FINE QUALITIES OF JAPANESE PRAISED

Seattle Man Lauds Industry, Sense of Honor and Patriotism of Settlers Here.

By W.L. GAZZAM,

Vice President Japanese Commercial Bank.

In the spring of 1903 the late A. Hattori, a Princeton student and a man noted for his genial, kindly interest in all things American, approached me with a view of establishing a Japanese garden on Bainbridge Island. This he did in the interest of his employer, M. Furuya. From this first interview, followed later by a visit from David Fairchild, chief of the Bureau of Exploration, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., has come about the development of sixty-nine acres of rough land adjoining my own home into a beautiful Japanese garden and grounds.

It has also led to my friendship with several Japanese gentlemen who have given me an insight into both old and modern Japan, so that when I hear our famous Hobson talk about "The Yellow Peril" I wonder how he became inoculated with such poisonous sentiments.

It would be fortunate if all the followers of Mr. Hobson and his views were able to hear Minosaku Yamomoto, now lecturing on the Chautauqua circuit and making a most effectual reply to Mr. Hearst, for I am rather inclined to think that most of the criticism directed against the Japanese is supported by what one writer calls "the valor of ignorance," and not by actual facts.

One hears on all sides the statements made that if you rent your property to the Japanese they will make it produce abundantly and leave it in an impoverished condition when their lease expires. Now the Japanese themselves are amazed when they learn for the first time that many of our Eastern farms have been abandoned because the soil has deteriorated to such an extent that nothing of value can be raised on it. In their own country, they say, such a thing is unheard of. They became farmers, of course, from necessity. At a time when emigration was forbidden and a ban was placed on the importation of foreign products they were forced to turn their attention inward and to wrest from their native soil all that it could possibly give them without hurting its future productivity. And there is still another reason for the acquisition of this habit of intensive cultivation. Their country is small and they cannot afford to practice the improvident method of moving from one farm to another when the first fertility of the soil has been exhausted, since before long they would find themselves with nothing left to cultivate but the ocean. As a result of these conditions, the Japanese have made themselves preeminently successful on the small farm. Recently many well-educated young Japanese have taken up the study of farming and should prove a valuable asset to us among our emigrant population.

As to the frequent complaint made, usually by other foreigners, that the value of adjoining places is lowered when a farm is rented to Japanese, it might be worth while to note in this connection that often the Japanese take over what has always been looked upon as worthless land and make something of value out of it, so that other people who had previously passed it for by easier wages are anxious to acquire it.

High Sense of Honor.

Another all too frequent assertion that one is apt to hear is that the Japanese are essentially dishonest. If one is to judge from the experience of people who have had extensive dealings with them they are essentially honest in their business transactions and have an enviable sense of honor. The statement of the distributors of the Encyclopedia Britannica published in The London Times some years ago, would make interesting reading for the man who insists upon attributing to a race characteristics that belong only to certain individuals or groups. In this connection I cannot resist reference to the classical story that the Japanese employ Chinese cashiers in their banks because they cannot trust their own people. This ridiculous legend has its prototype in the assertion made by a Russian writing on America, which was in effect that as a nation we were so dishonest that guaranty companies were necessary to insure the fidelity of our employes.

In the city of Seattle and its environs there are now about 40,000 Japanese, all enthusiastic boosters for Seattle and Puget Sound. Liberty Bonds and War Savings Limit Clubs receive strong support from them and there are no drones or slackers when the call comes. Indeed, were the Allies to ask for armed intervention in the Far East we should unquestionably lose a very large percentage of our Japanese American colonists who would welcome a chance to do their bit.

Growth of Trade.

From an associate covering a period of many years I have watched the growth of trade relations between the Orient and Seattle and particularly between Japan and Seattle with a great deal of interest. Ten years ago what is now the leading Japanese American bank in the city had dingy quarters in the rear of a wholesale store and nominal deposits; now it occupies a leading corner in the wholesale district and has deposits of $1,500,000. There are today five Japanese banks in the city, three state banks and two foreign branches, with deposits amounting to over $2,400,000. The exports through Seattle to the Orient for the year ending December, 1917, amounting to over $2,400,000. The exports through Seattle to the Orient for the year ending December, 1917, amounted to $122,000,000 and the imports for the same period are valued at $187,000,000, and 75 per cent of these exports and imports were made directly to and from Japan. There are at present 150 business houses in Seattle engaged in trade with the Orient, and during the year 1917 there arrived at Seattle from Japan 186 vessels of 675,502 tons and there cleared from Seattle for Japan 204 vessels of 712,603 tons.