The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-10-04
F. A. Mckenzie in London Mail.

/. .
F.A. Mckenzie in London Mail.
+ The Japanese never lack courage.
Once their leaders have determined on
a .o course Of action they carry it thru ir-
respective of the, cost Of life of treasure.
This was shown almost strikingly before
Fort Arthur. 1t is also revealed in the
battle for commercial supremacy. The
factory system has been established and
maintained with a severity and at a
cost that might even have alarmed Lam
casshire eighty years ago.
Mills, vomiting black smoke day and
night, have sprung up turnout the most
mill owners are given free hand in
securing workers, and the mass of the
people, disciplined to hardship and
driven by poverty, have submitted to
amazing conditions Of labor.
Slaves of the Mill.
The cotton mills work day and night
IN tWelYe-hour shifts. Children of the
tenderest years and women are very
largely employed. Government publica-
lions admit that 10 per cent of the cot
| ton mill women workers are girls under
IA, that children as young as 8 years
old are employed, and that some fac
tories keep their hands at work seven
teen hours a day. Other Japanese, who
are not government officials, tell of still
worse conditions. They declare that
work, slaves Of the mills. It is un-
doubted, however, that the modern Jap
anese industrial system is founded on
cheap labor, largely child and female
labor. Piecework is general. Wages
vary from fraction over a penny a day
for young children to Sd for women
and I'd or Sd for adult men. In certain
q live II 1aI Syol, CT, 90
shipbuilding, the best men get as much
as Is a day.
But altho the Japanese employer has
the advantage Of cheap labor, it is not
quite so cheap as it appears. The
Japanese peasant has not taken quite
happily to the modern industrial sys-
tenn. He works for long hours, but he
lacks the concentration and, strangely
enough, the manual dexterity which the
English or American operative shows.
All the figures available seem to prove
do much more than a third Of the work
due by the Lancashire girl.
.~r~ ., A Nautical Nation. -.'.9
i The cotton industry in Japan contains
the forecast rather than the realization
building and shipowning Japan hat
anese is seen at his best as sailor, bott
as worker and as a man. The gov
ernment has utilized this national pre-
objection to the full. The indemnity
from the China war was used to built
up a navy, and liberal scale of sub
sides was then arranged to encourage
shipbuilding and management.
! But Japan has not yet succeeded il
creating a manufacturing industry tina
can stand on it's own merits. The gov
ernment has preferred to pay three shil
lings at home for the goods it could buy
for half crown abroad. It hal
granted its manufacturers the extra six
Z pence :or4sevenpence in order that the,
might sell for half crown abroad VIVA
has cost them three shillings to make.
| There is nothing, Of course, especiall,,
novel about this. Russia is doing ex
/ actly the same, on an even larger scale
!, with her export cotton industry. Blu
{ for Russia the amount Of the subsidie
forms a small part Of the total nationa
, expenditure. For Japan these form
/ large and crushing addition to taxa
: ton. ....-
= An Unlearned Lesson.
= The situation has been rendered NOR
difficult for Japan by the fact thai
great as the Industrial increase ha
been, it has not attained the growt
that it should under such forcing. Fo
this there is a very real reason. l
= large portion of the Japanese manufac
: turers and merchants have not ye
!, learned the elementary lesson that hon
, esty is the soul Of business. The ur
. reliability of the Japanese trader
a byword thruout the far east. Loca
J. merchants refuse to take delivery
prices 20 against them. They are some
r times aided in this by the powerful in
fuence Of the guilds, and they are a
least encouraged by the Imperfect
methods, the delays and the mistake
of the courts of justice. Japanes
goods are notorious for not coming u
= to sample. The reputation of the jar
anese trader turnout the east is bat
Japan is the land of counterfeit maj
ufacture and Of bogus limitations Q
J genuine goods. - @:. -.
: This is no racial prejudice agains
:, the yellow man, for the Chinese me,
J chant is in as good repute as the jar
n anese is in bad odor. The merchant
. have been lectured time after time
their own countrymen, and every e:
l. fort, official and unofficial, has bee
7 made to alter this thing. But it is
/ matter Of tradition and training.
$ may take generation to change tho
L oily, and still another generation to los
. the reputation.
- Can Japan continue her subsidies
- This depends on the foreign lender an
= on the relations established with Oh
. ma Japan may be driven to attem1
- to raise money on Korean monopolie
% The burden Of taxation has abor
+ reached it's limit, yet if subsidies al
- to continue, and trade is to be encou
- aged, more money must be had.
= Japan today is like the enterprisin