"GIRL COLLECTORS" AND FACTORIES
(NAGANO AND YAMANASHI)
At your return show the truth.--FROISSART
I visited factories in more than one prefecture. At the first
factory--it employed about 1,000 girls and 200 men--work began at 4.30
a.m., breakfast was at 5 and the next meal at 10.30. The stoppages for
eating were for a few minutes only. A cake was handed to each girl at
her machine at 3. Suppertime came after work was finished at 7.[141]
No money was paid the first year. The second year the wages might be 3
or 4 yen a month. The statement was made that at the end of her five
years' term a girl might have 300 yen, but that this sum was not
within the reach of all.[142] The girls were driven at top speed by a
flag system in which one bay competed with another and was paid
according to its earnings. Owing to the heat the flushed girls
probably looked better in health than they really were. They were fat
in the face, but this could not be regarded as an indication of their
general well-being. It was admitted that some girls left through
illness. Employees returned to their homes for January and February,
when the factory was closed down; there was also three days' holiday
in June. In the dormitory I noticed that each girl had the space of
one mat only (6 ft. by 3 ft.). Twenty-two girls slept in each
dormitory. The men connected with this factory were low-looking and
shifty-eyed.
An agricultural expert who was well acquainted with the conditions of
silk manufacture and of the district and was in a disinterested
position told me after my visit to this factory how the foremen
scoured the country for girl labour during January and February. The
success of the _kemban_ or girl collector was due to the poverty of
the people, who were glad "to be relieved of the cost of a daughter's
food." Occasionally the _kemban_ had sub-agents. The mill proprietors
were in competition for skilled girls, and money was given by a
_kemban_ intent on stealing another factory's hand.
The novices had no contract. The contract of a skilled girl provided
that she should serve at the factory for a specified period and that
if she failed to do so, she should pay back twenty times the 5 yen or
whatever sum had been advanced to her. Obviously 100 yen would be a
prohibitive sum for a peasant's daughter to find. The amount of the
workers' pay was not specified in the contract. The document was
plainly one-sided and would be regarded in an English court as against
public policy and unenforceable. Married women might take an infant
with them to the factory. In more than one factory I saw several
thin-faced babies.
The effect of factory life on girls, a man who knew the countryside
well told me, was "not good." The girls had weakened constitutions as
the result of their factory life and when they married had fewer than
the normal number of children. The general result of factory life was
degeneration. The girls "corrupted their villages."
The custom was, I understood, that the girls were kept on the factory
premises except when they could allege urgent business in town. But
they were allowed out on the three nights of the _Bon_ festival. It
was rare that priests visited the factories and there were no shrines
there. The girls had sometimes "lessons" given them and occasionally
story-tellers or gramophone owners amused them. The food supplied by
some factories was not at all adequate and the girls had to spend
their money at the factory tuck-shops. "Most proprietors," I was told,
"endeavour to make part of their staff permanent by acting as
middlemen to arrange marriages between female and male workers." The
infants of married workers were "looked after by the youngest
apprentices."
In another place I saw over a factory which employed about 160 girls,
who were worked from 5:30 a.m. to 6:40 p.m. with twenty minutes for
each meal. If a girl "broke her contract" it was the custom to send
her name to other factories so that she could not get work again. The
foremen at this establishment seemed decent men.
One who had no financial interest in the silk industry but knew the
district in which this second factory stood said that "many girls"
came home in trouble. The peasants did not like "the spoiling of their
daughters," but were "captured in their poverty by the idea of the
money to be gained." Undoubtedly the factory life was pictured in
glowing colours by the _kemban_.
In a third factory there were more than 200 girls and only 15 men. The
proprietor and manager seemed good fellows. I was assured that it was
forbidden for men workers to enter the women's quarters, but on
entering the dormitory I came on a man and woman scuffling. The girls
of this factory and in others had running below their feet an iron
pipe which was filled with steam in cold weather. On some days in
July, the month in which I visited this factory, I noticed from the
temperature record sheet that the heat had reached 94 degrees in the
steamy spinning bays, where, unless the weather be damp, it was
impossible, because of spinning conditions, to admit fresh air. I saw
a complaint box for the workers. As in other factories, there was a
certain provision of boiled water and ample bathing accommodation. Hot
baths were taken every night in summer and every other night in
winter. Here, as elsewhere, though many of the girls were pale and
anaemic, all were clean in their persons, which is more than can be
said of all Western factory hands. Work began at 4 a.m. and went on
until 7 p.m. From 10 to 15 minutes were allowed for meals. The winter
hours were from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
In this factory, as in others, there was a system of tallies, showing
to all the workers the ranking of the girls for payment. The standard
wage seemed to be 20 sen a day, and the average to which it was
brought by good work 30 sen. There were thirty or more girls who had
deductions from their 20 sen. Apprentices were shown as working at a
loss. Once or twice a month a story-teller came to entertain the girls
and every fortnight a teacher gave them instruction. When I asked if a
priest came I was told that "in this district the families are not so
religious, so the girls are not so pious." Two doctors visited the
factory, one of them daily. Counting all causes, 5 per cent. of the
girls returned home. The owner of the factory, a man in good physical
training and with an alert and kindly face, said the industry
succeeded in his district because the employers "exerted themselves"
and the girls "worked with the devotion of soldiers." I thought of a
motto written by the Empress, which I had seen at Ueda, "It is my wish
that the girls whose service it is to spin silk shall be always
diligent." Behind the desk of this factory proprietor hung the motto,
"Cultivate virtues and be righteous."
