s--why not? Does not England colonize; does not Germany colonize;
does not France colonize? We are taking our place at the world board
of trade. If we fail to make good, throw us out. If we make good, we
do not ask "by your leave."

IV

When a shipping investigation was on in Washington a year ago, many
members of the committee were amazed to learn that Japan already
controls seventy-two per cent. of the shipping on the Pacific. Ask a
Chilean or Peruvian whether he prefers to travel on an American or a
Japanese ship. He laughs and answers that American ships to the
western coast of South America would be as tubs are to titanics--only
until the new registry bill passed there were hardly any ships under
the United States flag on the Southern Pacific. Each of these Japanese
ships is so heavily subsidized it could run without a passenger or a
cargo; high as one hundred thousand dollars a voyage for many ships.
Its crews are paid eight to ten dollars a month, where American and
Canadian crews demand and get forty to fifty dollars. In cheapness of
labor, in efficiency of service, in government aid and style of
building no American nor Canadian ships can stand up against them. And
again Japan asks--why not? Atlantic commerce is a prize worth four
billions a year. When the Orient fully awakens, will Pacific commerce
total four billions a year? Who rules the sea rules the world.
Japan's ships dominate seventy-two per cent. of the Pacific's commerce
now.

So when the war broke out, Japan shouldered not the white man's burden
but the Brown Brother's and plunged in to police Asia. Again--why not?
As Uncle Sam polices the two Americas, and John Bull the seas of the
world, so the Mikado undertakes to police the sea lanes of the Orient.
The Jappy said when he met the diplomats on the subject of coolie
immigration that he would prove himself the partner of the white man at
the world's council boards--or step back.

Is it a menace or a portent? Certainly not a menace, when accepted as
a matter of fact. Only the fact must be faced and realized, and the
new chessman's moves recognized. Uncle Sam has the police job of one
world, South America; Great Britain of another--Europe. Will the
little Jappy-Chappy take the job for that other world, where the Star
of the Orient seems to be swinging into new orbits? The Jappy-Chappy
isn't saying much; but he is essentially on the job for all he is
worth; and Canada hasn't wak