LOW WAGES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 18 August 1933, Page 5

LOW WAGES

JAPANESE TEXTILE WORKERS “ILLEGITIMATE COMPETITION” DISCUSSION AT PACIFIC CONFERENCE (United Press Association —By Electrio Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 18th August, 9.40 a.m.) BANFF (Alberta), 17th August. Dealing with complaints by British members that the low wages paid to textile workers in Japan amounted to illegitimate competition with Lancashire spinners, Dr. Konisliichi Takaliassi, director of the Takaliassi Economic Research Institute at Tokio, declared at the round-table conference at the Institute of Pacific Relations to-day that desperate measures would be forced upon Japan as a means of finding the way out of her dilemma if high tariffs were imposed against Japanese goods because of cheap labour. He said he . did not take seriously the complaint that Japan had been dumping products in foreign markets by virtue of the abnormal drop in the yen exchange, describing this factor of the situation as merely temporary. He declared during an argument respecting cheap labour that unless the situation was clarified the nations of the world would raise their tariffs against Japan even higher than at present. Unless they did so he contended they would have to lower wages and standards of living so as to compete with Japan. “If the western nations raise tariff barriers on the grounds that Japanese products are cheap because of cheap labour, the situation will be aggravated and labour cost in Japan must become even cheaper. The only solution of the problem is a settlement on the basis of fair play. If the capitalists of Japan harbour the mistaken notion of competing with foreign countries through cheap labour, we must first get at the capitalists. At the same time, there is need for British and United States’ interests to study the question more thoroughly, and not act on surface indications only." The discussion indicated that Britain and the United States are the countries keenly concerned in Japanese industrial production and the living standards of the Japanese worker.