The Press of the Antipodes on President McKinley

THE journals of China, Japan, and Australia contain very sympathetic comments on the death and character of the late President McKinley. In every act of life, says The Japan Weekly Mail (Yokohama), published in English, McKinley the man “showed an example of clean-living, broad-thinking, and clear straightforwardness of purpose as beautiful as any found in Anglo-Saxon annals.” The Herald (Kobe), also published in English, asks why it is that fate seems to single out for untimely death the American Presidents “in whom the nobler types of manhood have been most signally exemplified.” Comparing the work of Lincoln and McKinley, The Herald continues:

     “The work of the conspicuously honorable, broad-minded man whose tragic death the whole republic to-day mourns, would have been impossible but for the consolidation determinedly wrought out by the iron mind and will of Lincoln; but who shall set a limit to the consequences of that act, which we still regard as current history, so recent is it, which drew within reach of the principles of the American Constitution the non-Aryan peoples of the Philippines, Hawaii, Cuba, and Porto Rico?”

     It concludes by calling the President’s life an example to be followed:

     “His remark that ‘the need of the nation is that those to whom it looks for influence upon national action shall never permit themselves to be carried away by a tempest of feeling,’ deserves to be inscribed over the lintel of every foreign chancellery. In his conception of the sacredness of the trust reposed in him by his fellow countrymen, in unaltering allegiance to duty, in his unassuming faith, in his faithfulness to the people on whose decision the national policy in the final resort, depends, in his humanity and honesty, Mr. McKinley has left an example which can not fail to uplift and ennoble many an American youth.”

     Japan and America, of this city, edited by a Japanese, declares that the late President’s speech at Buffalo in favor of more friendly trade intercourse has especially endeared him to Japan. “No other people in the world, outside of the people of his own country, more sincerely deplore the death of William McKinley that the people of Japan.” The native Japanese journal, the Jimmin (Tokyo), also refers to Mr. McKinley’s “broad-minded” commercial policy, and remarks that the Japanese mourn his loss as one of the best chief magistrates of the country which deserves so much honor for helping Japan to enter the [506][507] comity of nations. The Jimmin prints its notice of the death surrounded by heavy mourning bands. Other native journals manifest the same sympathetic feeling. Japan, declares the Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo), had cause to object to President McKinley’s policy, particularly in Hawaii and the Philippines; but, nevertheless, she approved and applauded him especially in his attitude toward the Chinese complication. The Yomiuri and the Chihuo Shimbun (Tokyo) also declare that Japan has forgotten Hawaii and the high tariff in view of the sterling personal qualities of the man and his statesmanlike speech at Buffalo. The Kokumin Shimbun (Tokyo) is the only native journal (according to The Japan Weekly Mail) which “departs a little from the general tone of appreciation.” The Kokumin declares that Mr. McKinley was “not a great originator in any sense; his strength lay in reading the signs of the times and in obeying them shrewdly.” This, however, it confesses, is a great gift.
     The Argus (Melbourne) says that history has furnished many examples of the “inability to understand the fiber of the world’s best men by half-crazed fanatics who confound a thirst for blood with a love of liberty.” Perhaps no other public man in history, continues this Australian journal, compelled the world to so radically correct its early judgment during his lifetime.