Similarly, with respect to business honesty, it is the opinion of all with whom I have conversed on the subject that there has been a great decline in the honesty of the common people.  In feudal days thefts and petty dishonesty were practically unknown.  To-day these are exceedingly common.  Foreign merchants complain that it is impossible to trust Japanese to carry out verbal or written promises, when the conditions of the market change to their disadvantage.  It is accordingly charged that the Japanese have no sense of honor in business matters.

The Kokumin Shinbun (People’s News) has recently discussed the question of Japanese commercial morality, with the following results:  It says, first, that goods delivered are not up to sample; secondly, that engagements as to time are not kept; thirdly, that business men have no adequate appreciation of the permanent interests of business; fourthly, that they are without ability to work in common; and fifthly, that they do not get to know either their customers or themselves.[BU]

“The Japanese consul at Tientsin recently reported to the Government that the Chinese have begun to regard Japanese manufactures with serious distrust.  Merchandise received from Japan, they allege, does not correspond with samples, and packing is, in almost all cases, miserably unsubstantial.  The consul expresses the deepest regret that Japanese merchants are disposed to break their faith without regard to honor."[BV]

In this connection it may not be amiss to revert to illustrations that have come within my own experience.  I have already cited instances of the apparent duplicity to which deacons and candidates for the ministry stoop.  I do not believe that either the deacons or the candidates had the slightest thought that they were doing anything dishonorable.  Nor do I for a moment suppose that the President and the Trustees of the Doshisha at all realized the gravity of the moral aspect of the course they took in diverting the Doshisha from its original purposes.  They seemed to think that money, once given to the Doshisha, might be used without regard to the wishes of the donors.  I cannot help wondering how much of their thought on this subject is due to the custom prevalent in Japan ever since the establishment of Buddhist temples and monasteries, of considering property once given as irrevocable, so that the individuals who gave it or their heirs, have no further interest or right in the property.  Large donations in Japan have, from time immemorial, been given thus absolutely; the giver assumed that the receiver would use it aright; specific directions were not added as to the purposes of the gift.  American benefactors of the Doshisha have given under the standards prevailing in the West.  The receivers in Japan have accepted these gifts under the standards prevailing in the East.  Is not this in part the cause of the friction that has arisen in recent years over the administration of funds and lands and houses held by Japanese for mission purposes?