Last week a little old man died in Japan. He was respectfully mourned in his own country, but out across the world his passing was recognized as the passing of an era. Prince Kimmochi Saionji, 91, last of the Genro, or Elder Statesmen, was also the last representative of the age in Japan which was dedicated to what today's Japanese call "dangerous thoughts"—the age of Liberalism.
Prince Saionji's life span was staggering. This was a man who was intimate not only with Balfour, Clemenceau, Hindenburg, Wilson, but who wrestled in the flesh with the...
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