COULD JAPAN AFFORD A WAR?
Lathrop, John E.
Could Japan Afford a War? By JOHN E. LATHROP TO ALLAY still further any possible alarm created by the war scare propagandists, let a comparison be instituted between the credit, assets and...
...This is only enough to meet the usual budget of governmental expenses...
...Japan fought the war with Russia largely with money secured in England and America...
...Already, Japan is staggering under a burden of national debt amounting to 2,500,000,000 yen, $1,250,000,000, or nearly 20 per cent...
...France and Germany remain for analysis...
...Where Would Money Come From...
...Germany faces the same food problem which puzzles England...
...The national debt of the United States is about one per cent, of the national wealth...
...I think this comparison will demonstrate to every level-headed citizen the absurdity of the fear that Japan will elect to go to war with this country...
...The Bank of Japan estimates the national wealth of that country at about 12,000,000,000 yen, or $6,000,000,000...
...By JOHN E. LATHROP TO ALLAY still further any possible alarm created by the war scare propagandists, let a comparison be instituted between the credit, assets and liabilities of Japan and the United States...
...Even if British financiers were willing to finance Japan for a war against this country, forgetful of the sentiment that binds together the Anglo-saxon race, the millions of stomachs is that tight little island would be a sufficient guarantee against their participation in Japanese anti-American loans...
...The British Isles could be starved to death in three months, were importations of foodstuffs to cease...
...The tobacco monopoly is mortgaged to secure the payment of interest amounting to more than the present earnings of the monopoly...
...Nations are in no wise different from individuals in respect of credit...
...A distinguished writer on oriental economics and finances, Thomas F. Millard, expresses the opinion that many years will elapse before any part of the principal of the present debt can be paid by Japan...
...The annual revenue of the Japanese government, in ordinary times, is not materially more than 250,000,000 yen, or $125,000,000...
...It is beyond reasonable thought that Japan could borrow from England to fight with the United States...
...Germany must buy enormously from foreign countries, and Germany would hesitate long before involving herself in a dispute with the United States, endangering her colonial policy...
...or that, should such an unexpected situation arise, Japan would be able to sustain the conflict with this nation...
...England must buy food in enormous quantities from the United states...
...The facts herein cited, it seems to me, should tend to allay the fears created by the war scare propagandists...
...The estimated national wealth of the United States is $115,000,000,000...
...of the national wealth...
...IN A DISCUSSION of this question, we are carried irresistibly into the realm of international politics, finances, and economies...
...The Japanese government, as security for foreigr loans, has hypothecated almost everything in that country which would be accepted by the money loaners, including the customs, the tobacco monopoly, the government railways, and other resources...
...more than the prospective earnings for many years to come...
...It is not to be expected that Russia could or would supply Japan with funds, first, because Russia is herself a borrower...
...As to France, perhaps the most thrifty of all nations, would she not look with the most careful scrutiny on the securities offered by a country that is already mortgaged up to its ears, and that, engaging in a war with the United States, would plunge herself further into hopeless debt...
...that is, to obtain interest on a well-secured principal...
...Were she to desire war with the United States, even the most hard-hearted money changer in this country would refuse to purchase her bonds, impelled to such refusal by public sentiment...
...second, because she would not desire to strengthen her rival in commonly desired territory in eastern Asia...
...third, because the united influence of the United States and England would tend to deter her...
...This gives a ratio of approximately 20 to one, in favor of this country...
...War loans are made with the same motive as that which prompts a banker to loan money on an American farm...
...The answer is that we are the custodian in large degree of England's bread box...
Vol. 3 • January 1911 • No. 4
