Show A JAPANESE ELECTION the first held under the new law qualifications OF A VOTER at the polls lie must not carry weapons engage in discussion or incite disorder ENQUIRER correspondence MITO japan july 4 special this is one of the most eventful years in the history of japan in november alie first national diet consisting of a house ol 01 peers and a house of tives will assemble in tokio in accordance with alie constitution promulgated lust year and today to day the arst elections for members of the house of representatives are being held in all parts of the empire in this city of about inhabitants the election is passing off quietly and orderly early this mom mg it was raining but it has since cleared off I 1 have just passed by the polling place and but for tho presence of two policemen I 1 should not havo thought that an tiling nary was taking place I 1 was disappointed in not being per bitted to enter and witness it for my I 1 self but according to the constitution no person who is not an elector is per bitted to enter a voting place I 1 have however seen it through the eye of native friends who are electors elec tars and am therefore able to give you considerable information gleaned in this argulus like manner this city mito is the capital of ibaraki ken province and is situated in east ibaraki county which with two other counties constitutes the faist district of this province from this district two members are to reelected be elected by Bc rutin de liste the candidates condi dates in all the districts of this province are quite numerous and the campaign has been very lively the ibaraki daily has lately been much taken up with political affairs and has contained many a call letter of recommendation correction of miss statements and accusations of bribery and false pretense no legal action has yet been taken however against any candidate in this province in respect to the matters mentioned above alie campaign has been carried on much in american style but there has been tins one essential difference that said newspaper published chiefly only items of political news and paid advertisements while it editorially maintained a strict neutrality perhaps as it is the leading journal of this province its support may have been depending on such a course of action which seema strange to an american I 1 do not know how much of the fol low ing is applicable to this ken but it is perhaps sufficiently interesting to find a place here A native paper called shibum which may be loosely translated the nation lias published a series of cartoons with short explanatory paragraphs concerning the various methods employed lay candidates one represents a candidate sitting humbly before abrich widow whose adopted son or son in lay he hopes to become in or that he may plenty of soap for his canvass A IT er shows the candidate presenting ig of sugar to an elector in the th inird the candidate is inviting the voters wife to go to tokio toba the exhibition the fourth portrays the candidate in the act of forcibly obtaining the seal of a blind man to a promise to vot for him in a fifth the candidate with a stick in hand is bulldozing bull dozing a voter the sixth displays a wine party given by a candidate to certain voters one more represents alie candidate as stating to some voters the secret wish of the government that he should be elected while I 1 am speaking of candidates I 1 wish to sketch briefly the career of one of the liberal candidates from the second district his name is abo and hia ae is abent 40 he was born in a suburban village of this city and by sheer pluck has made something of himself As his parents were poor farmers they could not give him much education but he succeeded in attending the common schools of this city for a while then he went to Tokio where he pulled abin in the daytime for aliling and studied as he had opportunity even into the night he finally managed somehow to get to america where he worked his way through a high school and then entered the university of vermont from that institution he was graduated in the class of 89 and then after traveling J in eng land and on continent returned to japan such indomitable energy and intellectual qualifications deserve a seat m the bouse of as an earnest christian be relied on to stand up for the right his canvass if acknowledged to have been clean and above board the qualifications of a candidate may be summed up as follows he must be a male japanese subject 30 years old thohas been paying for one year and is still paying in hia province direct national taxes of at least 15 yen mexican dollars or in case of income tax he must have been paying it for three years and must be now paying it H must not be an official of the imperial imn erial household department or of justice an auditor a revenue or police official he must not he an official of province coulty city town or village he must not be a priest or a teacher of any religion he must not be a lunatic a bankrupt a released convict of less than three years standing or a person under anal he must not be a soldier in the army or the navy in actual service it willbe observed from these limitations that a person who possesses the necessary is not de barred from beins a candidate in a district eyen of a province in which he does not reside he must however be a taxpayer tax payer in that province from which he wishes to be elected if now we consider tsie qualifications of an elector we find some similarities and some differences the above dis qualifications conc emine lunacy bankruptcy criminal or political offenses and burvice ain the army or navy hold good but in the case of the suffrage there are no limitations concerning official or religious service the elector however need be a japanese subject of only 25 years of must have been for one year and must still be an actual resident of the province the concerning taxpaying tax paying are the same as those of the candidate |