The Republican journal., 1918-09-19

The area of Japan is about 1000
square miles less than that of California,
vet into this space is crowded popula-
ton half that of the whole United States
In the production oe 20 of the world S
great staples such as our principal food
products, cotton, wool, coal, metals, ETC.,
japan does not in a single instance hold
the first place. She holds second place
in only two, namely, silk and copper
In the latter, the United States ranks
first and, as compared with our output,
That OF Japan is indeed small China
ranks first in silk. 1t is not known how
much silk Japan produces annually but
It is known that she exports little more
than 20, 900, 900 pounds of raw silk, con-
siderable part of which comes to this
country and is manufactured into fabrics
here For the manufacture of fabrics,
-sbether of silk, cotton or wool the jap
anese have modern and approved ma
chinery and such is the patient skill of
the opera lives in Japan, the best pro-
ducts of their looms are uneXcelled.
Very little of the machinery used is of
Japanese invention. The Japs have not
as vet dev eloped what we designate as
the initiative. Instead, they have been
and are now, initiative. They make much
Of their machinery from models obtained
in other countries. A story has often
been repeated that japanese workman
took an American sewing needle of med
-iunl size drilled hole in it lengthwise,
made a smaller needle, perfect in itself,
and inclosed it in the larger one 1t is
evident that this story must have been
told. not as a fact, but as an illustration
of the possibilities of initiative capacity
on the part of the japanese. This capac-
Ity has enabled the Japs to manufacture
almost any kind of goods, which find
ready sale in the markets of the world,
but thus far they have preferred to buy
their machinery for the most part abroad
and have contented themselves with
Initiating the goods to be produced. The
wages for factory workers has been
about 80 cents day for men and about
20 cents day for women. The hours of
labor have been II hours day in most
ind ustries. Until recently Japan has
been unable to obtain any extensive mar
ket for her wares in the United States,
England, France and Germany, but now
her opportunity has come and she is i'm
proving it. Japan is the only really pop
ulous nation which is industrially profit
ing by the war. Her selling agents, edu-
Gated in the United States and fitted for
their work by long residence here, have
Invaded the markets of both North and
South America. We shall inevitably
find, when the war is over and normal
conditions have been reached; that Jap
anese goods will be in formidable COM
petition with our own. Our scale OF
wages cannot hold its own with wages OF
80 cents day nor with wages five times
as sarge. The lesson is perfectly plain
that unless protective tariff is invoked
to balance the difference in wages be-
tween Japan and the United States, our
silk mills must 60 out of business, our
cot ton mills will be hard hit, our porce-
lain industry will be ruined, our growing
dye industry, once Germany's, will be
Japan's. and so on down long line of
our other industries which feed the work.
men and workwomen of this country.
But the industrial menace from Japan
does not altogether lie in Japanese wages
nor in Japanese industry.
Ninety percent of the shipping on the
Pacific is owned by Japan. Her ships
are subsidized by bonus from the Jap
anese government and are manned by
low wage Japanese sailors. Two lines
of subsidized steamer lines are running
to South American ports on the Atlantic,
subsidized lines are running to the west
ern coast of South America and Japanese