Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-08-24

CONTINUED From Page 1Ol
turn Korea INTO a Japanese preserve.
The most important foreign inter-
ests in Korea were in the hands of a
single American firm. Japan's course
in the case of this firm was typical.
She offered to buy the Americans out.
The Americans refused to sell. They
had spent years in establishing them
selves, and did not care to retire just
as they had weathered the doubtful
stage and were beginning to take prof
its. The Japanese then set out to OBJ
struct n oppose them at every turn.
Their mining titles were disputed.
Their enterprises were subjected to
unfair competition, as in the case of a
telephone company, for which they
had secured an exclusive franchise.
The Japanese calmly set up a Compel
ing company. The past records of the
members of the American firm were
searched in an attempt to uncover dis
creditable facts, although h company
was so long established that it
a amounted to an institution and no
one had questioned its integrity be-
fore.
In spite of this campaign, which
was long and expensive enough to
have broken a smaller corporation, the
Americans kept on fighting. Theyfought
from Seoul n Toxic to Washington
anu DdCh again. FludllJ lnSy SOlu Oul.
AS u business proposition the game was
obviously not worth the candle. Fac
ing Japanese opposition backed up by
Japanese officials, the business could
not be run at a profit. However dear
might be the principles involved, as
business men the Americans had no
alternative but to bow to the newt
able and withdraw.
The incident illustrates the CONNER
cia.l policy of japan in the countries
she dominates. She realizes her ma
tional need for commercial expansion.
She is willing 10 purchase foreign in
~terests at a price, but If they refuse to
withdraw gracefully, they will be made
to withdraw ungracefully. Japan has
the justification of a certain necessity
"a justification that is being stretch
ed to cover a good deal nowadays.
That Europe and America recognized
her justification is shown by the way
they have stood aside while Japan, in
contravention of international agree
ments and policy, proceeded from
fighting a war over Korea's autonomy
in 1894 to swallowing the hapless
kingdom herself a little over a decade
later. She mas also been permitted to
establish a virtual protectorate over
Manchuria and to TURF that rich re-
gion into a Japanese trade preserve.
But her course must find its limits
somewhere.
Korea herself has become a Jap
anese province. She Is hardly so much
a part of Japan as a vassal state. That
incident is closed. But how far will
Japan proceed on these lines? Am
erican business men here believe that
If the policy which Japan is now try
ing to impose on China succeeds, the
course of events respecting other for
eign trade with China will be the same
as has occurred during Japanese oc-
cupation of Korea and Manchuria." So
says the American Association of
China, in a pamphlet recently publish
ed. Therein consists the really vital
significance of Korea; not In the AM
erican interests driven from a field
they explored and developed, but in
the face of the immensely greater
American interests, actual and poten-
tial, in China herself. Already in the
Shantung district just seized from
Germany, Japan is using her former
methods. There seems no doubt as
to what she will do If unchecked. Re-
mains only the question of who will
check her.
The missionary situation in Korea is
fundamentally different from that of
trade and industry. h missionary Is
influenced by no considerations of eX-
p~ediency. He has to stick to his post,
whether the political administration
be favorable or 10. American mission
aries in Korea are standing by their
work, but the future that was once
the brightest in the Orient has be-
come full of clouds and complexities.
When the Japanese took over Korea,
Prince Ito, governor-general of the
province, announced in plain terms
that while foreign missionaries would be
unmolested so long as they refratned
from any activities with a political
significance, no such activities would
= C,.oI - ~NafffA- GAA~1a
Just enough; but it is none the less
fatal, in the long run, to h work of
American missionaries.
The Korean people resented holly
the coming of the Japanese. Even the
most spineless state will not take
quietly the transfer of its supreme
government nto the hands of foreign
ers; n in addition to this natural
sentiment. the Koreans were newt
ably stirred to rage by the treatment
they received at the hands of their
japanese masters. In a matter such
as this, the sympathies of the mis-
~sionaries naturally lay with the peo-
pie among whom they had worked for
years, who were the under dogs, and
who were fully in the right. No mat
ter how hard they might try to be
neutral, they could not condone the
conduct of the Japanese, nor could
their teachings. colored as they must
be by their Am~ericanism, sincerely
counsel the Koreans to accept the idea
that they were an inferior race to
their neighbors from Nippon.
Moreover, the Koreans have now be-
come citizens of the Japanese empire.
The keystone OF the Japanese scheme
of domestic government is an idea not
political, but religious-the Idea OF
emperor-divinity. Such an idea is in
compatible with the teachings of the
missionaries. BY intoxicating the doc
trines of Christianity, they work
against the acceptance of a creed
which is the cornerstone of the Japa-