The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-12-11
MILLS IN JAPAN
A Tar Heels Views of
Cotton Industry.

Occidental Costumes.

Occidental Costumes.
Following is an extract from d pri-
vate letter b. Mr.. " 4 Graham
Clark, VINO IS on q tour Of me East
for the government
Kope, Japan. sept. q, 1eoG.-I ar
rived IA Japan on the 1ltn. spent
several days at Yokohama ana four 1T
Tokyo. and also q couple at OSAKA
| expect to be in Kobe aIout a Week
and then go to Ea@asali Tor = day
or 80 ana then cross over to Shanghai.
1t tak1s So much time seeing men.
Inspecting mills, gathering information
and laborioualy taxing notes and
studying figures, : have no time fOr
writing. i have a lot OF material but
the majority OF it hardly applicable
to my report. find The consuls of
very little use and have to hustle Tor
myself. They are very courteous.
etc, but are busy With routine work
and not rs we'll posted as they might
| be on the man industry Of japan,
| the cotton mill business. | have been
| through several mills ana the larger
ones, l find thoroughly UP to date.
! four story brick buildings, 1000 II. z.
| triple expansion engines With rope
drive, electric LIGHTS. steam heat. etc.
! but it looks like an anachronism to
! go through the Office and see them us
ing the abacus for simple addition,
| Subtraction and multiplication The
! use of the telephone is un i7ersal.
! The smaller mills are not so well run
| and the looms have many ends broke
! n the warps and thrown back SLOWING
| defective warping. The rooms are net
so Well kept and too much time is
lost dofing.
vent through a mill at TOKYO
where they made army cloth, drills
| dyed in khaki. y Yesterday ! went
| through a mill at Osaka, $1,000 spin
! dies, 1850 looms, that made nOIhing
| but Sheetngs for the Corean and Man
chulran trade and ran night and day
| There IS no dobt of the seriousness
| of the Japanese competition with our
goods but t Will be q long time be
| fore they can take the trade as they
| have now ONLY about / - million
spindles and their labor is not Of high
! degree of skill yet.
The aWfuIly heavy burden Of war
taxes also viii tend to retard deNel-
| opment. The total value of. Japan,
land, houses. property OF all kinds.
cts, IS estimated by the Japanese
government at 10000 600, 0oo yen
| while the debt is 2.2G0,o00,o00 yen.
! t'hc debt therefore is about One-siXth
| the value of all Japan. There are
some signs of restless ness In Tokyo
| last week there was riot when the
| street car company raised the price
| from 4 to sen. Of this amount / sen
goes to the government, 50 the tax IN
| this case was - Ger cent and IS now
20 per cent. Taxes on other things
Nale not in proportion are high. With
| il all however and despite the cheap
ness Of labor, / am struck With the
| fact that this il prosperous people.
| The government borroWs money at
! the rate Of i per cent to per cent
abroad and loans it to private enter
| priSeS from 4 to ID per cent. There
| is q speculative fever abroad Just now
| and all stocks. bonds, etc. advance
! daily. The stock Of the larger cotton
mills are held at over 800 per cent.
| G<anyafuchi Cotton Miu stock value
par yen, sold Yesterday f.. I59.40 yen.)
| Banks and other stocks are even high
| Ell. Some of the banks and mills
are very solid institutions with able
| management and big reserves but
most OF the enterprises are running, on
| borrowed capital and in many cases
| paying big unearned diEidends.-tO
| keep the value of their stock uD-by
| taking from their reserve OF even bor-
rowing from the government. If
there were to come close period the
reaction would be tremendous. The
government had borrowed immense
sums and foreign capital mas poured
IN here until the bankers tell the
money is very easy. This. however,
IS not alE-9vs a good sign.
Yokoaama Tokyo, Osaka and Kobe
all have good nacadamized streets
and the last three have fine wide ave-
nues with asphalt or brick sidewalks
in many places. Yokohama is lit by
gas. All have street ears and fine
brick or stone buildings in the busi-
ness sections. Kobe is the most near
ly European of all and there are
many heavy drays and horses. IN
Tokyo one scarcely sees a dray horse.
heavy drays and horses In Tokyo
one scarcely sees 4 dray horse
Met General Wright at Tokyo and
he manfred after Major InO w Cra-
ham, saving that he went to school
at Bingham s With him. Saw his wife
out driving in a Victoria behind 2 fine
par Of American horses. The driver
and footman Wore the native hat.
a big round affair in red and their
| flowing kimOnOS We're also decorated
With about six inch red borders. The
effect was quite gorgeous. Other Off
cials decorate their footmen in kimO-
nos With purple borders, yellow bord-
ers. etc. Saw Oyama review a brigade
of the Imperial Guard in Tokyo. This
guard are the pick troops of the en-
pire and wore a red hat that dis
tin suishes them from all others. They
wore European shoes, khaki uniforms
with khaki leggins and carrier KNAPP
sacks made of untanned skins with the
| hair on the outside. Each had his
| blanket rolled up and strapped around
| the top and sides of the knaosack
| The soldiers were a fine looking set
OF men and all Of uniform height
very nearly, about five feet SIX lncheS,
say They use q shorter step than
| our swing but have a steady 2narchln.
| movement that looks business like.
About half of them wore medals show
| ng them to be picked veterans OF the
| Chinese and Russian wars General
| Oyama and other high o;cials rode
| cavalry squadron escort humping
| along behind them The infantry are