The Idaho scimitar. [volume] (Boise, Idaho) 1907-1908, 1908-01-25

knives, spoons Watches wooden goods and everything
you think of, almost, is manufactured there.
If you take into consideration that up to 1870
there was manufacturing to speak of in Japan,
you can comprehend how apt these people are.
At first they employed Americans and Europeans
superintend their factories and to teach them how
to produce all these different articles Today there
is not white man or any foreigners in any of the
manufacturing establishments of the country.
Railroads span the empire. Electric light
plants are erected in all the cities. Telegraph lines
are scattered throughout the whole country
The first railroad built in 1872 between Yo-
kohama and Tokyo distance of eighteen miles.
Railroads are now built in all portions of the
empire
There is not white laborer employed, from the
general superintendent down to the switch tender,
including the train dispatchers, and their railroad
system is as perfect as that of any country.
Everything necessary for the construction and
equipment of railroad, excepting locomotives, is
made in Japan and it will be but a short time before
they will construct their locomotives, they have
the iron, coal and the ingenuity Japan has
many miles of railway in operation, also of telegraph
lines.
In twelve years they have perfected telegraph
system which for organization, Dispatch reliability
and low rate of service not exceled by any nation
of the globe.
twenty-five years ago not mile of this system
isted and the entire service is performed by Japan
csc.
When they first started their career of develop
ment every of material had be imported mostly
from Great Britain. Now everything necessary to
build and equip the best modern telegraph system
is manufactured in Japan, and their workshops and
factories supply these materials to their neghbors
There are 900 factories in the empire of various
kinds.
Gold and silver found in paying quantities.
There is lead in the north and copper, tin, iron and
quicksilver in the other portions.
Coal is the most profitable mining industry in Ja-
pam Three hundred years ago it Systematically
mined in three four districts, but up to 1876 only
the most primitive methods of coal mining in
use. Twenty-Five years ago, the output 300 tons
per day Now it is 1000 tons per day and more, the
output being nearly 100000 tons per year, and the
supply is apparently inexhaustibe. 1t is equal in
quality to the coal of almost any other country.
All the firearms and ammunition used in the army
of Japan manufactured in the country.
There are some seventy-fve cotton-spinning COM
panies. Cotton was introduced into Japan from
India the first cotton seeds being brought there in
boat by accident from India in 799. 1t did not
firm footing until 1870, and not very
extensively cultivated until century later. The
supply has equaled the demand, and hence
Japan imports cotton. The Japanese have no name
for cotton in their language. There three
neutrality-suspicious., white and red They call cotton
"wata" The average production of cotton per acre
is 800 pounds, while the average of the Southern
States is one-haf bale, about $50 pounds. bale
of cotton in the Southern States ranges from 400
to 500 pounds The number of 1aborers in the regu-
lar cotton mills of Japan is about $4,000 males and
$4,000 females.