Open Door policy;
this is why it is of importance to us to know whether this pledge is
being kept.

In centering my attention upon Japan in this article let me say in the
outset, I am not to be understood as being one whit more tolerant of
Russian than of Japanese aggression in Manchuria--I am not. In the
Russo-Japanese War my sympathies were all with Japan, my present
friendships with numbers of her sons I prize very highly, but I cannot
blind myself to the fact that she is apparently "drunk with sight of
power" in the Orient.

As conditions are to-day, the reason for giving primary attention to
Japan's position in Manchuria rather than Russia's must be
self-evident. In the first place, the territory embraced in her sphere
of influence is more important and contains two thirds the population.
Then again: Northern Manchuria being cold and inhospitable, Japan's
sphere not only covers the fairer and more favored section
agriculturally, but from the standpoint of military strategy (as a
mighty war taught all the world) Japan is vastly better placed. With
Port Arthur in her possession, and the new broad-gauge line from
Antung and Mukden enabling her to rush troops across the Sea of Japan
and through Korea to Manchuria without once getting into foreign
waters or on foreign soil, she could ask nothing better. And finally
and most significant of all, Russia has {83} suffered perhaps the greatest
humiliation in her history by reason of Manchurian aggression; she has
learned Japan's point of vantage; and whatever advance she makes in
the near future will be only by Japanese sufferance and connivance.

{81}

[Illustration: LIKE SCENES FROM OUR WESTERN PRAIRIES.]
Manchuria is a vast empire--one of the most fertile portions of the
earth's surface. The great money crop is the soy bean, and the lower
picture shows miles of beans and bean-cake awaiting shipment at
Changchun.

{82}

[Illustration: MANCHURIAN WOMEN (SHOWING PECULIAR HEAD-DRESS),]

[Illustration: CHINESE WASTE-PAPER COLLECTOR.]
Everything in China is scrupulously saved--except human labor. That
is wasted on a colossal scale through the failure to use improved
machinery or scientific knowledge.

{83 continued}

Whatever may be the meaning of the alleged secret treaty between Japan
and Russia, the great truth which all nations need to remember is
this: Whatever scotches Japanese aggression in Manchuria scotches
Russian aggression at