JAPAN'S POWERFUL PEERS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14706, 5 June 1920, Page 2

JAPAN'S POWERFUL PEERS.

(By R.O. Matheson.) I

' TOKYO, April 7. The high cost of living in. Japan re- - placed the question of -manhood ' stiff ' frage as the main issue of the present election almost as soon as the Imperial rescript dissolving the Lower House of the Diet was read from the rostrum,.by Premier Hara. The latter question, ; however, is the'one upon which ' the Hara Administration ostensibly is appealing to the electorate, and is the one upon which the Government spell-bind-ers are attempting to focus the attention of the people. ' • The Opposition, which staged/.great popular demonstrations on the suffrage issue while the Diet was in session, and which clamored day after day for a recognition of the right of every loyal adult male of the Empire to help electthe representatives, probably knew as well as did the Premier and his followers that a manhood suffrage w;as not a popular cause among those who have the vote already* however popular it might be among the voteless majority. - They knew also that while it was a powerful weapon with, which to organise great parades in the capital, and'.a great showing of semi-riotous mobs around the Diet building, it .was a poor thing with which to stir up the country districts, where the members of the Diet are elected. Thus,- immediately the Diet was dissolved, it was the Premier and his followers of the Seiyukai who. • started to talk on the suffrage bills as their argument why they should be returned to power in the Lower House to prevent what the Premier calls "the dangerous attack upon the class system of the Empire," while the Opposition be- | gan to challenge the Government's handling of the profiteers, and dilate upon the increased cost or necessities, dropping their suffrage advocacy and ignoring all the Seiyukai challenges to debate that phase of the campaign. They have taken up the Premier's words- regarding the dangerous attack upon Japan's class system only to the extent of proclaiming that the class they are attacking is the profiteering capitalist class, tho class they announce the Government has been protecting to the detriment of all Japanese and- all Japanese industry. The hundreds of thousands of Tokyo residents who tramped the muddy streets a few weeks ago. waving suffrage banners and clashing with the police, have been forgotten, to all intents and purposes, by both political factions, having been used by the Oposition first to perturb the Government. The fact of their violence being seized upon later by the Premier as his excuse for a general election, in the midst of which a number of thinss mighf lie forgotten, and during which a number of tilings might be done without awkward publicity through Parliamentary interpellations. It s just possible that these unenfranchised thousands may take it into their heads to join uninvited in the election campaign, and muss up the calculations of gII the politicians, but as yet they seem to lack leadership, while the suggestion of the Premier that they are somewhat disloyal to Japan in their demand for equality ha? probably frightened a good many into quiescence. There appears to be no question whatever about the outcome of the elections. The Government will come back with probably a clear majority over all the Opposition parties combined. The Opposition knows this quite well, and its decision to mnke the high cost of living tho main campaign issue is based more upon, the oll'i-ot it will have upon the members of the House of Peer;-: than the effect upon the electorate. As a matter of fact, the electorate, •which is a small proportion of the people, is reaping the profit of the present high prices, just as the Opposition claims; but it is also a fact that a very powerful faction of the Upper House, led by. Prince Yamagatn. the - last of the "genro," has repeatedly warned the Premier that he must take some positive notion to relieve the laboring class throughout the country and the artisan and middle class of ,thecities of the excessive burden tlicy have been bearine in the constantlyrising cost of essentials. Prince Yamagata to-day is the mostpowerful mandarin in all Japan, able, to make and unmake more Premiers by a crook of his finger, and the party of which ho is the dictating head permits Premier Hara to retain office more 011 the ground that they have 110 other man for the job than for any other reason. Consequently, the Opposition is campaigning principally for the effect it will have on this Yamagata faction of a score or so of peers, who are more influential than all the voters of Japan combined, to say nothing of the several millions of nonvoters among the adult males. If they can turn the Elder Statesman and his circle against the Premier sufficiently, all the majority that Hara can secure next month will mean nothing, and he will be turned out of office, just as Visr-ount Okuma was turned, out after he had successfully appealed to the country for backing for his policies. The Premier of Japan is the choice of the Emperor, not the choice of the elected majority of the Lower House of the Diet nor of thf partly - hereditary, partly - appointed, partly-elected House of Peers. It is unfair to state, however, that the Hara Government has not attempted to help the peonle solve the problem of living. Throughout, tho larger cities there have been established many municipal markets where necessities are sold at prices from 10 to 30 per cent, below the regular stores. The helo the importers of beef from Manchuria and Korea the Government has installed abattoirs and cold storage plants af landing points; while meats, grains and ether foodstuffs are carried at vastly reduced freight rates on tho Government railways. In December the Government secured the re-promulgation of the Imperial ordinance exempting beans, fresh beef, eggs, cotton fabrics, and cotton yarns from import duties, while other Imperial ordinances placed an embargo on the export of many necessities. As a result the imports of -beef, eggs, and beans for the first three months of this vear doubled the imports of a year ago for the same months in quantity. The public markets have not been the expected success, however, solely from the fact that pride forbade the average housewife from patronising them. Rather than be seen buying in the cheaper market, tlje Japanese went 01 sent their servants to shops alongside these markets, and paid the higher costs —a phenomenon not peculiar to Janan, however. Here, as elsewhere, where there are people and neighbors to talk about them, appearances must be maintained, even at the cost of a slim larder. During February the report of the Bank of Japan shows 35 out of 56 representative commodities rose in price on the Tokio market, while 12 dropped, and 9 remained stationary. The average index figure was 414.59, a gain of 4.17 per cent, over January, as compared with the five preceding years; the index figure in Tokio has increased more than three times over the 1915 showing, the vear bv year-increase being:— 1915, 120; 1916, 153; 1917, 166; 1918, 233; 1919 , 275; 1920, 414; • all the figures being those for February of the respective years. It will be noted that the last year of peace has been the year of the most phenomenal advance, while in the race wages have lagged far behind, although these have been more than doubled in the past five years. The increase in the cost of living has been greater in Japan than in any other of the Allied countries, not that it costs more here than 111 America, Australia, or England, because the increase is from a smaller beginning. The Kobe Kaiyu-kai has been carrying on an investigation a 6 to the minimum cost of- living among middle-class families,' who are the hardest hit,- the salary-earners falling behind the wageearners in pay increases. The following figures for 1920 are published as a result of this investigation :: — Bachelor, living -in lodgings., per month, 126.64 yen. Man and wife, paying 2o yen rent, per month, 160 yen. Man and wife with one child, per month, 275.58 yen. Man and wife with two children, and one maid servant, 364.77 yen. These figures, are from 50 to 60 per cent, higher than in 1918, and arfe for Japanese. Foreign residents in Japan must pay at least 50 per cent, more to live in foreign fashion. Thus it can be seen that the cost of living question just now is a more pressing one than that of the right to vote.,

It is a question upon which the great ones of the Empire and the 'ordinary citizen can agree, and do agree, and* which may easily become the question over which the Hara Ministry will go on the rocks, riot at the ballot box, but afte'r the voting is all over, and despite the certain majority the Government, with.all the" electoral machinery in its hands and all the patronage at its disposal," will receive.