The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-09-14

JAPAN IN KOREA
This Professor Says the New
Rule Is Benefcient
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(New York Sum-

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day by Prof. Johannes Bolljahn, who
is making his first visit to New York.
Prof. Bolljahn has been in the far east
twenty-three years, the first ten Of
which he spent in Japan and the last
thirteen in Korea. He is now on his
way to visit the fatherland for the
first time since he turned his face ia
the east.
Prof. Bolljahn is in the Japanese
government service as a teacher. He
used to be at the military school
in Toxic and then in the first college
in that place. Then while Korea was
still Korea he went to Seoul to found
the German department in the for
eign language school, then run by the
Korean government and now contin-
ued by the Japanese.
Korea is now fully 100 per cent
better in every way than it was before
the Japanese occupation" said Prof.
Bolljahn yesterday at the Waldorf.
what the Japanese have done there
for the improvement of the country
is astonishing by comparison with old
conditions, and this is characteristic
not only Of Seoul but of the whole
country. The latest undertaking of
the governing power is the develop
ment of a great railway system which
will give employment to thousands.
"The Koreans used to be a lazy,
shiftless lot, but they have been en-
tirely reconstructed. The lower class
es used to lie about in the streets
smoking their long pipes and never
had ambition. They did not know
what it meant to save money. When
the Japanese started out to establish
savings banks the Koreans thought,
another trick to get our money away
from us!' But when they found
that not only could they draw inter-
est but could withdraw their original
capital from the banks whenever they
liked. a lot of them began to save in
this way. The government has estab-
lished savings banks in the smaller
places, and these the police depart
ments have charge Of.
"The missionaries out there are do
ing great work. principally in the way
of education, though they are also
making Christians out of some of the
natives. The latter are becoming
Industrious and they nov keep their
houses in some degree of cleanliness.
They have learned about sanitary me-
thods. A few years ago there was
a cholera epidemic and the police
went from house to house insisting
that the occupants should keep their
dwellings clean. Japanese doctors
lectured everywhere on the principles
of hygiene and the people nov under
stand them. Under Japanese rule,
Korea has become a really fine coun-
try. The present governor general,
Viscount Terauchi, who is at the same
time war minister, is energetic and
has shown that he has the welfare
of the Koreans at heart. For in
stance, he has made a law regulating
business which has done a great deal
Of good. Formerly it used to be posi-
BILE for anybody to set up business in
Korea. ven If he had no capital and
character. The result was that a lot
Of u%nprincipled men used to squeeze
and fleece the natives, and it stirred
hp bad feeling. Under the new law
a man who sets up a shop must have
a license and give satisfactory assur-
ance of character and financial stand
ing. Some of the Japanese did not
like this new order of things. and they
have started an agitation supported
by two of the newspapers and are at
lacking the justice Of the governor
general as manifested not only toward