Tokyo, Oct. 16.
The extent of the extreme suifering expected in the agrarian areas this winter is reflected in the call. ing of an extraordinary session the diet for November and in. the issuing recently by the war office of a sensational pamphlet which urges national socialism, or something very close to it, as one means of extracting the country from its present dire straits.
Cocoon prices are down to ¥.525 this month, or one-tenth of the peak price. 'The 180-mile an hour' tyhoon which hit the country in September has cut down the fall rice crop to $3,000,000 kow (a kow is approximately five bushels), the Worst harvest in the past 22 years, The farmers face a dismal winter indeed.
'OF course, it is not so much the rice question as it is silk that is the bane of the farmer. The govern ment has it in ils power to raise rice prices but not silk. With cocoons now selling at below cost, both the government and the farmers are in fa frenzy, They know that there can be very little relief.
"Although the slump in silk prices was brought on by the world-wide depression, especially that America, it is generally agreed that returning prosperity will not have corresponding effect on silk owing to the remarkable progress in the production of artificial silk in the past few years. Everything, In fact, points" against a revival of better {imes on the farms of Nippon.
Not many years ago Japan's export of raw silk to America was regarded og the backbone of its trade, It has fallen off so badly in recent year that itis fast becoming a minor ort. In 1925 Japan exported Y.049, 486,448 in raw silk, mostly to 0 United "States. In the first six could ever justify. This will be one fof the transcendent issues which will come up before the special session lof the diet next month, Future in Balance On what is decided at this extraordinary sitting of the Japanese parliament, may depend the future Jot Japan's silk industry,—whether is to degenerate into a village industry, or, through governmental laid and supervision in scientific fbveeding, inspection, mulberry cultivation, sorting, brokerage, conditioning" and subsidies, regain its status as the backbone of Japanese trade.
Discussing this problem with me recently, Mr. Goroku Imai, a son of Mr. Gosuke Imai, head of Katakura Jand Ca, one of the greatest fla-tures in" the world, expressed considerable optimism. "As head of the main filatures of the company at Omiya, near Tokyo, he has been supervising experiments in the pro-Jduction of cheaper cocoons.
It should be possible, Mr. Imai told me, to double the quantity of cocoons and likewise to. cut the least of production by half through the introduction of scientific methods /He-is convinced that the time is not distant when the farmers will awaken their obsolete methods and will begin experimenting with more mod-Jem methods. Various improvements the raising of mulberry leaves and silkworms are being worked out, Katakura's experimental station jand are available to. the farmers. Heretofore, however, the farmers. Thave been' content to plod along in. {their outmoded way because they were able to compete against rayon, [The time has come when this will Met be possible unless the price of silk is lowered, so the farmers will compelled' to improve their methods. months of this year the amount was '¥.116,479,829 ahd the estimates show that the year's total will be less than that of -¥.255,805,925 for 1939.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.