The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 1911. JAPANESE COMPETITION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 119, 12 July 1911, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 1911. JAPANESE COMPETITION.

In the June “World’s Work” Mr Clarence Poe v,-rites on the “.Bogey of the Japanese Competition,” taking for his text certain predictions that Japan must presently oust Europe and America from any branch of Asiatic trade which it may he pleased to take up. ‘Mr Poo has spent some time in Japan, making careful inquiries, and his conclusion agrees with that of other investigators, for ho says that “the outlook is encouraging for manufacurmg in .the Mikado's Empire, but I do not believe that this development is to ho regarded, as a menace to English or American industry.”’ A writer in a loading English journal considers that the point is that, though wages are extraordinarily low, it is true in Japan, as elsewhere, that cheap labour is not cheap, and goes on to say that Mr Poe does not attempt, the difficult matter of a detailed comparison between wages in Europe and Japan, though he gives certain information about the wages and conditions of Japanese operatives. it. appears to be the general belief that “when reduced to terms of efficiency” Japanese Inborn is very iiltlo cheaper than Euiopoan, and Mr Poe expresses his personal opinion that tire margin in Japan’s favour “represents mainly a blood-tax on the lives and energies of the Japanese people, the result of having no legislation to restrain the ruinous overwork of women and little

children.” A particular instance of the “primitive stage of Japan’s industrial efficiency” is found in the abominable . matches produced in Kobe, and though all industries cannot he condemned hy one, this seems to furnish a type of inoxportness and slovenliness which in curious in people who impress us by their nicety and adroitness. i.t is, a remarkable circumstance that in Japan the factory operative on the average “remains in the business less than two years,” the reason being that it is customary for the women opera lives, who in the cotton trade are four or live times as many as the men, only to work' a year or two. before getting married. Consequently tho Japanese operatives are mostly inexperienced,, and though' merchants in Jlritain are sometimes confronted with well-made Japanese goods, it is to be supposed that those are samples superior to the hulk. A great deal is heard about tho progress made by the J a. pa nose, and the intense conservatism of the masses of a leisurely people is not realised. Mr Foe quotes an interesting prouo.uneemnnt by a Japanese professor, ■ who admitted that as a race they have some affinity with tho Malay, and like to id.lo now and thou. “The truth is that our people are not workms; they are artists, and artists must not be hurried.” While the writ:-: admits that such [joints a.s this can hardly ho given a statistical value it is acknowledged that Japan is not by any means a b,u! learner among the nations, and, though in industrial affairs one may sometimes, take the exception as the rule, it is:.advancing. Hut among the most notable advances, At Foe points out, a'v tho higher standards 'of livings which involve shorten' hours, holidays, 'expenditure on the improvement of sanitary conditions., ami higher wages. That wages will continue to rise he has

iv) don!)!, and it is suggested that expansions of the female la Dour market must bo slow and dillieult. Tue wages are said to range from 2id a day for the youngest children to a shilling for good wcrr.ru workers, v. inch latter sum is nearly twice ar much as the 13 or 14 cents stated by tho American statistician, Colonel Shcpperson, who, however, mentions 21 cents as the high limit of the male operatives.