Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1895-01-05


down to his provincial capital. About
him gathers an immense retinue of his
immediate and mere distant relatives
swho live off his bounty during his term
sUf Office. The term averages perhaps
three years. During that time the gov
ernor has just four things to do. First,
he must get back the twenty millions
cash which he paid for his office. Sec
Old, he must forward to the central
government one-tenth of the total
product of the province. Third, he
must support his immense retinue- and
the district magistrates and their suites,
who, by the way, have paid for their
offices and carry out the same plan as
the governor, only on smaller scale.
And fourth, he must lay up enough
money to support himself in ease after
he has retired.
The question arises, from whom does
this money come? 1t comes out of the
farmer and the merchant, and, as be-
tween these two, the farmer pays prac-
tically the whole. suppose it would
be a conservative estimate to say that
every producer in the country is
mulcted to the extent of sixty per cent
of his gross eernings. l do not say
sixty per cent. of his savings, but of his
gross earnings. Can an American con-
ceive of the patience and forbearance
of a people that will endure such
treatment? You may ask in what way
thnCa 10 oo11aa4ol
The governor is surrounded by body
of men whom we usually call yamen
runners, whose business it is to collect
the money. If merchant has made a
successful transaction the yaman run
ners, who are spies as well as tax col
lectors, are sure to know of it, and
they come to him and ask him to I'M
load. If he refuses, which he is gen
orally too wise to do, be is likely to be
arrested on false charge and thrown
into prison and beaten every morning
until the sum is paid, and in such a
case the sum increases every day.
Americans say that this is an exag-
gerated statement, but knowledge of
the workings of things here would
show that my language is conservative.
A Corean friend of mine had one thou
sand dollars which he wanted to in
vest, and he was thinking of buying
from the government the right to cut
frewood on a certain tract of govern
ment land and sell it in Seoul. As l
was acquainted with the president of
the foreign Office put him in the way
of buying the franchise. He estimated
he would realize ten per cent. on the
investment. He paid the money to the
president of the foreign Office. who, in
addition to his regular duties, had
charge Of the government woodlands.
Now, before this Corean could begin
work he received word from the for
eign Office that the same franchise had
been sold again and that he must di-
vide the work with the other purchaser.
Of course he was ruined. 1t may be
asked what my Corean friend did
about it. Did he rave and tear his
hair, mediate revenge, or curse the
existing order of things? Not a bit of
it. He shrugged his shoulders and
said: ''Halsu espo," which means: sit
can't be helped" and went to work to
earn a living for himself and large
family on salary of six dollars a
month. Now do you see why say the
Coreans are among the most patient
of people?
But there are limits to the patience
even of Corean. When they are driven
to the wall they will turn and show
their teeth. The one essential quality
in successful Corean official is the
ability to see just how far he can grind
the people down without causing a re-
volt.
An instance of this came under nv
observation once. l was taking a little
pleasure trip in the saddle to the
northern metropolis, Ping Yang. One
day, as 1 was sitting in my room,
Corean came in to call. He said that
day or two before the governor had
sent an official down to the cotton mer-
chants and asked for a ''loan." The
answer was not verbal, but the mer-
chants arose, rushed to the house of
the official, pulled it down, and scat
tered the debris along the street. That
was a characteristic answer for the
men of Ping Yang, but they are much
more energetic than the southern Co.
reans.
Now, the idea of the Japanese is to
change all this. The idea of the Chi
nese is to keep things as they are.