The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-21

|, with machinery made in Schenectady, | N. Y.
 | The managers of these works are the | three sons of the famous financier, Count Matsukata, the president being Kojiro
 Matsukata one of Japan's best known business men. These men have all been 1 educated in the United States and Flu rope MT. Goro Matsukata, who showed l me through the establishment. is grad | uate of Yale one of his brothers was graduated at Harvard, and another has spent Il years in Belgium and Germany. mention this to show the kind of train ing possessed by the men who are doing | the big things of Japan.
 | I am told that the Kawasaki company
 could not have grown to it's present pro | portions had it not heen for the govern ment subsidies This is so with the other shipbuilding companies; and the home-built ships of today are all due to | government support. As 1t is now there is bounty of s6 a ton on all vessels of from 700 to 1000 tons, and one of sl0 per ton for vessels of more than that. There is also bounty of s2.50 per horse power on the engines used. Sums like these
 run into big figures when the ships are
 large At $10 ton the two 9000-ton ships
 in the harbor will each receive s9o,ooo,
 with a large rake-off for their horse
 power. These bounties have been given since 1896, and, as a result, Japan is now
 able to build about as good vessels as any other nation. Other bounties are
 awarded to all ships in the carrying trade, and Japan's merchantile marine
 now amounts to more than a million tons, the greater part of which has been cre- ated within the past few years. The na- tion has now half dozen big steamship companies which cover all parts of the Pacific and Indian oceans. Most of It's big liners are run by Japanese captains
 and there is a nautical college at Tokio
 whose graduates furnish the principal of ficers.
 The largest steamship company here is the Nippon Yusen Kaisha. It has s3 steamers with a tonnage of more than
 3O0,0OO and it's vessels trade regularly with America, Bombay, Australia and Europe. The company also does business
 on the Asiatic rivers, and it has ships
 
 of it's services is altogether about 45.o0o
 miles. This company has capital of $11, ,OOO GOO, and 1t pays dividends of 12 per cent.
 Another big corporation is the Osaka Shosen Kaisha, the Osaka Merchant
 company, which has capital of over
 100000, and third is the Toyo Risen
 Kaisha, whose capital is little over
 million and a half. The latter company
 has a regular service to San Francisco.
 and it will eventually ply to South Amer
 lea as we'll In addition there are the
 Mitsui Bussen Kaisha, which has large ! number of coasting ships, and the Japan China Steamship company, which is run ming steamers on the Chinese rivers. All , of these companies are paying dividends and all are heavily subsidized. Indeed the government of Japan is de- cidedly patriarchal. It Is nursing indus tries of all kinds and Is doing all it can to stimulate trade. There is a higher council of agricultural commerce and in- dustry. This is composed of 20 members, five of whom are government officials. and the other 15 well known business
 
 ters of foreign trade, and schemes as to
 how Japan may take advantage of them. It's discussions deal with the various markets, and also with such things as | international banking, the encouragement 1 of certain exports and the tariff. | In addition to this the government has l been sending out special students and i others to look up foreign markets. These | go not only to the orient, but also to ] Europe and the United States. In the eight years ending 1901 124 agents were sent abroad.
 | Another method of encouraging trade IS by sending young men to be trainedrin, | the factories and commercial establish | ments of other countries. These students are under the control of the japanese consulates, and they send back regular reports concerning the establishments ana | localities where they are stationed. There are probably 100 or more such men | abroad now. A large number of them are in America and Europe; many are in | China, and some in the Straits settle ments, Java and the Philippines. The government is encouraging the I formation of industrial guilds and the va ! rious classes of merchants have their