The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1904-03-25
THE FATE Of THE
HERMIT KINGDOM
In All Its Troubles Korea Has
Never Ceased to Be a
Separate Domain.
IT is a LAND OF BEAUTY
Physically, the Koreans Are a Finer
People Than the Japs and Visitors
Speak of Them as Being Much
Handsomer Than Chinese.

Harper's Weekly: Korea seems des-
tined to be the sacrific:al victim in the
far eastern struggle. Manchuria has
ical entity. From being the conqueror
of China, when the present dynasty In
vaded and subdued the middle kingdom
In 1914, Manchuria steadily sank to the
status of a somewhat neglected guilty.
Ing dependency, the most backward
part of a backward empire. Its hold on
the Chinese imagination lay in the
'China's foreign %conquerers, n as
Manchus are even today an armed and
hostile garrison in China, the relics OF
their ancestors are not very dear to
then native Chinese. Korea has never
ceased to be a separate and distinct
kingdom. with a defined social, moral
and political life of its own, in spite Of
nately put forth by China and Japan.
Korea has a historic history Of intense
interest and value, and stands as the
bringer Of light, religion and art to the
Japanese.
Physically, the Koreans are a finer
people thar their n%eighbors of Japan,
and visitors to the hermit kingdom
speak Of them as being much handsom-
er than the Chinese, who, in their turn,
are in physique superior to the mi
kado's subjects. The Koreans have
been devastated again and again by
ruthless Japanese invasions, and to the
last of these all historians unite In as
cribing the present fallen fortunes and
broken courage of the hermit kingdom.
Korea gave Japan the art OF letters,
science and religion, as well as the
best model and craftsmen in all those
arts of painting and design which we
think of as Enthusiastically Japanese.
In return for these great gifts, the Jap
anese again and again spread desola-
ton through her fertile valleys. NO
eastern people detests another so
strongly as the Koreans detest the Jap
anese.
A Land of Beauty.
Korea is a land of extreme beauty
and fertility, though it has for years
suffered from certain political evils
which we ma the more easily under
stand as they have analogies neal
home. 1t has q land question almost
Identical with the Irish land question,
except that, in Ireland, the landlords
were additionally odious as representa-
tives Of foreign conquest and foreign
domination, the rule Of an alien race
and an alien faith. But in both Korea
and Ireland, the heart of the land ques-
ton, economically speaking, was the
same; a year-to-year tenancy, Which
gave the landlord the right to raise the
rent every time the tenant improved his
holding by clearing, draining, building
or fertilizing. This system, In Korea,
as in ireland, kept the peasant class
In perpetual poverty, and made all hope
of progress for them impossible. The
absenteeism of the Irish landlords was
repeated in Korea, as the land-owning
class invariably streamed to the cap
.ltal, to take part in its pleasures and
Amusements, and to participate in the
court life, for splendor Of pageantry,
and for elaborate detail of etiquette,
was a close second in the court of
Vienna in the days before Sadown and
the legislative secession of Hungary.
A second evil, and a very serious one,
we have recently rea of Bulgarian
Macedonia under Turkish rule; it is the
evil of tax-forming lined with extor-
ton and dishonesty. A political writer
of much ~acuteness has spoken of the
|Constantinople hierarchy in the
|Roumania of olden days as "a as
cade Of extortion." The peasant groans
practically feudal India Of today. But
the Korean peasant is further the VIC
tim of a cruel and barbarous criminal
law, with punishments as capricious
rs they are severe, and here the Indian,
ryot has i~mmeasurably the advantage,
since, in the British-India empire, the
law can neither be bought nor delayed.
Japan in Korea.
Add to this hat the central govern
ment has never assimilated the modern
doctrine that governments exist for the
good of the people, and to develop and
distribute the of the country;
and that the Korean army was a cost
ly luxury of the court, but wholly in
%sficacious against foreign foes, and we
have a fairly true estimate of the
Internal condition Of the hermit king
Japan was inspired by genuine mis-
%sionary zeal. accompanied, without
doubt. by feelings less disinterested, in
her attempt to modernize Korea, i'm
mediately before and during the war in
China in 1894. Japan had then some six
teen years Of civilized existence, in our
modern democratic sense, to her credit.
that time. Her intentions towards
Korea involved an equally sweeping
reformation for the land Of Morning
Calm" But more than sixteen a
of national life are needed before a
kingdom can safely become the mentor
Of another. especially If that other
Itrenuously objects and has already,
through fifteen centuries OF calamitous
|%lnvasions grown to distrust and hate
the would-be reformer.
The Japanese went ut their task with
10 certain ruthless vigor, and the i'm
prisonment OF the Korean sovereignty.
and the murder Of the Korean queen
were symptomatic of their strenuous
methods. They drew up schemes Of re-
form which read admirably, but which
took no root among the Koreans, and
within three or four years the whole
fabric of New Korea" thus Violently
born under Japanese auspices, toppled
and fell to pieces. The Japanese had
secured settlements in various parts Of
Korea, such as Fusan and Chemulpo,
and they had built the rudiments Of a
postal and telegraph system which are
undoubtedly Of benefit: but, at the
tame time, they managed to add to the
keen animosity with which the Koreans
viewed everything Japanese, the
work IF civilization in Korea was thus
ret back and hindered.
70 Try Again.
Japan Is now determined to try again
In spite of ell treaties guaranteeing
Korean Independence and sovereignty;
and Korea fs likely to learn some rude
lessons concerning the modern applica-
lion of martial forces. Good may re-
suit from this to Korea, provided that
.Japan's tutclage is only temporary. But
nothing more hurtful to the genius and
1estinv of the gifted ~; nnfortrpofo