New-York tribune., 1919-05-11
Woollen Industry
I'm Japan Makes
Rapid Progress
Government Paying Bount,
to Sheep Raisers to In.
crease Wool Supply
Import U. S. MACHINERY

VI the war Japan has as
sumed position of Importance in N.
worlds woollen cloth manufacturers
industry. Before the war that corr
try was large importer of woo,,s,
products, but now it is larse ev.
porter of finished cloth, according :.
information made pubic through III.
United States Bureau of Foreien era
Domestic Commerce.
With the outbreak of the war ~.
japanese were unable to import nor.
NAL supplies of cloth and were TIM.
forced to turn to the building up q,
woollen weaving industry for them.
selves.
They began importing raw wool,
heavily, installed machinery and f.
nally arrived at the present stare.
where they are said to control thu
Asiatic market. The latest deyelon-
ment includes the domestic production
OF raw wool Available grazing grounds
in Mongolia and Manchuria are ey.
pected to place the new industry in
a self-supporting position, so that
ha
expected to decline.
Growth of Exports
Figures covering the period of ten
years between 1907 and 1915 show
that Japan's production of mousseline
de laine, plain woven soft, light
and open fabric. often mixed with
cotton, increased from about 23,700.-
600 yards to 43,500,0O0 yards; her i'm
ports decreased from 5,S00,000 yards
to 1883 yards, and her exports in
creased from 23S,000 yards to 1885,
$50 yards.
Eighty per cent of these exports
in 1916 went to Great Britain, France
and India, countries which in peace
times produced this fabric in large
quantities themselves.
Production of serges rose from 81S,-
600 yards in 1907 to 6,171,353 yards
in 1916, imports in the same period
decreased from 11.400,0O0 yards to 81
100000, while exports, which did not
begin until 1912, increased from 266-
900 yards in that year to 6,688, 900
yards in 1916. This high water mark
was due to the filing of immense war
orders from Russia. In 1916 the ex-
ports of serge dropped to 100000,
the bulk of the fabric going to Rus
Sld 1Or war purposes.
S50,000,000 Invested
Four large concerns with a capital
of almost $10,000,000 are producing
mousseline de laine, and four large
serge producing mills are capitalized
at 1880 900. 1t is estimated that
fully S50,00O,O00 is invested in Japan
in woollen manufacturing and selling
enterprises.
Before the war most of the raw wool
used by Japan was purchased from
Australia, Great Britain and Germany,
but with imports from the two latter
anese mills were forced to depend
largely on Australia and on China
with some imports from South Amer
ica and South Africa. In 1913 Japan's
total imports of wool, goat and camel
hair annd yarns amounted to %, $685.
9l2 pounds, valued at $13,099,967,
while in 1917 imports were 53,866,329
pounds, valued at $26,607, ,806, while
from January to November, 1918, the
imports reached 49,00S,000 pounds,
worth $28, ,461, ,841.
One of the effects of the building
up of Japan's woollen weaving industry
American made textile machinery. Most
ported from England, but lack Of
transportation threw the business to
this country. American exports Of
textile machinery to Japan increased
from $39,348 in 1913 to 81 ,529 1881 in
1918. In 1914, 1915 and 1916 our ex-
ports of textile machinery to that
country fell below the 1913 figure, how
ever, because Japan was then engaged
in active participation in the war.
Scarcity of Skilled Labor
Relative to the adaptability of the
Japanese worker to modern factory
methods. the report says:
Japanese girls formerly came to the
woollen mills from remote villages in
the interior of Japan for as low as nine
cents a day, although wages have been
raised SO per cent generally since 1917.
These girls are absolutely inexperi-
enced and have none of the advantages
of that tradition which surrounds the
industry in England. They are gem
orally under three-year contract, and
at the end of that period 80 per cent
leave the mill in order to get married
and large percentage drift to other
occupations. Before the new factory
regulations went into effect very
large number, about 20 per cent, an
nually became permanently incapaci-
tated from illness. Only about 10 per
cent renew their contracts at the ex.
piration Of the three years. There is
therefore little skilled labor in the
mills, and it is estimated that an Eng
lish operative getting 40 cents day
before the war could do the work Of
six Japanese girls. The male adult
weavers in 1916 received 25 cents .
day, and the female 16 cents. These
rates have also increased ahout 20 Der
cent, but the efficiency of this labor is
said to be only one-fourth that of the
English labor of the same character"
Developing Wool Supply
Added prominence has been given
to the sheep raising industry Of japan
through the formation of the Man
churia and Mongolia Wool Weaving
Company, backed by the Oriental Colo
zation Company and the South Nam
churia Railway Company. This weav"
ing company has guaranteed divl-
dend of per cent, it is said, and this
has stimulated sheep raising in Man.
churia
There are said to be more than
$4,000 native sheep in Manchuria and
about 100000 In Mongolia. Recent
experiments in cross breeding pure
Merino, Shropshire and Southdown
breeds with the native Mongolian
sheep are said to be only partly sue
cessful. The highly artificial WOOL
bred sheep of Europe OF Australia are
too fine, II is said, and experiments
arc recommended with sheep of lower
breed. This would mean q compara-
lively low wool yield for some years
to come.
Mvst a. r.