The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-04-13
DARNELL e. THOMAS, Raleigh, ~. c.

side with bales from Bombay. Tn
latter were beautifully put up an,
so wrapped hat no cotton could b
lost. Our bales We're broken and tor
the near future much of it will go GU
in the shape of cotton cloth for tn,
and the lint vas falling out.
With the Cotton Hands.
AS | walked through the mills
asked as to wages and hours of work
There are two shifts, one during tn,
day and the other at night. The hour
OF actual work are ten: and there ar
rest hours at 9 a. m., at noOn and
p. m. The rest times consume abou
TWO hours, and with them the Workin.
day is twelve hours long. This com
pany does not work it's hands on Sun
days, as is common with many of tn
industries OF Japan. It believes ii
night work. Its tell me tina
almost all the cotton mills work botI
a n night, n that this custom
is a great benefit to the spinning in.
dustry. AS it is now the demand fo'
cotton yarns is SO great that nigh
work is a necessity, but in times Of
depression it is possible to stop the
night work until the demand requires
it again. BY this double work the
Japan mills are producing twice as
much, per capital and machinery, as
mills of other countries where day
work only is used. This fact ma
be one of the reasons for the big
dividends which nearly all the com
panles are now paying.
I asked as to wages of the mil
hands and vas old they are from
twenty-five to sixty cents q day. This
means from clever to thirty cents OF
our money, or from q little more thar
one to three cents for each working
hour. At that they are higher than
i~- 80 l. ~ I'll 49, -0-
of cotton spinners throughout this dis
trict being about twenty-one cents for
m thirty cents for men and six
cents for children.
AS | went through the mills I saw
a great many children at work, and
many of the child Workers were I'M
der fourteen. | had a photograph
made of myself standing beside some
little acknowledged tots who could not
have been more than en-.
According to the government re-
ports, there are now three hundred
and twenty-five thousand hands in
the textile factories, and of these al
most two hundred and ninety thou
sand are females. There are also
tWenty-siX thousand girls and two
thousand boys who are under four
teen years of age. This is not a large
proportion of children, and the num-
Der grows less from year to year.
Girls DOrmitOrieS.
The kanegafuchi Company is about
the most advanced of all in Japan
as to it's methods of handling its en-
ployes. It has tenement houses which
it rents out at low rates. and also
dormitories for men and d~ormitories
for women. / visited one Of the lat
ter buildings. 1t was q tWo-stOrled
surrounding a beautiful gar
den. Its walls We're Of framework
covered with paper, with outer walls
of pine wood. It had accommodations
for eight hundred girls sleeping in
Japanese fashion on the floor, with
several girls in each room. AS the
night shift was sleeping, | was not
able to look at many OF the rooms
but the few I saw were carpeted with
the Whitest of mats and warmed py
hibachiS or Japanese tire boxes. Gut
side his, they had practically no other
furniture. The bedding consisted OF
or thick-wadded comforters.
which were packed away in
not in use. The girls nave
neither bedsteads, tables nor chairs
and they sit and sleep Japanese fash
ion upon the floor.
Two-cent Meals.
From here I went to n of the
large dining rooms which the COM
pany has established for its employees.
Much of the perplexity which many
persons feel over the observance OF
he Lords Day arises from ~confound-
ne it with the Jewish Sabbath, or
worse, with the Sabbath of the Scotch
English Puritans. The extra
among h old Jews read
the beneficent Sabbatical proVis-
ons all sorts of irksome restrictions.
they made Sabbath observance a mat
err of minute regulations. These bur
lens, too grieyous to be borne, Jesus
ummarily threw aside. Therefore h
vas regarded as a Sabbath-breaker;
nd it is curious that whenever Jesus
,ppears in connection with the Sab
question, it is, usually as a Nio-
ator of h Existing laws. He tausht
liheral view Of the day. His con-
net and words stressed the, truth that
letter ki1ieth. The Sabbath Was