A LESSON FROM JAPAN

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1925, 23 October 1926, Page 6

A LESSON FROM JAPAN

LABOUR FHiIILOSOPH'Y IN THE EAST. Messfrs Gestettner, Ltd., in a letter to the London Timiais, quote an extract o!f a letter received from the managing diifeictor of their Associated Eastern Comtpaniy, to show the sipirit in which some Japanese workmen faciei a period of industrial depres'sion. The report was not written for publication. It is as follows: —

" ' East is East and West is West! * The more I s(ee of the East thla more striking is the truth contained In the above quotation. Take, for instance, a little incident which occurred since my arrival in this mostt delightful country.

"Thle men and women working in tbte .Electric Works asked) their employers to reduce itheir wages a little to see if that wouldn't help the compaJny owrj a few rough places along the road &o rjecovery in a business way. The first time they asked was in January, so Itihe remarkable reports, from —— State. The works officials of the company reifused, strange to say. Then, iwhlem the company was still sniftering from -tfhje effects of business depression (due to a hold-up in the re-construction of the country following the great earthquake) the employees again made a complaint. They said they wieire not allowed to do enough'' work. The officials should teither cut their pay or let them do more 'work, they declared in an ultimatum to the general manager. The officials decided that the workers were nolt getting enough pay as it was—they certainly could not permit a cut of 10 to 20 per cent, the amoluht suggested in the ultimatum—iSO they refused the delfogaltioh's suggestion. The disheariented lit/tie band of workers, much upset at their inability to get the company to s'ee their point, returned and repoate® '<to the workers. Afltet .talking tfhe matter over, 'they decided they\would work longer. "It all wrong, doesn't it. But they were determined to aid the company ovfeir its bad time, although tlhe officials pointed out that it wasn't (heir (fault They obtairi|ed their own way in the end. These long summer days the employees of the Electric works tupm up an hour or so earliler than usjujal in the cool of the morning, antli. stay an houtr longer in .tlhe evening;' this, they feel, is this least they can tfo to help tbje company that offers Ithem a livelihood on to its feel again. The officials don't want thiero

to do it, but they have ceased to object because 'business, it seems, ist slowly but surely becoming a little b-slti'ter in the plant."