BRITAIN’S BROWN ALLIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2128, 29 February 1908, Page 3 (Supplement)

BRITAIN’S BROWN ALLIES.

THE JAPANESE AT WORK.

(By \V. J. Jones in tho ‘‘Canterbury Times,”)

When Carlyle wrote: "Work is the mission of man on this planet,” lie represented appositely the conditions of labor in .Japan. Work there is preeminently serious; ii is the be-all and end-all of existence to half the inhabitants of the towns who toil like gille.v-slaves chained to their oars; it counts as everything worth living lot; to more than three-quarters of those who have adopted the country as. their sphere of operations. Indeed, the Hast would seem to he the fountain-head of energy, the source of vitality which inspires men with a proper sense of their responsibilities ns inhabitants of a world demanding development. The machinery-of trades unionism places no restrictions upon hours of labor ; a man’s test-of competency is the most he can do byworking at high pressure and putting forth the whole of the physical energy at- his disposal. A custom of the country condemns the Japanese to hard labor, and they display an e igerness and a natural capacity for work which makes the task of the average labouring man in tho West appear h.v comparison mere child's play. It is perhaps tlie-nearest tiling in existence to perpetual motion in human machinery. The patrimony of the masses in Japan is a life of drudgery, and when Nature yields to the strain, others are ready' to take up tin' burden of work with tlie simo untiring zeal and to exhaust their vitality in the cause of labor. The sacrifice is not made in vain; work is a unit in the huge economicforce which is compelling Japan to a prominent place among the nations. Energy, enthusiasm ami the self-im-molation of her people earned for her military prestige, and the same qualities aTe'rapidly making her a power in the commercial world. I SWARMING LIKE ANTS.

. In tho larger factories the introduction of modern"machinery lias materially altered the conditions of the workers and increased the,production. But even in some of the pretentious establishments the methods of manufacture .ire primitive. Workers are to be seen manning a huge windlass which sets tlie silk looms in motion, emitting a droning equivalent to the sailor’s “Heave, ho!” and adopting almost a recumbent position as -they shoulder the heavy spokes. Indeed, the primitive still survives in Japan to a very dirge extent. The bricklayer and the carpenter erect their buildings with tools which might almost have belonged to the prehistoric ages, the stock-in-trade of the latter being for the most part- a uni-, quo square-shaped siw and a for-midable-looking Inmmer. A large building in course of erection presents an interesting sight. Workmen swarm over it like ants, and it is surprising that collisions are not of more frequent occurrence. Owing to the lack of proper tools, the processes of building are slow ; but the purchase price of labor is almost nothing; and a week more or less is a matter of small import nice to the capitalist. The exquisite pottery, china, cloisonne, satsuma and damascene ware which have made Japan famous, are made in small factories, where something less than half-a-dozen operatives are employed. The whole of theappliances could he purchased for a few shillings, genius and a little coloring being tlie chief requirements. The potter sits behind a small wooden wheel, which he skilfully manipulates, and,'with a short piece of stick, lie draws out the neck of a vase or shapes the howl with a few dexterous passes. Japanese art manufacture i-; a tedious process, the completion of a single article often involving several weeks’ work, but the fact that a fine cloisonne vase m iv he purchased for from Ids to £1 is convincing evidence That time is not a very valuable commodity even where skilled artisans are concerned. LABOR S MARKET VALUE.

A glance at the scale of wages in some of the principal occupations will .convince anyone who possibly holds views to the contrary tnat J apan at any rate is not the ‘"working man’s paradise.” Unskilled workmen are paid at the rate of from 50 to 75 sen (Is to Is 6d) per diem, 'bricklayers, masons and builders one yen (•2s) per day, carpenters '7O sen, jewellers 50 sen, and compositors 40 sen. Weavers receive the munificent sum of 50 to 75 sen for twelve hours’ work, and mechanics receive from 75 to 325 sen. The special artists in cloisonne work are paid at the rate oi about £1 per week, and domestic servants are'made independent at a remuneration of 20 yen annually. The writer heard it stated that the salary of the-Chief Justice was £7 10s per month, or £OO per annum. This is an obvious under-statement of facts, but it is certain that he would not consider the stipend of a New Zealand magistrate too little. If that were really the sum with which liis services are requited, it would account in some measure for the particular kind of-justice meted out in Japan. The workers in the larger' factories are chiefly girls and women. There are something like three-quar-ters of a -million female operatives employed in the silk industry, and for from fourteen to sixteen hours’ work they received annually less than £l3. The .average earnings of the 37,1 girls.under fourteen years of age who are employed in the great factories is exactly half that amount. The agricultural laborer will engage himself to the farmer for the equivalent in Japanese money of from 5s 6d to 6s per month, and his female relatives take service in the paddy fields at from 3s Gd to 4s for the same period. In the busy season the tea firerx b,y standing over the hot pan for thirteen hours par day earn 28 sen, or about 7d, anil even these are not the smallest paid hands, as the second firers, or polishers, receive only 25 sen. L EASTS O K 13 UK DEN The Japinesc take to hard work as to tile manner born. Children of both sexes work in the fields from a tender age, and old men and women so long as they are able to keep their feet: Shortly after the son of the house can todc\le he is entrusted witn the care of the baby, which is carried piek-a-b.ick in a cloth receptacle. The we'ght is often rather more than he can. manage comfortably, but the burdens of the Japanese, lug and little, are invariably excessive, lie could stand on his head without imperilling the safety of the child, and what little strength he has at his disposal may be expended in amusing liimself after the nature of his kind. Heavy loads are drawn in long lorryshaped vehicles, so constructed that they may less impede traffic in the narrow streets. The carts are laden with timber or some equally heavy material, and would require the motive power of two horses to draw them in a community where a proper sense of proportion is observed. The coolie is" lashed to the pole of the cart by a bolt, and he requires to exert all'the strength at his disposal to keep his load on the move. Heavy barges of coal are propelled along the rivers and canals by a single man. who wield's i barge pole which would be a heavy enough weight in itself. The necessary leverage is obtained by the oarsman walking down an inclined plank to the how of the boat and putting forth a superhuman effort as lie retires along the improvised bridge to make ready for liis next stroke. The huge barges contain many tons of merchandise, and progress is naturally very -slow. In the fields the operator of a Persian water wheel works from daylight .to dirk under a scorching sun. The boxes with which the wheel is covered scoop up the water and discharge it into tanks on the higher level, where it is used for irrigation and other purposes. Bakers’ carts, lisji carts, and all the ordinary conveyances! of the tradesmen are drawn by men. or more often boys. Horses would be superfluous in a country where men are apparently so anxious to work. FISCAL EXTRACTIONS. Since the war the Japanese have

