Evening star., 1937-06-13
BY WILLIAM TELLING,

BY WILLIAM TELLING.
~ ICTATORS in industry can,
We know, be as powerful as
dictators in politics. Japan,
- which has learned so much
| from the West. also learned this les
son and is proving it today.
The House of Mltsui by its mar
riages and various connections with
other great business houses of Japan
has practically a controlling inter-
est in the two main political parties
returned at the last japanese cleo
! ton. These were returned with al-
most the same number of members
as before The Mitsuis are friendly
to the army and help to finance much
in Manchukuo, but the Mitsuis be-
lieve in Democracy and DO not wish
the army to go too far.
Moreover, the Mitsuis are interested
in international free trade and in in
ternational friendship. This needs
peace, and, above all peace in China,
peace with the British Empire and
peace with the United States. If this
can be brought about they feel Japan
| and the Mitsuis must benefit con-
siderably. Slowly they pull their
strings, and slowly they are winning
the day, as can be seen from the re-
cent elections and the more concilia-
tory foreign policy of Toxic. How
much do we know about their infu-
ence and their history, as well as
their ambitions?
U. S. Monopoly Dwarfed.
People may say that in Democratic
America and democratic Britain, We
already have great monopolistic in
dustrial enterprises; but how pygmy,
how democratic and how petty in
their rivalries, they seem compared
with the monopolies. the industrial
relationships in Japan; and especially
compared with the powers Of the
House of Mitsui
How many people in Lancashire
know about the Mltsuls, their greatest
cotton rivals in japan? How many
traders with Australia know Of the
Mitsui system-though the Mitsuis
today buy up Australia's wool. and
ask for reciprocal sales? What do
the great motor industry. the sugar
industry and the silk industry of
America and of the world know of
this house?
1t may be true that Japan still
takes only a little over 3 per cent OF
the world trade, but every day it is
taking more. not less, and everywhere
its advent into markets has caused a
disturbance. seemingly out of all pro-
portion to size.
Japan is now one OF the five greatest
powers in the world In the Orient
she is already the greatest power She
can live and support her 100000
population only by industry and by
exports. Half her industry is NOM
inally in the hands Of very small men.
factory owners employing no more
than five or six hands But the
other half is in the hands of four
great families: and again. of those
four families, the Mitsuis are the most
powerful, having, directly and indi-
rectly control over more than one
quarter of the total industry of Japan.
This family has been in trade for
over 300 years. and before that it
was knightly family given to feudal
quarrels and to feudal raids.
Pre-guessed Woolworth.
We look with pride at WoolWorth.
who originated the idea of "one- price"
goods and cash payments but that is
how Hachikobei Mitsui made his store
famous in Toxic as long ago as 1878.
Until then retail business in Japan
was done by means Of long accounts.
Mltsui decided cash and one price
was better, and business soon poured
into the Mitsui store, still the most
famous and largest in Toxic
About 100 Mitsui got tired of doing
what every other merchant did-that
is, selling only silk and other fabrics
in standard lengths, whether the GUS
toner wanted so much or not. He
decided to sell the customer what he
wanted
We look with pride to our old
banking families; we read with awe
the story of the Medici, and how their
coat OF arms, three gold balls, came
later to be adopted as the sign Of
the money-lender. Not much later
than the Medici, the Mitsuis were
making their crest famous throughout
Japan, for they, too, had become
money-lenders, and today are private
bankers. That crest-four squares
with an eye in each Of them, set in
the shape OF diamond-can today
be seen, like a decoration, in the but
tonhole of thousands of Mitsui en-
ployes up and down Japan. And little
men with that powerful sign in the
lapels Of their coats are in London,
New York, Paris, India and, above all,
Java and Sumatra. They are now
penetrating South America and Africa
and are we'll known in Berlin.
incidentally, the Mitsuis had opened
bank in Toxic, and started an ex-
change system, 10 years before the
Bank of England was founded, at the
moment that James II was still ruling
In London.
Fortune Also From Sake.
We may marvel at the great brew
ing family of Guinness; but the Nit
suis had made their first fortune out
Of sake, the popular drink of Japan,
when James the First still ruled in
England
The originator of the fortune was
SO years old in 1878, when he started
his retail store in Toxic, which was
then called Yedo. He was the de-
scendAnt Of . long line Of 3eudal