SAD LOT OF JAPANESE WORK GIRLS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14393, 7 January 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

SAD LOT OF JAPANESE WORK GIRLS.

The. treatment to which the working girls of Japan are subjected is, if we are to believe Dr. Kuwada, a shock' to humanity. Dr. Kuwada, a member of. the Japanese House of Peers, has given deeply sympathetic attention to the labour question in his country. He has also spent several years in Europe, studying its social problems. Discussing in a Tokyo monthly, the condition of the female labourers in Japan, he. makes a strong plea for the prompt enactment of a labour law adequate to restrain the acts of unscrupulous emV ployers: " There are in Japan about ten thousand factories and workshops, employing a bout, a,-.million labourers. Of this L total about ; eeven hundred thousand are females. As there is no law limiting the ago of factory hands', almost 10 per cent, of . ; the| female labourers are ,under r fourteen years. •Twenty per. cent, of the girls employed hi'the match factories, and 1 per cent, of those in the glass and_>. tobacco factories, are. even under ten years; We rhave adopted; • cpmpyisdry but how, are- we to enforceit in. the absence of any legislation which for-' bids the employment of children in workshops -• and factories ? The adoption of a labour law- has been talked about mors than once during tho past several years, but the attempt, has bean nipt in the bud by the strenuous objection offered by a class of capitalists."

Dr. Kuwada tells us heartrending stories of how the army of 700,000 working girls has been recruited. At first, we ar°! told, the employers hunted the daughters of poor "people living inJargo cities, but as the supply from this -source was soon exhausted, they turned to rural districts for a fresh supply- The agents of factory-owners go into the country and persuade.unsophisticated farmers to 'send their daughters to the factories, explaining what a fine opportunity tho girls will have to acquire refinement ana culture in the: large cities, and telling what beautiful things aud interesting places there are in the city, all of tory girls are free to see and visit on Sundays. .The good, credulous men of the hamlet and village readily believe the cunning agents, and allow their daughters to go, only to see them come home, after four or five years, broken in health and spoiled in 'char--acter, if, indeed/ tliqy jo not die before their term expires.

The treatment accorded to these girls is an outrage. Says Br. Ivuwada: "In some factories it is no secret that the time-keepers are instructed to resort to -trickery, so that their employees are made to work overtime without receiving any extra pay. In many factories the girls are not even allowed time for meals, bu-t are required to eat while working. Almost all. cotton-spinning factories keep their looms in operation . day and" night. Night work, in whjph both male and lemale operatives are engaged together, -is found most demoralizing. The methods of punishment ore equally inhumane. The lash fe employed without st:nt_: some'.imes girJs are imprisoned in dark rooms, or required to work with reduced rations: in many cuse.s thoir wages are so reduced by 1 fine;*' that- ihey feave the faotory penniless at- the £ud qr their contract terms."