Terrible Conditions of the Famine Tokyo, Apr. 6.
Although the Japanese authority iup or to cam i, there are are naturally very, anxious to cov
any who are able to discern signs increasing revolutionary spirit in Japan.
Mr Takahashi, Finance Minister in My, Inukai's Cabinet, has often Mgarsed to revolutionary "dangers distant horizon or maybe other-iSoming op om the horizon maybe wise, but still within the vision.
'TMe two recent attacks on the Emperor are indeed grave and it is Tronieal that, in a country like Japan, the ruler outside the palace has to be surrounded by a strong docly-guard of uniformed and plain-clothes men, while the streets are cleared for many blocks and practically seven-eighths of the Police force is mobilized for duty the route the imperial procession will take.
'The most startling manifestation, of courte, Was the assassination last month of 'Baron Takuma Dan, a powerful commercial figure a. head Of the vast Mitsui interests. What the eventual results of that one deed may' be is a matter for conjectu Dut its significance is tremendous.
'Japan to-day is shaken to the cor the Tinanecial fabric of the country ig in grave danger of collapse; dire economic distress, culminating in Sheer" starvation among tens of thousands. in-northern Japan, per~ vades the land; the radical' ele-rents" are" getting bolder and older, with "a counter-movement out part of the reactionary elements Though the Japanese and the Russians are quite dissimilar in temper as well ay physique, the political history of the one bears a Tather strong resemblance to. the political history of the other. World vents forced Russia from an absolute monarchy into a crude democracy long before the people were ready Yor it. Are world events forcing Japan toward some such bitter experience?
When "assassination" gets under way, no man can foretell the result ings and con-Stant suspense, Most political violence has its genesis in economic causes, 'The French revolution w bred out of the misery of underfed fil-clothed, badly-housed people who saw the.' plutocrats revelling grand fetes and squandering n ut ud loft on caprices of the hou he Russian revolution was born in he huts of the peasantry not they so much hated the "Li Father," but rather beau were sick to-death of thy mess and indifference of ye here ig a, Welter cof misery, and so far, no rich firms Of millionaires have made the Slightest move to give part of their surplus profits to rescue their own country-men and country-women from sheer. starvation. Is. it any wonder that the minds of youth are poisoned, and that Soviet doctrines Keep flowing in constantly? Would it'be any great wonder if the long suffering peasant, like the proverbial worm, turned?
While the Japanese are better governed and better disciplined in Self-control than were the French 150° years ago, or the Russians fifteen years of $0 ago, yet the series' of catastrophes that Japan has recently gone through, from the
collapse of her financial structure—Big earthquake to, the impending the latter largely due to the disproportionate burden of armaments This country is. shouldering and which, in the ultimate instance falls on the already bent back of the peasant, and farmer—has shaken to the surface a heterogeneous mass of yadieal elements. Many a foreign writer amiles the si lo of superior- p ity when any such thing is the. radicalism is pretty well entrenched The dreams of fanatics ing from col In this is a danges Japanese officials grave concern. Even the Manchuria adventure—so shorn of real glory—has failed to blind the people whose one demand, voiced in their hearts if not through, their lips, is for a fuller and surer Bowl of rice.
Attendant upon this situation is the gradual but, disastrous disinter gration of the family, backbone of any nation, as a unit. Economic distress lends the elements of the members of the ily find themselves unable to ims cling together, Fae Our Owy ConnssroNnent There are, however, some aspects! lof the problem of unemployment in [Japan Which are due to the social heritage of the nation and as auch Jare worthy of special consideration.
'Numbers of men and women ars always out of work due to the fact. that certain industries, e.g. silk, are' more or less of a seasonal character, which makes idleness. inevitable, It well-known fact that the farmer thas very little to do during certain Jof the winter months. But it is when those who are normally in employment find themselves unable jerk that the matter becomes to claim the attention of the state.
In Japan, however, this has been less provided a solut tion without resort to state aid. Whereas in the West the individual has been the unit, in the' East the family has been the unit.
was an Oriental writer who wrote.
sarly "2,000 years ago whether ye member suffer all the members "suffer with it, or if one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it."
Then' the younger son went to Hrokyo to seek his fortune and came back creat-fallen because he did not find the streets paved with the gold his imagination, the whole family pulled together to keep him until could find a more steady if less Jamibitious job. When his elder brother found' that he required capital for certain necessary. improvements on the farm, it, was to relatives "that he looked for the financial assistance required.
proach the money-lender lor mortgage his property for a State The family in the East pro-inthe What has been feared has come, in North Anhui. All available re-[sources having been used up, despite all efforts strained to allocate grain fin sufficient quantities, and transport it into this region, famine con-Jditions, pitiable to the point of heartrending, have arrived.
"As reported recently in the press, ion agencies have concentrated operation th the mission, to fight the grim fight with Jon-coming' death for the peopl Jduring these weeks. Another six Jweeks at least must pass before the harvest brings food. Under the North Anhui Joint "Flood Relief Commission, the courageous fight 55 ing waged.
Mr. Bostock, Presbyterian Mi sionary on relief work at Pochow, thas telegraphed to the National [Christian Council, "We beg in. all Jearnestness you will help if possible. Tu one only" of our eight hsiens Inearly one hundred deaths a day fare reported. All eatable bark, grass, and leaves are consumed and in_many cases eating these proves a recent letter from Pengpu [Superintendent Cha Fang-huang, representative of the National Flood Relief Commission Emergency Re lief Work li ing parents eating dead children in the fifth district at the [Szechow, North Anhui Lewis Irwin writes, "All of $13,000 Jemergency relief must be used here, in the fifth district, We are the first direct relief agency to get in here because of the bandits, People Ihave been burned out and robbed in two-thirds of the villages. Where floods have not devastated, bandits of the eighth dis-jons are, if any-earlier in the month of April total of $150,000 had been made: JJapan is breaking down mis fact more than the actual num-Javailable from the funds of the American Advisory Committee of ber' of unemployed. which lends "Flood Relief in' China." 'These' seriousness to the situation.
What are the causes for the funds have now been fully used on Flood Re breakdown of the family system?
Undoubtedly the first cause has been thorisation on April 12 to borrow that very thing to which Japan looks Jabove al others for the solution of from engineering funds pending reimbursements later. Both these her present economic problems—measures have apparently been, inadequate, to fil the need. rapid growth of population Funds. of the American Advisory country' population remains more or Committee are now exhausted. The ess stationary. Tu other words the plea comes to whatever bodies have whole increase is being absorbed in Helief funds to make them available the towns. As a result of this, the now, 'The time is critical. old family traditions are passing fand a new ge rowing Up born and bred in the city with Tong' ours" and closed spaces as their
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.