Financial Attaché of the Russian Embassy at Washington: "We have not tarnished our honor by paying bloodmoney. Japan is not satisfied with the campaign of her soldiers. Her diplomats also wished to humiliate us in the eyes of the world. They refused to renounce this desire. On them would have been the blame if this war had been continued-and for money! "But suppose it had been continued. The longer the better for us. We would finally wear them out. Even in another year Japan's position would be worse than it is now. Let us suppose that the fortunes of war still favored her, that she finally took Vladivostok and Harbin. We would quietly retire into Siberia in the same order in which Kuropatkin retired from Liaoyang. From a military view, that was the most important event of the war. The Japanese might have followed far. But they would have been farther and farther from their base of supplies; we, less and less. Again, we are superior not only in geographical advantage, in men, but also in money. A war in Siberia would be different from a war in Manchuria. It would cost the Japanese much more a day than we would be paying. They could not afford it. They are not as rich as we are.

Their interest payments now call for something over 80,000,000 rubles [$40,000,000] on a budget of about 300,000,000 rubles [$150,000,000]; our interest payments call for in the neighborhood of 300,000,000 rubles [$150,000,000] on a budget of, say, 2,300,000,000 rubles [$1,150,000,000].

There

fore the Japanese want peace more than we do, and you see they have been willing to make astonishing concessions from their first absurd claims to obtain it."

Mr. Wilemkin's statement was impressive. It explained why Mr. Witte wavered not a hair in his daily asseverations that in no form would Russia pay indemnity. The Japanese have not been able to collect it by peaceful means. Could they have done so by warlike means? Suppose hostilities to have continued. During the next twelvemonth the Japanese would probably have over

run eastern Siberia, and would have seized the customs dues. But they amount to a comparatively insignificant sum. The end of the twelvemonth would arrive with a Japanese demand, in case of another peace conference, for an indemnity twice as great as the present, and with relatively no more means for its collection.

A week ago I put this question to a member of the Japanese Commission : Will you not make another and final concession? With the regard which you have for President Roosevelt's services, with your desire to be on good terms with America and the other neutral nations, with your confidence, which I know has been constant, that peace may even now be concluded, but with the certainty that you can never collect indemnity, why not abandon it altogether, contenting yourselves with what you have achieved, and taking all Saghalien ?"

The answer to the problem came on another occasion, and in authoritative words: "We have made peace with Russia for our own sake and for the sake of humanity and civilization."

To this was added: "Mr. Witte is justified in calling this a diplomatic victory. It is such, as meaning that we yielded on the only path to peace-our demand for reimbursement for war expenses. Well, we have obtained that for which we fought, and more too. Our reimbursement demand meant a new object. To secure it, our very successes may have created conditions making it impossible."

If the present peace arrangement is ratified by treaty, the aroused state of public feeling in Japan may drive Baron Komura and the present Cabinet from office, for its Foreign Minister has drafted treaty provisions less than those to which the Japanese are, in their opinion, clearly entitled. But Baron Komura is a statesman; he is no mere politician. He will have taken a "long shot." He will have acted in the nation's best interests as judged years hence. For this he braves popular disfavor. Even if he has been outmaneuvered as to two important demands, his is, after all, both the material and the moral victory. E. F. B.

that to an acceptance by the Filipinos of Japanese sovereignty, with the rule of the "strong hand "that this would imply, as it does in Formosa, is a long step. The Japanese certainly cannot be accused of being bad bargainers, when they have a free hand, and they usually know the conditions of their purchases or acquisitions; they will not, it may be safely assured, desire to buy a war in the Philippines.

In other ways, as stated, there has been no international politics in this visit. But to assume that it has no political importance, for the future, would be far from the mark. The Japanese have greeted this unprecedentedly large party of American guests in a manner that is unprecedented. Such unusual honors were showered upon General Grant on his tour around the world; but, as a Japanese paper said, Japan had not then fully entered into the modern period, and that visit had no such significance as this, and had in fact left as its chief mark the tree which Grant planted in Ueno Park, Tokyo. On this occasion, Secretary Taft and his personal staff, Miss Roosevelt and her friends, and the Senators and Representatives and their wives, a party of over fifty in all, were not only accorded the unusual honor of an audience with the Emperor, but he sat down with them at luncheon afterward, and went around the table shaking hands with them, afterward having opened for them portions of the imperial gardens not opened in years. There was plain the intent from the first moment of the party's arrival, when it was announced that they were all to be guests of the Japanese Government, to make this whole reception an altogether unprecedented event. There was evident, too, the desire to meet Americans somewhat in the informal American manner. What all this implies, in innumerable little ways, may be left to any one who has an understanding of how elaborate are Japanese social customs, and of what it means diplomatically in this country when the cue for such honors to the Americans is given from the Emperor himself. The presence of many Japanese women in the public greetings, and of others, some

