While there is much fluttering in the dovecots, of politico] parties and in the realm of the Fourth Estate—to which, more than to any other organization, is due the credit of forcing the promised extension of the suffrage—over the pending change, not a mention is made of the women. In this respect, Japan is imitate ing the West with such flattering accuracy as to give the lie to the oft-repeated statement that, in ab. sorbing what the West had to teach her, this Far Eastern land cleverly and carefully avoided the mistakes made by her Western teachers. As a matter of fact, it is more logical and will redound far More to the welfare.of the country to enfranchize the wise and educated women of this Empire who, despite the almost insurmountable obstacles in their way, more than hold their own with the tien. Ichere is not one line of endeavour in which the women have not shone with as bright a lustre as the men, be it business, finance, literature or the fine arts. And, as the recent catastrophe showed, Japanese women can be as brave—éven. braver—than the men. But, here as elsewhere, man prefers to believe that he is intellectually "superior" to woman, the old gander-cackle of barbaric ages gone by.
THE SEIYUKAI, Hitherto, Japanese Premiers have always religiously cultivated the friendship and support of the party in the Diet that happened to have a majority. Not that this was absolutely essential, but such diplomacy, resulted in less friction and made the work of government very smooth and easy. The Seiyu-
"kai, which has been the majority party for a number of years and which the late Premier Hara turned into the most powerful political organization yet seen in Japan, has; by mere virtue of ite ability to create a land-slide when votes are taken in the Lower House, commanded the respect of Premier after Premier. Viscount Takahashi, the immediate success sor of the murdered. Mr. Hara, deferred to the leaders of the Seiyukai in al] things, great and small, So did Bremer Kato, One of the matters on which the Seiyukai adopted an adamant attitude was the question of extending the suffrage, bills for which introduced: in the Diet on various occasions by the Opposition parties, were ignominiously defeated by the sheer weight of numbers the Seiyukai possessed. The majority party trimmed ity platform to suit the views of the Cabinet in power, or else forced the Cabinet to alter its views until these became identical, in principle at least, with the political banner of the Seiyukai.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.