The name is absent

Tradition                15

do not need to idealize those civilizations. They harbored,
probably to a much greater degree than our own, “dark
places full of the habitations of violence” ; but that those
cruelties were more widespread or intenser than exist in the
present chaos it would be unsafe to affirm ; and in any case
the most delicate products of their life have had their pro-
tection torn away from them. Young India, young China,
young Philippinodom have come over to study in our uni-
versities and schools, and have quickly imbibed modern
democratic doctrines without understanding the traditions
of self-government, or realizing that the effectiveness of
government depends upon the character both of the people
and of their leaders. Recently Baron Hiranuma, leader
of the nationalist party in Japan, spoke thus to his people :
“When the American gun-boats forced our ports, we were
several centuries behind the white races. To preserve the
integrity of our territory we were obliged to adopt western
civilization as quickly as possible. We had no time to
choose nor to separate the bad from the good. Today we
run the risk of seeing our culture submerged by a foreign
civilization. I want the Japanese to realize anew that he
possesses a culture of his own. It is his duty today to make
a selection of western institutions and to reject those which
are incompatible with our character.” Representative gov-
ernment has not yet brought the salvation to Japan which
its heralds in the nineteenth century proclaimed that it
quickly would bring. We are told that democratic liberty
has been so often administered by incompetent or venal
men that by rebound there has been a demand for the strong
hand, and militarism has leapt into the saddle.

We must be patient and hope for better things, especially
as our own democracies do not set oriental peoples the best
possible examples of honesty and altruism. Probably we

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