No Loafers in the Land of the Rising Sun.

. been compelled to .submit to a heavier taxation, and so small is the margin of liis net earnings that the average proletarian is continually on the verge of bankruptcy, ami the loss ol a week's work would inevitably wreck his financial position. His account;; j)f revenue ami expenditure are so 'finely balanced that he has no surplus to set against the possibility, of adversity. Once down and he is trodden under foot in the struggle for existence—and in this respect Japan is not singular, though in the land of the Rising Sun the metaphor is absolutely unequivocal. But there is more than an element of pride in flu l country. Poverty is not paraded; on the contrary, it is concealed by the municipal authorities as far as possible. It is not necessary, however, to read between the lines. The chief assets of Japan are the soil naturally productive, and a strength of purpose which extorts from tho same soil the utmost yeilds. Tho strenuous fight for existence makes a brave show, but it cannot conceal the open sores of poverty with which the cities of Tokio, Nikko, Nagoya, and Kyoto are infested. Thousands of their inhabitants are literally starving. There is no work for them, even at the low market rates.pt labor, and it is quite an uncommon sensation for many of them to know what a sufficiency of food really means. There is dread poverty in other parts of the world. Even in the opulent Austrian capital scavengers make a round of the cafes alter closing time to pick tin' cigar ends from the gutters to earn a precarious livelihood ; in Naples the rubbish heaps are rummaged over and over again in tho hone that something marketable may be discovered ; hut in Japan thousands actually feed upon the garage thrown out into the streets, and it may he imagined that, in a country where hone-wives are remarkable for their frugality, such scraps of comfort are scarcely of an appetising nature. Tho water channels arc sedulously searched by poverty-stricken liardes to whom a, penny is a competence and twopence is a fortune. A HIVE OR INDUSTRY.

The coaling of vessels in the various ports is a manifestation of work in the fullest sense of the term. .Scores of men and women come alongside tho steamers in huge barges, and, tlie preliminaries having been complied with, operations begin in real earnest. Small baskets holding perliajjg twenty or thirty pounds are passhefejeom one. hand to another up the gangways and deposited into the hunkers. Tlie performance goes on unceasingly. There are no stage waits. Some are filling up the baskets, others passing them, and others again throwing the emptys into the barge ; it is a neverending chain of activity. Coaling at Port Said, Colombo, or New Guinea is an interesting and novel, sight, hut nowhere, except, perhaps, in some of the Chinese ports, is so much energv and enthusiasm infused into the work as at the various ports of Japan. The grimy men and women—some are young, piteously young, and others are old—are all imbued with the spirit ,of work. The baskets are small and The method is somewhat primitive, but so numerous and so industrious are tho.toilers that in the course of seven or eight hours fully 1000 or 1200 tons of coal are transferred from the lighters to tlie steainer’shbld." SEEKING BROADER LANDS.

The Japanese are not merely fatalists, they appear to have implicit faith in the future. “When the Emperor and his soldiers have overcome tlie foreigner, they will make Japan an earthly paradise with the wealth, of which the conquered, people are despoiled.” Such, in effect, is the belief of a. considerable section of even those claiming superior knowledge. A surfeit of money is already likely to form one of the problems which Japan will lie called upon to solve; in the meantime hundreds, ay, one might almost say thousands, seldom have two coins to produce an exhilarating-jingle. It is not strange, therefore, that the country holds more attractions for the tourist than the masses of the population, whose conditions of life are so intolerable. For past years the people have emigrated in large numbers, and they are to bo found following different occupations in ail parts of the East, where business is carried on, from Pekin to the Northern territory of Australia. In Borneo, Manila, Java, and Hong Kong the brisk Little immigrants’ characteristic mothods of business have created tho same- prejudice against them as exists among all commercial people on tho Eastern littoral. Wherever they have settled the rate of wages has been reduced to a minimum, as if, oven in a prosperous country where gold in an unmistakable cast, the habit of national parsimony is too deeply ingrained to he set aside. “Japan for the Japanese” is the cry of those entrusted with the nation’s affairs. “The world for the Japanese,” echo the thousands who seize every available opportunity to seek a field more favourable for exploitation of their business talents. The Japanese aro ambitious, and there is no room for expansion in a country where circumstances may limit a man’s holding to less than an acre, and where the. supply of work is not sufficient to give even ..a little to each in the process of distribution. Japan will probably fulfil the destiny mapped out for her. She. may. become a great commercial nation. Site may have a line mercantile fleet, and her people have energy enough to accomplish anything within the bounds of human possibility. But the principle of protection at home and freetrade everywliere else is not likely to - appeal to those who have goods to sell, and this is undoubtedly one of the rocks upon which her elaborate ideals of national commercial importance will split.