The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-01-19


realized by the ornaments and tex
tile industries which have proflted
by the inf1ationist "war revival"
But in spite of various measures,
the trade balance has remained
stationary. The expectation of gold
reached a very high point owing to
the extensive purchase of raw ma
terials from abroad and the devalu-
alton Of the yen.
AS Japanese exports depend on
foreign raw materials, the policy of
dumping and boom reflect an I'M
healthy economic situation and a
heavy fall in the national revenue.
The most important article for Jap
anese export, raw silk, lost many
of its former markets, which caused
serious depression in japanese ag-
riculture. The bad rice harvest in
fifteen districts Of northern Japan
makes the rice crop the worst in
twenty years. The Japanese ofiicial-
dom admits this frankly and In
great CONSERVATION.
Farmers Starve
While waiting for the relief
which never comes, farmers and
their families are starving. Along
the mountain passes across the
center of japan, along the single
narrOw-gauge railroad track
through the mountains, children
bread, for any kind of food.
Vast regions have been brought
to the verge of famine. Two mill
lion peasants are literally Starv-
ing. Sixty thousand peasant girls
were soId IN 1884 TO houses OF
prostitution and TO various fac
tories, in order to pay something
on the colossal farmers debt,
which amounts to 10 billion yen
--$S, UUU, 100, UVU.
In spite of this the budgeted ex-
penditures for 1885 surpasses those
of 1884. Friction between the lead
ing groups in Japan as to the
budget ended in a compromise, CIV
ing unheard-of advantages to the
military concerns and leading to
even greater chaos in public finance.
Foreign policy has shown no ten-
dency during the past year to aban-
don or even to abate Japanese ag-
gression. The measures taken by
the Japanese authorities in Man
churia are openly directed against
the Soviet Union. Negotiations with
the United States ended abruptly
as soon as Japan published her dec
laration on April /, proclaiming
China as her exclusive domain and
refusing to allow the mixing of any
other foreign powers in Chinese af-
fairs. This policy found its logical
conclusion in Japan's demand for
naval parity, faced as she was with
the unprecedented war preparations
of American imperialism. Hence
the denunciation of the unfavorable
Washington Treaty.
If one adds to this the breaking
off of negotiations with the Soviet
Union, the interminable maneuver-
ing in regard to the Chinese Eastern
Railway, the arrests Of Soviet citi-
zens in Manchuria, and constant
incidents on the frontier provoked
by the Japanese, Japan's foreign
policy in 1884 bodies no good for the
future.
To any survey of Japan in 1884
must be added the fact which even
the official press has not been able
to conceal-that hardly day passes
that the discomfort among the
population does not make itself felt
in some way or another, by means
of strikes in ornaments factories,
peasant attacks against the land
owners, disturbances among the
students. and the growing strength
Of the Communist Party. A very
significant fact is the growing num-
Der of arrests for political Of
fenseS."
The entire Japanese press af6rnS
that the year 1884 was the year i'm
mediately preceding the national
crisis of 1885" Thus one sees
the external and internal diff
culties which Japanese imperialism
has Observation-Disclosures which
reached the climax of the lull before
the storm in 1884.