The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1896-10-17
AS TO LIFE IN JAPAN
D. P. Thompson Finds That
Country All Right.
LABOR FOR ALL
There Are No Idlers, No Hunger, Nc
Want, But All Find Some
thing to do.
Japan is One Nation Independent OF the
Domination of Great Britain Be-
cause 1t Has an Independent
Money System.

GIFU-MINo, Japan, Sept. 20.-My
observation in travelling in strange
countries is that travellers make mis-
take in visiting the principal cities aud
scaports only, and not going among
the common people to obtain infcrma-
ticn about the prosperity and manner
OF living of the people of the country.
There are in Japan about 1000 per-
sons in all of foreign birth, not count
ing the Chinese, of which nationality
there are perhaps 10000. The popula-
tion of the empire is 4l,500,0G0. not
counting the population of the newly
acquired island of Formosa. The area
of Japan is not larger than Oregon and
Washington com bined, and yet this
dense population is all clothed and feu
from this small area, and besides, there
is quite q mountain district where NO
crops can be raised. The principal
crops raised in Japan are rice and veg
etables. No wheat or barley is raised.
| have seen some small patches of buck
wheat. The sea which surrounds Japan
teens with excellent fish. and the
principal food of the people is rice,
fish and vegetables. The country is
not adapted to the cultivation of wheat
because of the great amount of rain
fall that occurs at the time wheat would
| ripen, and which would rot it, as was
the case. to large extent, in Eastern
Oregon and Washington ia 1893.
have often heard it suggested at
home that the United States should b.
able to furnish to large extent the
agricultural implements used in Japan
and China, but when you take into
consideration the small size of the
farms in these countries and the crops
raised, it would at once be seen that
our manner of farming, where farms
range from 40 to 10000 acres in area,
would not do for farm of from an
acre to two or three acres in extent;
and these firms, small as they are, are
used for rice as the principal crop and
half dozen kinds of vegetables The
| plot given to rice must be flooded
often.
The Japanese generally raise two
| crops from the same land each year,
especially of vegetables, just as our
! Chinese gardeners do in Oregon, and
all the lands are as carefully cultivated
here as the gardens around Portland
are cultivated. and with equally good
results. The lands are much too val
uable for rice and vegetables in Japan
to be used for stock-raising, corn or
cotton, all of which would do well; but
| the Japanese can use their lands to
better advantage. and no people make
study of the adaptability of the soil
to produce the most profitable crops as
they do. A very large portion of the
rice produced here is sold for export to
Great Britain and the United States,
/ and rice is largely imported from India.
China and Corea, because the Japan
ese rice brings q better price abroad
| and the foreign rice can be bought
here for less price than the Japan
rice sells for. The rice here raised
averages about five bushels per capita
of the population, and every farmer
raises little for home use. 1t is used
by every body as the staple food, just
as We use bread in America.
No cotton of consequence is pro-
duced in japan, yet the manufacture
of cotton goods is being rapidly ex-
tended, and factories are being built
in all the principal towns. Three are
now being constructed in Osaka, in
the southern part of Japan. A very
large proportion OF the cotton used in
Japan Is raised in the United States,
utstrange as it may appear, nearly
all the raw material used here from
our country is shipped from Liverpool
cotton from ST. Louis costs here about
S28, gold, no matter whether it Is
shipped by rail and steamer direct; but
is shipped for less than $40 per ton
from European ports, and cotton from
the Unised States is shipped to Liver
pool and sold there. without being un-
loaded from the ships, and then billed
to this country. giving to Great Britain
the carrying trade OF our own raw
material. The Standard Oil Company
has line of sailing vessels for ports
here carrying oil and returning with
cargoes of tea, silk and rice. American
oil will, however. soon be thing of
the pastin japan. The Russians are fast
getting hold OF this business, and with
the completion of the Siberian railway
to Vladavostock, in the near future, will
be able to drive the Standard Oil Com
pauy from this market. The oil is not
nearly so good as ours, but it will be
delivered here so much cheaper that it
will take the place of the American
oil. One thing only will help to keep
American oil in the market here, and
that is the intense hatred by Japanese
of the Russians, ever since the late
war with China. When Japan had
China PROSTATE at her feet, Russia
stepped in and compelled them to sur
render Port Arthur and other districts
back to China and accept money in
demnity of s4OO, 600, ,OOOinstead, which
has embittered the Japanese against
the Russians.
They have been placed in very much
the same position that our country was
by Great Britain during the late war
in the United States. THAI country
allowed confederat cruisers to be fitted
out in British ports. We had gigan-
tic war on our hands; we were unable
to resent the gross outrage at the time,
as we had all we could attend to-and /
by the action OF the British our COM
merce was swept from the seas of the |
world by these confederate British |
cruisers. We accepted the pitiful S16, |
O00, 900 as remuneration for the out |
rage, and allowed Great Britain to |
hold the commerce of the world, and |
to thus dictate to US and all other debt
or nations the price of all commod-
tiles. and the coinage we should use,
and allowed her to even carry our cot
ton and other products of our country
to all the marts of the world-as she
is now doiug-and if voice is raised
hav opd hor fandard froldl