Tokio, Feb. 20.
Denouncing Premier Baron Tom-saburo Kato severely, stating that he lacks the spirit of fairness when he, as head of the Japanese Government, supports conscription, but refuses to concede that the duty of serving in the army alone—apart from theggreat strides made by the nation intellectually—should entitle the men of Japan to enjoy the franchise and calling his attitude "decidedly cowardly," a movement sponsored by leading jour-rialists in the country has been launched to appeal direct to the Throne on the suffrage issue. The manifesto issued by members of the Fourth Estate declares that the people have reached the end of their patience with regard to the question of having the franchise and warns all who do not sympathize with the movement for universal manhood suffrage that they will be regarded as "public enemies." The, quarrel between the people and the authorities on the suffrage issue is one that has recurred yearly for some time now and considerable bitterness evinced in the discussion of the question. It was over the suffrage issue that Premier Hara was assassinated. Rightly or wrongly, he believed that the time was not opportune for placing 60 important a privilege min the hands of the entire nation, and when the tide of opinion in the Lower House seemed to be strongly towards granting the franchise, he took the very rare step of dissolving the Diet and appealing to the country on the suffrage issue. The appeal, however, strictly speaking, was not to the country, but to those privilege: ed few who already enjoyed the right of voting and who could be relied on to return a_ verdict endorsing the stand taken by the late commoner-Premier. Mr. Hara returned in triumph to the political stage, but from that moment he was a doomed man, as_ the evidence proved when his assassin, Konnichi Nagaoka, was examined. The situation seems to be duplicate ing itself and considerable venom and vitriol are being auricd at the head of Premier Kato, who is also of the opinion that the Japanese public in general is not yet sufficiently educated politically to wield more power than has been granted and that the granting st the franchise would be a retrograde step.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.