Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-26

- MlueTS DO not believe
that the new regime will take any
backward step in this matter, and the
confidence OF Americans is observable
in the fact that their holdings have
Increased four-fold within the last
year.
Copper and graphite-the latter is
limited to a few fields, the chief of
which is in Ceylon-are also found in
paying quantities, and iron and coal
deposits are being worked and lead
| tin and quicksilver are believed 10
exist in paying quantities. Korea was
| once large producer and user of va
rlous metals. Crude placer mining has
been done for hundreds of years along
some OF the mountain streams. but
modern methods We're not attemuted
| till the foreigners came, while o1artZ
mining was almost unknown.
The first ironclad war vessel which
the world has knowledge was built
by Korea to fight Japan $50 years be-
fore the days of the Monitor and Mer-
rimac. The one small Korean iron
clad destroyed the whole Japanese fleet
in a fight in the Yellow sea, but So
little was known of the activities Of
either of these far-away countries at
the time that the western world re-
mained in ignorance of the event
Breach-loading cannon were cast in
Korea centuries before the west used
arms, and bombs and shells were
thrown from mortars. The beautif,j1
brass-bound chests which constitute
almost the only article of Korean fur
niture in general use attest the knowl-
edge of modern Koreans in the matter
of brass working. The bowls and dishes
made of brass mingled with copper and
nickel are products of this country
now much sought for among the few
travellers who visit Seoul. An Ameri-
can firm has recently set to work to
stimulate this branch of Korean in
dustry by exporting these articles to
America and Europe.
Throughout the campaign Of pub
llcity, in which the Koreans have been
represented as degenerate and worth
less race, it has been made to appear
that they are not useful as laborers,
The experience of the Americans who
employ them in mines is to the con-
trary. A former resident of the United
States who handles large bodies of
them asserts that he can select from
among his men 100 who will do as
much work as any 100 Welsh Cornish
or American miners anyone else can
pick.
The Korean miner must be taught
American methods, but he is not slow
to learn or unwilling to apply his
knowledge. Before the opening of the
country the farmers We're a singularlv
one doing for himself nearly everything
that appertained to running his estab-
lishment. Each farmer twisted his own
rope, built his own house, nodded the
tiles or burned the brick to build il.
made his own tools and did such crude
work IN metals as was necessary to
mend his implements and household
utensils. Encouraged by little in
struction and advice he soon picks up
new methods of working, and his large
stature and good physique give him
advantages as a laborer.
One sees at the railroad station in
Seoul and in the fields along the rail-
road illustrations of the burdens that
the Korean is able to carry. The ma
tional contrivance for carrying heavy
loads is the "jikay," which is made by
fastening at some distance from each
other two strong branches from a tree
each of which has strong projecting
branch that forms a hook twelve or
fifteen inches long. The baggage por-
ter takes the heaviest trunk upon his
"jikay" and walks away with 1t with
astounding ease. The farmer carries a
load of wood or of farm products
which seems enough to tax tho
strength Of two fair-sized men. Out
of such raw material good miners are
made when they are boxed into shape
by men who have handled such labor in
California, Alaska Australia or Africa.
There have been no labor troubles in
Korea. The miners work for so sen
day, the equivalent of 25 cents in
America. The price of commodities
and the standards of living. are such
in this country that this amount suf-
fees the real needs of a man whose
ancestors for uncounted generations
have been content to plug along as day
laborers. That his ancestors were con-
tent to do so vas due in a measure to
the fact that Korea, like other oriental
despotisms, did not encourage men to
try to amass fortunes. The man who
was rich and not powerful was the
shining mark of persecution by needy
court favorites or the court itself, and
paradoxically it hardly paid to have
fortune.
The old fantastic tales of rivers be-
meath whose waters there shone a bed
of gold dust, and Of mountains where
nuggets could be picked up by the
handful, in the hermit kingdom, are
not proved even approximately true by
investigation, but the outlook is for
Korea to enjoy a considerable amount
of prosperity through the development
of mineral resources within the next
decade.
Tomorrow; The Fate OF Korea-IX: VIII
the Open Door BE Closed?
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