The fourth factory I saw seemed to be staffed entirely with
apprentices who were turned over to other factories in their third
year. The girls appeared to have to sleep three girls to two mats. In
the event of fire the dormitory would be a death-trap. I was told that
there was an entertainment or a "lecture on character" once a week.
The motto on the walls of this factory was, "Learning right ways means
loving mankind."
I went over the factory which belonged to the largest concern in Japan
and had 10,000 hands. The girls were looked after in well-ventilated
dormitories by ten old women who slept during the day and kept watch
at night. There was a fire escape. All sorts of things were on sale at
wholesale prices at the factory shop, but for any good reason an exit
ticket was given to town. The dining-room was excellent. There was a
hospital in this factory and the nurse in the dispensary summarised at
my request the ailments of the 35 girls who were lying down
comfortably: stomachic, 12; colds, 7; fingers hurt by the hot water of
the cocoon-soaking basins, 5; female affections, 4; nervous, 2; eyes,
rheumatism, nose, lungs and kidneys, 1 each. The average wages in this
factory worked out at 60 yen for 9 months. The hour of beginning work
was 4:30 at the earliest. The factory stopped at sunset, the latest
hour being 6:30. I was assured that of the girls who did not get
married 70 per cent. renewed their contracts. A large enclosed open
space was available in which the girls might stroll before going to
bed. The motto of the establishment was, "I hear the voice of spring
under the shadow of the trees." In reference to the new factory
legislation the manager said that the hours of labour were so long
that it would be some time before 10 hours a day would be
initiated.[143] This factory and its branches were started thirty
years ago by a man who was originally a factory worker. Although now
very rich he had "always refused to be photographed and had not
availed himself of an opportunity of entering the House of Peers."
I visited several factories the girls working at which did not live in
dormitories but outside. At a winding and hanking factory which was
airy and well lighted the hours were from 6 to 6. At a factory where
the hours were from 4:30 to 7 some reelers had been fined. Japanese
Christian pastors sometimes came to see the girls, and on the wall of
the recreation room there were paper _gohei_ hung up by a Shinto
priest.
I got the impression that the girls in the factories at Kōfu in
Yamanashi prefecture were not driven so hard as those at the factories
in the Suwas in Nagano. Someone said: "However the Suwa people may
exploit their girls, we are able, working shorter hours and giving
more entertainments, to produce better silk, for the simple reason
that the girls are in better condition. We can get from 5 to 10 per
cent. more for our silk." A factory manager said that it would be
better if the girls had a regular holiday once a week, but one firm
could not act alone. (The factories are working seven days a week,
except for festival days and public holidays.)
With regard to the _kemban_, I was told in Yamanashi that many girls
went to the factories "unwillingly by the instructions of their
parents." It was also stated that the money paid to girls or their
parents on their engagement was not properly a gratuity but an
advance. I heard that the police keep a special watch on _kemban_.
They would not do this without good reason.
FOOTNOTES:
[141] The times stated are those given to me in the factories. The
question of overtime is referred to later in the Chapter.
[142] Again the reader must be reminded of the rise in wages and
prices (estimated on p. xxv). During the recent period of inflation,
silk rose to 3,000 yen per picul and fell to 1,300 or 1,400 yen. There
have been great fluctuations in the wages of factory girls. At the
most flourishing period as much as 25 yen per head was paid to
recruiters of girls. In this Chapter, however, it is best to record
exactly what I saw and heard.
[143] On the day on which I re-read this for the printers, I notice in
an American paper that one of the largest employers of labour in the
United States has just stated that he did not see his way to abolish
the twelve-hours' day.