use Japan is in this way simply handicapping
herself for effective industrial growth. Just at this writing we have
an illustration in the case of the Formosan sugar subsidy which seems
to have developed into a veritable Frankenstein; or, to use a homelier
figure, the government seems to be in the position of the man who had
the bear by the tail, with equal danger in holding on or letting go.
Already, as a result of the system of subsidies, bounties and special
privileges, individual initiative has been discouraged, a dangerous
and corrupting alliance of government with business developed, public
morals debased (as was strikingly brought out in the Dai Nippon sugar
scandal), and the people, as Mr. Sasano, of the Foreign Department,
complains, now "rely on the help of the government on all occasions."
On the same point the Tokyo _Keizai_ declares that "the habit of
looking to the government for assistance in all and everything,
oblivious of independent enterprise . . . has now grown to the chronic
stage, and unless it is cured the health and vitality of the nation
will ultimately be sapped and undermined."

As for increasing complaints of "low commercial morality" brought
against Japanese merchants, that is not a matter of concern in this
discussion, except in so far as it may prove a form of Japanese
commercial suicide. But to one who holds {47} the view, as I do, that
the community of nations is enriched by every worthy industrial and
moral advance on the part of any nation, it is gratifying to find the
general alarm over the present undoubtedly serious conditions, and it
is to be hoped that the efforts of the authorities will result in an
early change to better methods.

V

Such is a brief review of the salient features of present-day Japanese
industry, and in no point do I find any material menace to the general
well-being of American and European trade. It is my opinion that the
Japanese will steadily develop industrial efficiency, but that in the
future no more than in the present will Japan menace European and
American industry (unless she is permitted to take unfair advantages
in Manchuria, Korea, etc.), for just in proportion as efficiency
increases, just in the same proportion, broadly speaking, wages and
standards of living will advance. The three--efficiency, wages, cost
of living--seem destined to go hand in hand, and this has certainly
been the experience thus far. And whatever loss we may suffer by