Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-13
INDUSTRY In MINIATURES
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

The need for money is not confined
to people who lost in the stock market,
who have bought unsound oil stocks or
who are out of work. In countries
where the standard of living is rela-
lively low and little money is available
to the average man facilities for small
loans are especially required. Japan is
$Sch a nation and long strides have
bee: made in recent years in setting
up snsell-1oan machinery, according to
study which Herbert M. Bratter of
the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic
Commerce has made on the subject.
In one sense small loans are more
imperative for the people Of Japan than
those OF many other industrial nations.
Japan is country where home industry
occupies a position of special impor-
lance. A vast volume of manufactured
products of great variety is produced in
the homes of the people. In an in
dustrial nation like the United States
the worker in industry has a job and
draws regular wages when at work. In
Japan millions are their own bosses in
industry. They buy raw materials and
in their own houses fabricate them into
finished products. Some do such home
work on behalf Of contractors who sup
ply them with orders, but there are
many free lances. Such workers,
obviously, from time to time need
financial help to obtain raw materials
before they can produce the goods from
which their living is drawn. The
amounts are small, just as the output
Of each home factory and the profits
Of labor, too, are small. 1t is industry
in miniature.
Class Solidarity In Japan.
Such system has made the Japanese
workers thrifty and content with rela-
lively little in comparison to the motor
CARED and radioed American. 1t has
given the workers certain class soli-
darity which makes for cooperative
enterprise in many respects. So COM
munity loan societies have found a
fertile field. Not, however, without
strict regulation by the state.
1t is somewhat difficult to present the
picture Of the economic position of the
japanese worker to the American mind,
so wide is the gap between the stand
ards OF living. For example, in this
country, any one who wants q telephone
Is free to have one even In rural dis
trictS. So long as he pays his bill
he may become one Of many millions of
telephone subscribers and belong to the
freemasonry OF those who complain of
wrong numbers and service in general.
In Japan to have a telephone is a dis
tinct privilege. It has to be paid for,
but money alone will not buy the privi-
lege. Telephones are doled out eau
tiously, and to own a subscription is to
be in possession Of an important asset
Such subscriptions are negotiable and
transferable. They are traded in.
Privilege Used as Collateral.
Reference is particularly made to this
because one Of the prime securities for
loan at a community loan organiza-
ton is a telephone subscription. A man
may borrow money putting up as COL
lateral his telephone subscription. In
default Of payment Of the loan the
telephone privilege passes to the lender,
who may advantage himself by vending
it where he can.
Land, buildings, tools, equipment and
securities also are eligible security and
limits are placed on the amount OF
money which one person can borrow.
The system followed by the loan CO.
operatives is of particular interest A
japanese desiring to organize such
loan company must, by law. himself have