'A Record in Over Thirty Years: Agricultural Population's New Resentment: Strikes and Dangerous Thoughts Foo & sarah One thi strikes the old resident) of Japan who visits the treaty' ports of China very strongly when hho talks with his countrymen' here, sand that is their ignorance of Sapanese affairs or even more their} indifference to the subject of Japan as a factor in the affairs of the world, A moment's thought should convince anyone that Japan, as the most vigorous and advanced of! Oriental countries, ts bound from] her geographical position to have a predominant position in influencing, and nyoulding the destinies of China, and moreover there is a mutuality' about this, that China, will and already does to some degree, exercise the most profound—influence: upon the course of: politics and commerce in Japan.
We know that things are bad in China—that this so-called Republic!
not brought peace or security "happiness to the Chinese people: that taxes continually become more burdensome; that trade und industry Janguish, and that as a crowning! misfortune, the recent slump. in silver has cut down the purchasing power of China's millions by at Toast one third.
Cross over to Japan and you will find) the commercial, industrial and financial situation' little bet 'There its political situation appears tw he quite stable, nevertheless it is plain that the Japanese people' one passing through a period of acute evisis—never during the past 34 years hay business touched such depths of depression, nor has the attorn been towelled yet ax both export and import trade show a. ceuntinual decline, In the world labour dispute with consequent strikes or lockouts grow more and more numerous and an important point to be noted is that these strikes are not due to demands for wages or belter conditions, fas they wore driving the post-war now the result of stance to the red wages everywhere threaten ed by the great industrial firms.
Japan, however, isnot so much entry as an agricul tural one, About two-thirds of the on still derive their living the soil.
So much for the farmer. The fisherman is mot too contented either, Trawling companies are beginning to make his arduous ealling less profitable, and so last_winter we had the spectacle of the! fishermen of Kochi Prefecture ris-angry demonstrations and cing s0 far as to defeat the local police and besiege the Governor in the Prefectural Office.
For the factory workers this year began most ominously with the [General "Motors strike in Osaka. IThis proved to be an absolutely unsuccessful strike for it ended in the unconditional surrender of the strikers. The Government seems to be imposing some kind of censor-hip over noys of this kindy because although word came through that! the Kanegafuchi Spinning Company's employees were going strike at the beginning of this month, no further word has. come through) to enlighten us as to developments.
The Kanegafuchi or Kanebo a3 it is called, this being a por lar] abbreviation of its full title, Kanesa~ ffuchi Boscki Kabushiki Kaisha, is Jan. enormous concern ha tills scattered all over try each of which numbers. its operatives by. the thousands. A prolonged strike affecting such Rreat and hitherto prosperous firm would he nothing ess than a national disaster. Even the bare fannouneement that a strike was minent caused, through a panic slump of its shares, a loss counted in millions of yen ina single afternoon.
Te has bee announced that the Tokyo Tramway strike has collapse Jed in less than'a week. That strike was a portent indeed, though there again it was a reduction in wages that caused the trouble. Only those who know Tokyo and its normally fovercroveded cars can imagine the frightful inconvenience caused. by the. suspension of communications in this "city of wide distance." It must indeed have been a counsel despair that could face the inevitable alienation of public sympathy consequent on the suffering of the crowds compelled throught action to walk miles to and from their work. conservative section of the whole population; it is not so now. The fickle ave tilled as of old with an nic effectiveness and care that the admiration of the for-n-observer—no land hus reverted to uncultivated uselessness England. indeed production is being incrensed—yet for all that there class of worker more discon-sees with Farmer-Labour ly mit radical. lit almost say revolutionary, the Empire, and truly the faem.
has seood "veason for his disent. He is the Zoundation upon which ull the industrial expansion ix built. A bad harvest, and he is ruined; a, superabundant harvest and he is equally ruined.
His rent grievance, however, is Ahat industrialists may geow neb ut for him upon whom as the firm foundation the whole social structure rests, there can he no prospect of even a moderate degree of wealth. His little farm of at the most three acres of intensively cultivated soil can never alford to give him a motor of any kind, such as the American farmer has. Con-dened to perpetual poverty, he is moreover compiled to pay taxes even on the tools of his trade. Although some of these taxes are petty in naunt, the Government will have to abolish them, as the awakened farmers will not endure them much Jonger, They resent such imposi-ons as the taxes on his wagon "and on the ox which draws his plough, The writer during this very month of April has heard peasants using a freedom of Language that Would have been impossible a few years back, They spoke openly and whispers, naming such lords of nance and industry as the Misui The fact that these strikes of late! have. all been unsuccessful wil probably discourage the workers from further attempts at resistance to wage reductions, but the problem unemployment still remains. The figure of two millions has been officially mentioned within the past few weeks. That is probably an exaggeration, because at the beginning of this year the official estimates dealt only in hundreds of thousands, ard such an enormously rapid increase is almost incredible.
nevertheless there are signs that, the Government is greatly alarm-Jed at developments. If the Opposi tion can establish a connection between the present extraordinary pression and the economic policy of the Government, the Ministry will inevitably be defeated.
There can be no doubt that the Premier, Mr. Hamaguchi, and the Minister of Finance, Mr. Inouye, have shown wonderful courage with their retrenchment policy and the removal of the Gold export ban. Nevertheless, they were unlucky as} the time was most inopportune, raising the yen exchange coining with the fall in silver, making the effect doubly disastrous to their trade with China, and their hope of increasing the exports by strict economies at home was frustrated by the world wide depression be rining x0 accentuated at} the same ti extremely unlike-that the Hamaguchi Government! will be defeated by adverse vote in the Di The Opposition is afraid ty of these difficult problems. What the Government is really afraid of is} what are called "dangerous thoughts" which may possibly be translated into "dangerous actions." The situation is certainly ent and for a solution the people will demand of their Government, not Suimitomo and Iwasaki comparable to oppressors Like the yackrenter Daimyo who pat Sakura Sojgro to death as related by Mitstone but bread, That will mean generous unemployment policy perhaps at the expense of the Army and Navy. If so, out of evil may! come good.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.