of them from the nobility, some few even of the imperial family, at the chief of the various social functions given to the party, rubbing shoulders with Americans in as nearly as possible the American fashion, was a thing which made foreign diplomats and others gape. The American Minister himself had no knowledge beforehand of how far this touch of informality would be carried. As the German Minister, Count Arco de Valley (who, by the way, made an excellent stroke diplomatically by entertaining royally some of the American Congressmen), put it, "All this means that the Japanese would say to you, 'Come into my heart.'" It is unnecessary to say that few, hardly any in fact, of the Congressional delegation quite understand the significance of all the many little ways in which this informality was manifested, through their ignorance of Japanese social customs. They were, in quite a similar way and for a similar reason, inclined to take the whole matter too naïvely, and as a pure outburst of popular enthusiasm. There was undoubtedly great cordiality on the part of the masses in the great public ovations with which the party has been greeted. It is impossible not to see that, down to the last Japanese, in the capital and larger towns at any rate, there is a feeling that the Americans are good friends. But he who has some comprehension of the workings of Japanese diplomacy will not need to be told that a great deal of the noise and many of the very features of these demonstrations, particularly of that in Tokyo, were dictated by the Government. A little reflection would suffice to tell that there is not as yet the "public opinion” in Japan which in the United States would put the full meaning into a great public ovation. Undoubtedly the crowds have been turned out by order from above. But, quite as undoubtedly, the organizations which have been turned out have in places been exceeded in number by the crowds which have turned out on their own account. Plainly, too, there has been enthusiasm and cordiality in the faces of these Japanese "plain people" as they have fairly thundered their banzais" at the Americans from one

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end of the country to the other. Nevertheless, the ovations received during the past week have not had all the significance which some of the Congressmen have naïvely given to them. One thing about the Japanese is that when they play a game they play it "up to the limit." Their game just now has been thoroughly to convince this large party of Americans, whom they were able to get within their country at one time, that there is a thoroughgoing affection for America among the Japanese. In the face of all the things which have happened, and considering the make-up of this party, including some of those prominent in the American National Legislature, it would be entirely beside the mark to assume that this visit has not had political importance for the Japanese, that they have not kept that very thing in mind throughout, and played their part with a tact and a thor oughness that it has been delightful to witness; and that in the distant if not near future this visit is bound to strengthen, in the formal doings of our Government, if the occasion should arise, the entente between Japan and the United States. One wondered if the Japanese were thinking, too, of the anti-coolie agitation revived in a new form on the

Pacific coast, when he saw Marquis Ito chatting informally (and most cleverly, too, by the way) with Congressman McKinlay, of California, who came on board a thoroughgoing and outspoken opponent of the exclusion idea on the coast.

This was only one of the little things that made the quiet bystander conclude that not all the show lay on the surface.

And, after all, why should not the Japanese play the game thus? And why should we not admire them for the pretty and effective way in which they do it?-one altogether too clever for some of the unsophisticated souls who reach. our Congress and who begin their study of foreign affairs (Oriental, at least) when they come on a trip like this. It is only one more reason for admiring the Japanese. And more tactful hosts and lavish entertainers than they do not exist. That they really like us, even though laboring to show it to us in quite the same ways as we are used to and would count as significant, is certainly true. In every way, the friendship of Japan and the United States in Oriental matters is a hopeful sign. Just as a hint, maybe, some time, it will help us settle our Philippine entanglement. Tokyo, Japan.

J'

It

ESUS wore a robe so fine that at the crucifixion the soldiers would not rend it, but drew lots for it. was perhaps a gift to him by some of the women disciples, and probably was such a one as the rabbis wore. This poor woman thought it sacred and believed that, if she could but touch it, it would heal her. In truth, sacredness does not inhere in a garment. There was nothing sacred in the garment, no healing power in it; it differed in no wise from any other garment of like form and texture. But when this woman crept up behind Mark v. 24-34.

Jesus, he did not rebuke her superstition. He healed her; then turned about and showed her that she was known, won from her a confession of her faith, and sent her away rejoicing.

Humanity is constantly falling into the error of this poor woman; practicing idolatry; substituting the eidolon for the reality; reverencing the image in place of the life. So the pagan bows before his ugly idol, imputing to it the qualities which make him fear his god; so the Roman Catholic devotee worships the crucifix in spite of the instruction of his Church to the contrary, attributing to