiment Is common smong all classes of our people from the highest to the lowest. We are glad to have the United States In the Orient, and we feel that the fact that Is there Is a great protection to our trade and to the presenvatlon of the open door." Mesage to the Called States. "What is tho feeling In your country as to tho United States?" "It Is of the friendliest nature. We look upon you as our friend and feel that your Interests and ours are along tha same lines toward the presernvatlon of peace. It means much to the world, as well as to Japan, that your country and ours should continue to hove friendly relations. Any war that would Involve ua would In volve the whole world, and what we both want la peace." With these words the Interview closed. As I roan to go I asked the premier If he would nut through me, send a message to the L'nited States, Just a line giving In a nutshell what he tliuughl the relations of the two countries should be. He re plied thai he would do so, and send it to me. The mesrsge. In Janar.ese, beautifully written In his escelluncy's own hand on a wide atrip of white slU, lies before me. It is signed with tit" seul of the mar quis. Translated it reads: "For Japan and the United 8tate-Mu-tual Friendship and Mutual Harmony." FRANK O. CA&PlSNTB&i r PATCHSR OF AMERICA. 1 f