Out-of-works Estimated Now at Nearly 34 Million: And No Relief in Sight Frox Ovr. Ows Coneesroxnent.
Tokyo, Feb. 15, The problem of the unemployed taking on grave dimensions here, and a recent survey. made by the Chambers of Commerce throughout the country set the number without fixed employment at the huge total of 3,400,000 in Japan Proper alone, that! is to say. exch employed in Korea ai Both the authorities and all inking people are alarmed at this immense inerenve in the number of those without work, If we take for granted that there are, on average, three pérvons dependent on every breadwinner—whieh ix a very modest extimate—this would mean that more than 10 million persons here are adversely affected by the series of economic misfortunes thet Japan hax sustained during recent years, Nowhere to It is possible that, the number of the unemployed in the British Isles might be numerically bigger than that here, but Great Britain has extensive "colonies und dominions willing to absorb some of her jobless at least. Japan has no such outlet, The Japanese eunnot xo tw Chine or Korea and compete with, the indigenous inhabitants of those countries. Hence Jupan's number of the unemployed is the biggest in the world, "It remains to be seen whether the sheer urge of econom) with hardshended necessity acting usu further goud, will force the Japanese to emiscrate jo Iarye nun here to Siberia, and whether exe make good pioneer cal Employers have been for a business revival, earthquake of September, 1 the business depression hit the country, The earth quake intensified the already" bad ila business revival hardly be expected for some time yet to come, In order to tide over their' difficulties, employers, including the Goveriment, were compelled to discharge batch after batch of workers—not merely factory hands and manual labourers, but also a large number of educated clerks. These clerks have merged. with various Inbour unions, and it ig this absorption of the "brainy" element into a labour community pulsating with new life and new ambitions that is causing the authorities considerable anxiety.
The Old Brigade Labour in Japan may be divided into Uheee distinct groups. First, there are the old-fashioned workers who Leliove in master and servant, who have not yet cracked the age Jong crusts of tradition and usage, the worker who docs not believe that there is any humiliation in Yeing satisfied with what his capitalist: master is willing to give him. The number of these is fast decreasing. The wine of new thought is affecting their mentality, while, those of this class who have been dismissod—masters had alternative but to do so—immediately. Yecame the most radical of all.
Then there is a group which secks to follow and to emulate: Labour in Great Britain, and to achieve its ambitions and secure its privileges and right through constitutional means, This class is taking a leading part in the demand for universal manhood suffrage and enjoys the protection of several politicians.
The Reds Lastly come those under the banner of the direct actionists—the admirers of Marx and Lenin, the delight of the Third International. These recently banded themselves into ® union, but did not publish their programme. Time and again, their meetings have been broken up by the police and their Teaders sent to gaol. These people, taking a page from their Bolshevik ids in Russia, think that Labour can come into its own only through direct action, strikes and such-like violence.
Fully 40 per cent. of the unemployed. are of the proletariat intelligentsia, or are those who formerly were black-coated pon wielders.- Te is: this class that the Government fears' most, and it weainst this class especially that question, and it looks as if the he authorities have just passed a
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.