The Monmouth inquirer., 1926-03-04
fPrepared by the National Geographic So
eiefy. Washington. d. CO

ciety Washington, d. ca
r ANCHURIA has again come
N N into the world news after
IN some years of reasonably
quiet development. with the
occupation of Mukden, the capital, by
a Japanese army. The presence of
Japanese troops is not wholly new
development in Manchuria, for it was
this region which was the scene of
the sanguinary Russo Japanese war
twenty years ago. Since the treaty
of Portsmouth in 1905, which ended
that conflict, Japan has had the right
TO maintain garrison Of $4,000 men
in the country for the protection of
her interests.
Manchuria has an area of $685.
square miles, and so is almost once
and half the size of Texas. The
population Is believed to be fully TO-
100000
From the time when Shunche. the
Manchu chief was invited by China
through the "First In-G0ing-Gate in
the World" to assist the rebels in
their revolt against the Ming emperor
and the Manchus ousted him and
sat down upon the Peking throne
themselves for $50 years-nothing ever
happened in Manchuria until the
Japan-China war, the Boxer outbreak,
and war again, put it in the forefront
Agf the worlds interest
Beans are the great crop in Man
churfa, and by beans alone Manchuria
could live and supply the world. The
bean plant should be the crest, the
symbol, the coat-of-arms OF Manchu-
ria. 1t is a fortunate thing that there
is one great food crop that never fails.
Thirty varieties of these soy beans
grow in Manchuria,
Theebeans, when ground and pressed,
yield 10 per cent of oil, and the ref
use, compressed into great cartwheel
cakes weighing 60 pounds and more,
provides the best of all fertilizers for
the rice fields of Japan and the sugar
fields of Formosa, the Philippines. and
even Java The beans are converted
into soy and bean curd in both Japan
and China, and furnish those two pop
ular articles Of food-soy, the dark
brown, pungent sauce resulting from
= fermentation of bean dough, and
bean curd, or bean cheese.
The Japanese, with their mania for
investigation and analysis, have found
that the liquid left from making the
bean curd, and which used to be
thrown away, has the same chemical
value as milk, and Is, Of course many
times cheaper.
Europe at present uses the beans
for making candles. soap and dog bis
cults, and as an adulterant for other
fiours. The oil is substitute for
olive oil that threatens to displace our
cotton-seed imitation Of olive oil.
South Manchurian Railway
At Dairen one meets the butterfly
crest of the South Manchurian rail-
way, and thence northward ''the com
pany" is all in all The letter nj,
whose loops are suggestive of but
terfiy's wings 1.-THE butterfly being one
{ of the Chinese symbols for good luck,
Wong life and Immortality, and favo-
rite art mofif), and the profile of a
cross-section of rail. greatly resem-
try. compose a monogram that greatly
delights the Chinese eye and mind.
The railway. 40 miles long, with
ont q single tunnel, was mere track,
without bridges or rolling stock, when
the Japanese acquired 1t as almost
the only prize of the war. They
sioated loan Of $1OO.OO0.OOO at 8 per
cent and double-tracked the road with
steel rails from Pittsburgh. equipped
it with locomotives from Philadelphia
and pullman cars from Chicago, and
spent many more millions in the pur-
chase of railway materials in America.
Besides paying 5 per cent interest on
this loan and per cent on the stock,
the South Manchurian railway reaps
a surplus each year. Receipts are
increasing by leaps and bounds, partly
owing to the wonderful bean trade
and to the opening and working Of
more and more coal mines coal that
1t said to be second only to Cardiff
in quality.
Because Of its sleepers and dining
cars, and its long day coaches, Ameri-
can travellers have only words of
praise for the railway, and European
travellers sneers and open complaints.
Nearly all OF Manehuria that one
sees from the railway is covered with
trops Of giant mllIet, and the short