JAPANESE JINGOISM.

NZ Truth, Issue 120, 5 October 1907, Page 1

JAPANESE JINGOISM.

•The Japs, grow every day more and more insolent. The latest „piece ofl information that we have with regard to the opinions and pretensions of the Japanes? alleged statesmen is that Count Okuma, the leader of the Progressive Party m Japan, considers that the authorities of California and the President of the. United States are not sufficiently subservient to the Japanese. In San Francisco the local authorities have "got .the measure" of the immigrant coolies from Japan, with whom their State is flooded, and, consequently, they look coldly upon any proposal for the massacre of the unfortunate people of San Francisco, who, owing to the competition of coolies from Japan, whose standard of life is very much lower than that of the people of C»u-i fornia find themselves deprived of the means whereby they live.

What, after all> is more important to any man than the preservation of bis means of living as a civilised man should live ? As Shakespeare said some hundreds of years ago, "You do take my life when you do take the means whereby I live." Claptrap about the "brotherhood of man" is well' • chough' as claptrap, but "noble sentiments" will not fill hungry stomachs, and therefore we cannot blame even the most Christian of persons if he— finding himself and his wife and children likely to be deprived of -the means whereby they live, as the result of the immigration of men accustomed to a very low standard of life— makes energetic, and perhaps violent, protest. Bodies like the New York Chamber of Commerce call it "sordid" for men to consider themselves and their loved ones before considering members of colored races, but it is just the members of such bodies who are . really the most sordid of men.

This precious. New York Chamber of Commerce, consisting of men who have all their lives pursued a policy of complete selfishness, during which they sought only for profits, regardless of the wishes and the welfare of the wage-earners, has declared that the Anti-Japanese riots m San Francisco arid Vancouver are deplorable, and that they rise solely from 'the machinations of professional Labor agitators, these men being .actuated by the .sordid desire to maintain a shortage of labor, and thus to enable the labor unions to enforce their standard of wages and hours.' What, a terrible desire ! What, are the desires of members of Chambers of Commerce ? Are they not to squeeze as mueh'as they possibly can out of the men who produce the wealth that commercial magnates enjoy ? Of course they are. Commei-cial men are far more decidedly "on the make" than are members of trades unions.

The fact is that there is a constant struggle going on among men for the possesion of the products of labor. Members of Chambers of Commerce are strenuously struggling all the time to wring out of the toiler the uttermost farthing of that which by his physical exertion he produces, whereas the toiler by his union seeks to retain as much as . he possible can of the fruit of his labor. Thus there is an irrepressible conflict between the wage-earner and the wage-payer, Which conflict is termed by some economists the class struggle.

The man that recognises the nature of the class struggle, and the fact that as long, as society is organised as at present it must be a normal condition of industrial life, may be properly called class conscious, but it is ridiculous to^caU him sordid. If there be any sdrdidness m such a struggle, it is quite as much on the part of the capitalistic members of Chambers of Commerce as on the oart of the menabers of trades unions, koreover, capitalists who prate as do «!£ commercial .magiafcffl of Not York add hypocrisy to their greed for cant about sordidness is only intended to hide the fact that they value ZL Jans as * cheap laborers, and therefore more likely to add to the wealth of capitalists than the white Sorers At the. back of the "noble Laments" of praters like tjie comSJrcSl magnates of New York is sorSd selfishnlss of the most ignoble type.

* * The cant of the New New York capitalists is, fccww, oT much less am-

portance than the Insolent' talk" of Count Okuma, the leader of the socalled Progressive Party m Japan. He is pleased, is this Japanese aris r tocrat, at the treatment meted out to his countrymen by the authorities of British Columbia. Well, it appears from the cabled accounts that he is justified m being pleased ; his pleasure is quite natural, and justified by the facts. The Japs, m Vancouver appear to 'have been permitted to act the part of truculent Turanian terrors. They marched from the ship from which they landed as if they were an invading army. They formed themselves into companies of one hundred, they pressed all sorts of vehicles into their service, and when they were attacked by a mob that threw a few brickbats, they retaliated with revolvers and long knives, and pursued the mob for some distance. Practically the authorities of Vancouver abdicated to the Japanese, and allowed them to establish m the heart of Vancouver, a fortified city.

It is the complaisance of the authorities of Vancouver m allowing . the Japanese to take the Government of Vancouver out of their hands that exCites the admiration of the Japanese Count to whom we have referred. It is not, however, likely to excite the 'admiration of the people of any other country. As far as the people of the United States are concerned, it probably only excites their contempt. Roosevelt was very properly denounced •as unwarrantably exhibiting pro- Jap. proclivities when the disturbances occurred m San Francisco, but he never made a lamentable exhibition of himself as have the authorities of Vancouver. Roosevelt proved himself open to conviction, and it is this fact that excites the ire of Japanese Count Okuma. *

The pusillanimous conduct of the authorities of Vancouver is no doubt the outcome of the "agreement" between Japan and Canada and the treaty between Japan and Great Britain. This latter treaty, which compels England to look to Japan for the protection of a great part of England's Asiatic possessions, has practically reduced Gre&t Britain to the position of being the dependency of .an Asiatic ' Power ; and, as for the "agreement," it is by means of this, precious so-called agreement that the Japa*—--? are able to pour into Canada m such menacing numbers. . Five hundred immigrants can leaye Japan for "Canada every year under the "agreement," but as many more as may be so disposed * may leave for Honolulu, and travel thence to Canada. Thus, it is that the working people of Vancouver find that they are strangers m their own country, and that they are, m all industries, finding themselves deprived of employment because of the efforts of the ill-paid Japs.

Japan, Jingoistic Japan, with its truculent immigrants, constitutes one of the most dangerous of the menaces to the maintenance of white ci* 'Nation. Offensive, truculent and aggressive, the Japs, will Visitate to take no step that may commend itself to them as likely to establish their supremacy. What they are capable of is seen to-day m Korea, where they are treating the poor Koreans. as cruelly as the Russians ever treated the Poles, 'or any other unwillingly subject people. The Koreans appear to be m every way an estimable people, but they are treated with the most outrageous tyranny by the Japs. ; and, apparently, it is th& intention' of the Government of Japan to treat Korea, eventually, as the British Government treats unfortunate India, bled and starved by corrupt and avaricious English officials. Miserable, indeed, would be the plight of Australasia if it were m the power of Japan ! The more we see of Japanese activity, the more necessary it appears to be that we should leave no stone unturned to make this country secure against the possibility of Asiatic invasion.

A visitor to the Hospital last Sunday took a sick friend a copy of "Truth." The friend had already read it ; but when it was suggested that it be passed on to some other patient, the sick man objected. "You 1-vivp that here," he said. "I'll get an extra egg for that m the morning." TruVy ♦'Truth" has a, marvellous power.

TRUCULENT TURANIAN TERRORS