The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-01-04
JAPAN'S LABOR PROBLEM
RACIAL FACTORS THAT HAVE RE-
TARDED INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS.
Wages Low and Living Prices Rap
idly Advanced - Government
Help I'm Prospect.

TO inspect the factory almost invariably at
tends the first exchange of civilities. This
establishment is usually an upper room,
where a dozen men or less are engaged
I'm the various processes through which
the ware must pass. The china thus is
exhibited in its progressive stages and
doubt or ignorance can no longer question
that both great care and time must be
spent on the microscopic details Of this
labor. Figures and designs requiring
touch so light that their fidelity can be
appreciated only with the aid of a pow
srful glass, tell their own story as one
watches the workman with his brushes
and the intentness and delicacy OF his APP
pIication. These impressions are as fresh
as possible as the visitor is led downstairs
again. where doors Of tiny closets are
pushed aside, and from dark interiors are
taken boxes. containing on top and around
the sides layers OF cotton wadding, pro-
tecting wrappings of soft yellow cloth. and
at last the art piece which has earned its
rest after four months of constant manipu-
lation. Cloisonne receives as detailed
treatment. going through the process OF
rubbing down, when 1t seems finished 10 the
Impractical eye. often as many as eight
or ten times before it acquires a satisfy
ing jeweled luster. At the damascene work
er's the steel foundation on which gold
and silver designs laid receives forty
coats of lacquer before the maker will
permit any OF the work to leave his hands.
In the other lines in which japan excels.
such as embroidery, velvet painting, lacquer
work, and elaborate carving in metal and
wood, capacity for infinite pains must ever
keep distinctive the art of the land.
Pleasing as is the devotion to ideals which
has won for Japanese art the high place
It occupies. there is another aspect OF It,
The fashion of mediocrity to tag after
genius has not only brought into the field
many imitators of those who lead, but 1t
has affected host of others. with twofold
result. Shops are stocked with the work
of men whose cleverness OF hand might be
turned to substantial profit. in place of
the meager earnings they now receive, and
much of whose production gains nothing
by having been laboriously turned out, and
the heritage of art, which became the COM
mon possession through centuries. has de-
-eloped a nation of artisans.
TAKE THEIR OWN TIME.
Measures for the reform Of this condi-
ton may expect cold welcome, If well
coined at all. Present methods of labor
permit much individual ease and liberty.
Men sit al benches and let their minds
wander. They rest at pleasure, for chat
over tea, or for other gossip. On days when
the spirit moves them not to work they
take such time as they wish for diversion.
Shops and houses have simultaneously an
appearance OF unfiagging industry and of
Incidence. The average disposition does not
look to any other kind OF life, and 1t Will
be hard to change.
These Unborn tendencies are encountering
opposition in a rapid advance In the cost
IL living. while wages move but slowly.
Social and domestic customs which have
kept Japan free from poorhouses. may not
prove equal to squeezing sustenance from
husks. Already effects in this direction
are observable in the counterfeits which
the general gift Of imitation has made pos
sible. One may buy in Japan almost any
thing that looks like something else DEM
onstration of this nature comes frequently
TO the notice OF foreigners in the beverages
which the market offers. At some Of the
ports the trade in old bottles has risen to
the rank of an industry, with difference
of several hundred per cent. between prices
for those with labels and those without
them. Hence a buyer may be offered what
appears to be choice brands of the world
at prices well below rock bottom at places
of manufacture; and native merchants
ready to make concessions at that. Tales
of favorite whisky at PA yen g shillings)
per dozen bottles are not uncomomn; choic-
est bouquets OF France run equally to bank
rupt prices. Native skill Is not limited to
beverages palpably counterfeit. 1t turns
out things to wear and TO eat, household
utensils and ornaments, and infinite sun
dries. with equal facility. If the Chinese
traders gave the first lessons in this course
of decentralization. the pupils were apt, and
now get on with no outside tuition.
This practice OF fraudulent imitation
comes largely, and hardly unnaturally,
from the decreased purchasing power of
wages. 1t does not look at the moment
as IL 1t were capable of material expansion
certainly not in beverages. for instance.
But il Is the kind of evil that remedies
nothing While IL may help out for a
season. 1t leaves an offensive trail. and for
purposes of long account IL must excite a
distrust of national character ruinously at
variance with the ambitions that actuate
the empire.
EXAMPLES OF CHEAP LABOR.
Productive power of common labor Is
quite small that of artisans I'm
pressions are gathered ali over the East
of the cheapncss of men. and are not ma
terially modified in Japan. Men are cheaper
than animals or machinery in town and
country. in the shops. along the water
front and in the streets. In the coaling
of ships. speciality at the ports, the sight
OF the coal passers as they keep black
streams moving from barge junk up
rope ladders TO the bunkers, attracts be-
cause Of the dizziness with which men.
women and children do that work. 1t may
be more expeditions than the coaling along
the China coast at Singapore or at Colon
DO, but hoists would be quicker and
cheaper. In the tea-firing establishments
hundreds OF men and women toss leaves
by the hour in hot kettles TO prepare item
for packing. work quite well done by
machinery in Ceylon. where hand labor
would cost far less than the prices paid
here for IL. II a pile is to be driven at
least half dozen men must lift a pully-
weight for every blow on the pile Men
lift and haul about telegraph poles and
heavy timber Wood-sawing follows the
Chinese fashion. two men laboring for
hours over log which steam saw would
cut into planking in a few minutes.
On the farms modern implements are un-
known and entire families do In the fields