Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-10

TOKIO--It does not take long for
the visitor in Japan to understand why
the people OF the laboring classes are
so. anxious to emigrate to some other
country. Wages are 50 low as to afford
only the bare necessities of existence.
While the rate of compensation is mad
equate in all lines of endeavors the
lowest level is struck in the pay given
to women workers. For the manulac,
ture of toothpicks the wages are
cents for ten-hour day; for making
paper bags and cardboard boxes,
cents for eight hours; for folding paper
in book binder1es, 5 cents for eight
hours; for sewing shirts and UNDER
wear, cents; and for pasting papar
lanterns, cents a day. There are
thousands of women In Japan working
for less than enough to keep the Ameri-
can factory girl in chewing gum.
The Japanese government has issued
a table OF average wages for laborers,
and out of list of fifty different occu-
pations the bricklayer leads with
wage of 90 cents, a day. Shoemakers
and blacksmiths get 40 cents day.
The wages for skilled labor In the man
ufactories does not vary from the
cheapness prevailing in other branches
OF industry. A china decorator Is paid
but 80 cents for ten hours work, dur
ing which time he sits on his legs In
tailor fashion and uses his eyes and
hands upon his delicate work. He Is an
artist capable of executing the most
intricate patterns yet an American
street urchin with nimble pair OF
legs and good lung power can earn
more in an hour selling papers.
H. 10 no
by no means confined to common work
men. The foreman of an electric light
plant in Yokohama. city Of $4,000 IN
habitants, receives only 4b cents q Gay
for his skilled services. He Is an edu-
Gated electrician, but his salary Is
lower than that of an ordinary Ameri-
can office boy. The station master In
Yokohama, who has several hundred
people under him, receives but $50 Q
month. OF course he has a family and
must pay rent and employ servants out
of this small salary The engineers
conductors, trainmen, station employees
and others who are under him average
about SIS month.
There are over 100. 900 men and women
school teachers in the elementary
schools of Japan whose average pay Is
only So a month, and 1t is said thai
the average salary of the 5000 govern
ment clerks in Toxic is 80 cents day
This is quite a contrast to the fat jobs
American politicians hand around
among their friends. Policemen are
furnished with uniforms and are paid
80 cents a day. 1t Is needless to say
that the clothes they wear while on
duty are the most expensive and COM
Portable they have ever worn. Book
keepers and accountants for native
firms are paid about 40 cents a day
with room rent and board thrown in
Some generous employers also furnish
smoking tobacco.
Things are done In japan in a way
quite different from that which Amer
leans consider economically necessary.
Take for example the course OF con-
struction of a new house in Toxic. The
excavation is accomplished by labprers
who receive fifteen cents for ten hours
work. They carry the dirt to the street
in baskets, then dump it into carts,
which another crowd of men pull away
with much noise and labor This pro-
cess is SO slow that the work proves
expensive in the end. Before the ex-
cavation is completed the dirt taken
from 1t will be worth almost Its weight
in gold, when compared to what 1t
would cost to remove it In an Ameri-
can city.
The various kinds of workmen arrive
before seven o'clock in the morning.
but they do not get to work promptly.
They build a little fire and then gather
around 1t to talk and thaw out. BY
eight o'clock the most of them are at
work They all wear blue cotton suits
with characters upon the coats to in
dictate their guild, as well as the firm
or individual for whom they are work
ing. This is their winter garb. In
summer they wear nothing but cloth
around their loins, and band about
their foreheads t. keep the sweat from
running down their faces.
The carpenters wages average 4.
cents a. day. They use the crudest OF
tools, not even having the claw. ham
mer which our workmen consider SO
indispensable. They follow the usual
topsy-turvy rule of this strange land
pulling the plane and saw which an
American pushes. All the workmen
waste much time in the contemplation
Of unimportant detail. They constantly
waste their strength in misdirected ef-
fort. loiter to talk and smoke, and