crossing the Yalu to protect Russian sawmills and other industries
which had also crept into Korea. And when the Korean Government
protested, Russian agents claimed the right to construct railways,
erect telegraphs or take any required measures for the protection of
Russian settlers in Korea; and every diplomatic attempt to open
Manchuria or Korea to foreign trade and residents was opposed by Russia
as if it were an attack upon her own individual rights.

Surprising as this was to all the Treaty Powers, it had for Japan the
added sting of injustice. She had been ejected from her own territory,
fairly won in war, because her presence would endanger the independence
of Korea and the peace of the Orient. She now saw Russia in full
occupation of this very territory, and the absorption of Korea itself
threatened.

And what was the object of all this scheming? Not more land!
Certainly a nation owning more than a sixth of the earth's surface
could not be hungering for land! And no doubt Russia would long ago
gladly have given one-half of Siberia to the sea in exchange for a few
good harbors such as existed on the east coast of Korea. It was that
ever-existent thirst for access to the ocean which tempted her into
tortuous diplomacy, drawing her on and on, like the hand of fate.
Manchuria itself would be unavailing unless she could control Korea,
which alone possessed the ocean facilities for which she had struggled
since the first year of her existence.

In the year 1900 the Trans-Siberian Railway was completed. Its 6,600
miles of rails, if laid in a straight line, would pass one-quarter of
the distance around the earth! It had traversed an unexplored
continent, creating, as it moved along, homes for the workmen, schools
for their technical instruction, churches, hospitals, inns, stores;
converting a wilderness, in fact, into a semi-civilization at the rate
of a mile a day for nine years! And whereas in the days of the Mongol
subjection it required four years for the Grand Princes to go from
Moscow to Sarai, near Pekin, to prostrate themselves before the Great
Khan, many perishing by the way from fatigue and exposure, the journey
from Moscow to Pekin may now be accomplished in two weeks. In perfect
good faith Japan commenced her task of reformation in Korea. But the
way was obstructed by the large and powerful family of the Queen, who
were, in fact, the chief vampires in the kingdom. A few Korean
miscreants led