MISS ROOSEVELT IN JAPAN.

Auckland Star, Issue XXXVI, 21 October 1905, Page 10

MISS ROOSEVELT IN JAPAN.

t AX OVATION GIVEN TO THE | S AMERICANS. jJAPAN NEEDS ALL HER LABOUR AND FROWNS OX EMIGRATION. ', j Congressman Itancan E. jVlcKinlay, j who toured the Orient with Secretary joi War Taft, Miss Alice Roosevelt and their party, has written a letter to i friends in California giving his imptes- | sion of things he has seen there. Among I other matters of which Mr McKmley I writes is a talk which he had with Mar- | guis Ito, the Gladstone of the Orient. '. As a result of that conversation Con- !' gressman McKinlay declares that it is Japan's policy to keep her labour at home, and declares that the Pacific Slope may yet need tariff protection from Japan.

After describing the reception every-1 where accorded the representatives of] this country in Japan as an ovation f such as has never before been given in | all tbe history of Japan to people, prince or potentate Of the outside world, he ] says: There was an evidence of sincer- • ity and whole-heartedness permeating every attention, official and otherwise, j paid the American visitors. The great hordes of people who lined every street • or roadway joined as heartily and spontaneously in shouts of "Banzai!" as if they were led by interested persons. Such visits as that paid to Japan must have a tendency to break down barriers arising from racial and national differences, overcome prejudices and create friendships, official and private, which must be productive of good results in promoting commerce and trade, and in preventing difficulties and misunderstandings tending to lead to national complications. JAPAN A GREAT COMMERCIAL RIVAL. On the other hand, the visit of the American delegation to Japan, their journey through the country and the observations they were so freely permitted to make must have convinced them that Japan is now no infant in leading strings, even as compared with America, England, France or Germany. From whatever point you judge her she :is full grown among the nations of the I world. No country will henceforth exploit Japan, commercially or indnstrial- , ly. but, on the other hand, she herself j will become in the very near future perhaps the most powerful and commercial I factor in the continent of Asia. Japan has to-day 48,000.000 inhabitants in Japan proper, without counting the island of Formosa, which has 3.000,000 more. Her increase of population is 600,000 a year natural population. Last year, while nearly 1.000,000 men were winning victories over the Russians. Japan harvested the largest rice 1 crop in all her history—so,ooo.ooo tons —aiid all other branches of agriculture ; and production flourished- Like the I Israelites of old. wbo by permission of Cyrus. King of Persia, rebuilded the walls of Jerusalem, so Japan has learn- j ed to work with one band and fight with the otheT. The writer saw boys of 8 and 10 years, hitched in pairs, drawing load* of lumber along the streets of Kyoto, and a couple of those youngsters would draw more than an average express horse in Am erica; The' little Japanese girls carry on their backs the infants of the family, so tbe mother can work without interruption. CHEAP WAGES AND INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY. "With such industrial potentiality as this, absolutely unlimited labour from 10 to 20 rents a day. striving to do the utmost, not the least, it can for the wage—with the remarkable genius displayed by the Japanese in mastering I the arts of war. tuned to industrial deI velopment in manufacture and production: with her wonderful aptitude for imitation of anything that any other country has done, must we not come ito the conclusion that Japan is to he Am erica's greatest rival (fricirdhr, let us hope) in the Orient r" ! The. concluding paragraph of tbe. letter is as follows: "One other thing that the writer learned—'that it is against the policy of the Japanese Government to permit her people to emigrate to \ America or any other country excepting Corea and Manchuria. In a conversation with Marquis Ito, the firat man of Japan next to the Emperor, he said: " 'Japan needs all her own people. Nowhere can she. get labour equal to them. Therefore it is our policy to keep our labourers at. home to aid In building up the empire. Along this line the Government of Japan has passed laws preventing, in some measure, her labourers from leaving tbe country.' a