The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-05-18

{
Japan has called attention to the
similarity between the two invasions,
but the similarity extends far beyond
what the Japanese government would
admit.
The tremendous concentration Of
economic power in Japan in the
hands of families of financiers i'm
presses even the correspondents Of
conservative American dailies. APP
parently they feel free to visualize a
capitalist dictatorship in remote
nation though they are professionally
blind to a similar development at
home.
Strong Oligarchy.
Since the first of the year this
Japanese financial oligarchy has been
the subject of extended comment by
the Toxic correspondents of the Chi
cago Daily News and of the Wall
Street Journal Under the caption:
Two Groups Rule All Life in Japan
Big Bankers Gain Money Faster Than
They Can Count it, the News CORE
spondent says:
"The gathering of a nations wealth
into the hands of very few is going
on more rapidly than anywhere else
on earth, so far as this correspondent
knows; and these few are resolving
themselves into groups. These
groups are family units primarily;
secondly they are great financial and
industrial forces.
"These 2 colossi of finance are the
| Mitsui and Mitsubishi family groups.
The power of their money reaches
into all phases of Japanese life. They
dominate"
GObble Victims.
Following the 1927 Japanese finan-
cial panic which reduced many banks
and industrial combines to bank
ruptcy, these 2 powerful families pro-
ceeded to gobble up the victims. Now,
according to the Wall Street Journal,
with 8 other banks they control 51.7
per cent of the bank deposits of
Japan. Together with the govern
ment, they and their subsidiaries con-
troll more than SO per cent of the
empires foreign trade.
"0n the surface" says the journal,
there may be bank failures, poor
industrial companies and apparent
instability. Underneath, accounting
for the bulk of Japan's business,
stand these big banks and the COM
panies connected with the great
family companies These apparently
are quite as solid as the empire it
self"
That these financial ohgarchs are
in way to become the actual govern
ment of the empire is recognized by
the Daily News correspondent. He
says:
Control Cabinet.
$50 overwhelming is the might of
the Mitsui and Mitsubishi that
foreign business men here are Begin
ming to regard it as sort of second
government, which may perhaps in
time become greater than that other
government that cutters itself up
with the tiresome impedimenta Of
centuries dead and gone. The finan-
cial hegemony of the Mitsui and Nit
subishi has no armies except armies
Of workers, and no great outward
display. but it has power. They con-
troll cabinets now and then and by
so doing control the government it.
self. Eventually perhaps the govern
ment of Japan will be an oligarchy
with the Mitsuis and Mitsubishis as
the chief oligarchs, and we shall have
here q new kind of government by
financial shoguns, not so very diff
ferent in principle from the old sho-
gunate that was destroyed by the
emperor about 1870"
Substitute for Mitsui and Mitsu-
bishi the Morgan-Kuhn-Loeb Rookie
teller oligarchy in this country and
for shoguns read feudal lords, and the
analysis applies with equal exactnesg
to the United States Capitalism
round the world is progressing to-
ward financial feudalism.
Need Markets.
The important fact about ht
Japanese invasion Of China is that
these Mitsuis and Mitsubishis with
their banks, factories, shipping lines.
mines, etc. are in desperate need Of
the raw materials of Shantung and Of
the broad Chinese market. Japanese
financial concentration and Japanese
militarism go hand in hand.