The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-01-09
World Front
by HARRY CANNES -
For Africa a Sword
Working Hours In Japan

Working Hours In Japan
CeyIOn Epidemic
A GAIN the big issue thru
"A out Europe and on the
African continent is the an
nouncement on Monday of an
agreement reached between
Italy and France, after long
conversations between die.
tator Mussolini and Foreign Minis
ter Laval of France.
In Rome were concluded. as the
demagogue Wilson used to say, "se-
cret pacts secretly arrived at"
The Daily Worker yesterday was
able to give what every capitalist
paper concealed, a more detailed
explanation of at least the African
section of the Mussolini- Laval
agreement.
From the official communioue
little can be learned. Here is the
main paragraph: The head of the
Italian government and the French
Minister of Foreign Affairs con-
cluded the Itelo-French agreements
relative to the interests of the two
countries in Africa and some acts
that register the community Of
views existing between their govern
mentS on the questions of European
order
For Europe. peace, say these gen.
tlemen at the expense of a war
OF plumber against the Negro peo-
pie in the last independent country
of Africa, Abyssinia.
THE Rodo Keidsai, organ of the
right-reformist trade union
league in Japan, Sodomei, publishes
the following information concern
! ing the length of the working day
in the Japanese ornaments in
dustry;
Since new re-activizing of the
ornaments industry and in related
industries has set in, the earnings
of the worker have also been on the
upgrade. But this raise in wages
resulted because of the increase in
the working day and an extraordi-
nary speeding up in the productive
ty of labor power The long work.
ing day is damaging to the health.
In those industries related to arma-
mentS production the IL hour day is
no rarity And this IL hours is the
time spent in actual work, but it
must be remembered that the prep
arations for work, the cleaning up
afterward, and the time spent trav-
cling to and from home brings the
total to at least IL hours and more.
Such cases are very numerous Ac-
cording to the statistics published
by the Ministry for Industry and
Trade, the longest working time
exists in cross-section in the
metal industry.
The smelling furnace workers
work IL hours and Al minutes.
The rolling mill workers labor
II hours and "a minutes.
Casters labor II hours and 81
minutes.
Riveters labor 10 hours and "a
minutes.
Workers in the machine con-
struction and tool industry labor
for even longer periods:
Poiishers labor IL hours and 81
minutes.
Cutters labor IL hours and 20
minutes.
Mciders labor IL hours and FL
minutes.
Smiths labor IL hours and
minutes.
Ornamenters labor ii hours and
9 minutes.
so far as individual districts are
concerned the longest work-day ex-
lists among the turner's of Otaru
(Hokaido), II hours and 48 min
utes in length. Next are the
molders of HIROSHIMA, IL hours and
81 minutes; and the smiths, IL
hours and 20 minutes.
First of the governmental divi-
SionS where cross section analysis
shows the longest working time are
HIROSHIMA and Fukuoka. Conditions
are especially difficult in Fukuoka,
where the working day is IL hours
and 90 minutes.
A SEVERE maalria epidemic is
n raging in Ceylon the extreme
southern island point of India.
More than 1900 persons have al
ready died. and in some regions the
majority of the population is in
fec5ed. The British domination Of
Ceylon is even more absolute than
in the rest of India. Malaria is a
comfortable disease in the tropics,
and, in fact, can be wiped out COM
pletely. But that requires drainage
of swamps, improved living condi-
tons for the masses, and proper
medical facilities, which the Brit
ish imperialist bloodsuckers do not
want accomplished any more than
do the malarial mosquitoes. What
matters it to the British overload
whether two or ten thousand Cey-
lonese or Tannils die of malaria
The only question that worries them
! is. will it interfere with proftsr