"FRIEND-LOVE-SOCIETY'S" GRIM TALE
The psychology of behaviour teaches us that [a country's] failures and
semi-failures are likely to continue until there is a far more
widespread appreciation of the importance of studying the forces which
govern behaviour.--SAXBY
I
I do not think that some of the factory proprietors are conscious that
they are taking undue advantage of their employees. These men are just
average persons at the ante-Shaftesbury stage of responsibility
towards labour.[144] Their case is that the girls are pitifully poor
and that the factories supply work at the ruling market rates for the
work of the pitifully poor. Said one factory owner to me genially:
"Peasant families are accustomed to work from daylight to dark. In the
silk-worm feeding season they have almost no time for sleep. Peasant
people are trained to long hours. Lazy people might suffer from the
long hours of the factory, but the factory girls are not lazy."
It hardly needs to be pointed out that there is all the difference
between a long day at the varied work of a farm, even in the trying
silk-worm season, and a long day, for nine or ten months on end,
sitting still, with the briefest intervals for food, in the din and
heat of a factory. Such a life must be debilitating. When it is added
that in most factories, in the short period between supper and sleep,
and again during the night, the girls are closely crowded, no further
explanation is wanted of the origin of the tuberculosis which is so
prevalent in the villages which supply factory labour.[145] There is
no question that in the scanty moments the girls do have for an airing
most of them are immured within the compounds of their factories. A
large proportion of the many thousands of factory girls[146] who are
to be mothers of a new generation in the villages are passing years of
their lives in conditions which are bad for them physically and
morally. It must not be forgotten that very many of the girls go to
the factories before they are fully grown. On the question of
morality, evidence from disinterested quarters left no doubt on my
mind that the _morale_ of the girls was lowered by factory life. The
Lancashire factory girl goes home every evening and she has her
Saturday afternoon and her Sunday, her church or chapel, her societies
and clubs, her amusements and her sweetheart. Her Japanese sister has
none of this natural life and she has infinitely worse conditions of
labour.
It is only fair to remember, however, that the Japanese factory girl
comes from a distance. She has no relatives or friends in the town in
which she is working. But the plea that she would get into trouble if
she were allowed her liberty without control of any sort does not
excuse her present treatment. If the factories offered decent
conditions of life not a few of the companies would get at their doors
most of the labour they need and many of the girls would live at home.
If the factories insist on having cheap rural labour then they should
do their duty by it. The girls should have reasonable working hours,
proper sleeping accommodation and proper opportunities inside and
outside the factories for recreation and moral and mental improvement.
It is idle to suggest that fair treatment of this sort is impossible.
It is perfectly possible.
The factory proprietors are no worse than many other people intent on
money making. But the silk industry, as I saw it, was exploiting,
consciously or unconsciously, not only the poverty of its girl
employees but their strength, morality, deftness[147] and remarkable
school training in earnestness and obedience. Several times I heard
the unenlightened argument that, if there were a certain sacrifice of
health and well-being, a rapidly increasing population made the
sacrifice possible; that, as silk was the most valuable product in
Japan, and it was imperative for the development and security of the
Empire that its economic position should be strengthened, the
sacrifice must be made. Nothing need be said of such a hopelessly
out-of-date and nationally indefensible attitude except this: that it
is doubtful whether any considerable proportion of the people
connected with the silk industry have felt themselves specially
charged with a mission to strengthen the economic condition of their
country. They have simply availed themselves of a favourable
opportunity to make money. That opportunity was presented by the cheap
labour available in farmers' daughters unprotected by effective trade
unions, by properly administered factory laws or by public opinion.
II[148]
The enterprise, the efficiency and the profits shown by the
sericultural industry have been remarkable, and not a few of the
capitalists connected with it are personally public-spirited. But many
well-wishers of Japan, native-born and foreign, cannot help wondering
what is the real as compared with the seeming return of the industry
to a nation the strength of which is in its reservoir of rustic health
and willingness. It is significant of the extent to which the
factories are working with cheap labour that, in a country in which
there are more men than women,[149] there was in about 20,000
factories 58 per cent. of female labour. If I stress the fact of
female employment it is because in Japan nearly every woman
eventually marries. Enfeebled women must therefore hand on
enfeeblement to the next generation.[150]
The Japanese, in their present factory system, as in other
developments, insist on making for themselves all the mistakes that we
have made and are now ashamed of. In judging the Japanese let us
remember that all our industrial exploitation of women[151] was not,
as we like to believe, an affair as far off as the opening nineteenth
century. I do not forget as a young man filling a newspaper poster
with the title of an article which recounted from my own observation
the woes of women chain makers who, with bared breasts and their
infants sprawling in the small coals, slaved in domestic smithies for
a pittance. And as I write it is announced that the head of the United
States Steel Corporation says that "there is no necessity for trade
unions," which are, in his opinion, "inimical to the best interests of
the employers and the public." That is precisely the view of most
Japanese factory proprietaries.
The trade union is not illegal in Japan, but its teeth have been drawn
(1) by the enactment that "those who, with the object of causing a
strike, seduce or incite others" shall be sentenced to imprisonment
from one to six months with a fine of from 3 to 30 yen; (2) by the
power given to the police (_a_) to detain suspected persons for a
succession of twenty-four hour periods, and (_b_) summarily to close
public meetings, and (3) by the franchise being so narrow that few
trade unionists have votes. During the six years of the War there were
as many as 141,000 strikers, but a not uncommon method of these
workers was merely to absent themselves from work, to refrain from
working while in the factory, or to "ca' canny." Nevertheless 633 of
them were arrested. When I attended in Tokyo a gathering of members of
the leading labour organisation in Japan it was discreetly named
Yu-ai-kai (Friend-Love-Society, i.e. Friendly Society). Now it is
boldly called the Confederation of Japanese Labour. A Socialist
League[152] and several labour publications exist. Workers assemble to
see moving pictures of labour demonstrations, and a labour meeting has
defied the police in attendance by singing the whole of the "Song of
Revolution." But crippled as the unions are under the law against
strikes and by the poverty of the workers, they find it difficult to
attain the financial strength necessary for effective action. Many
workers are trade unionists when they are striking but their trade
unionism lapses when the strike is over, for then the unions seem to
have small reason for existing. The head of the Federation of Labour
lately announced that the number of trade unionists was only 100,000,
or half what it was during the recent big strikes and it is doubtful
whether, even including the 7,000 members of the Seamen's Union, there
are in Japan more than 50,000 contributing members of the different
unions. But this 50,000 may be regarded as staunch.
The poverty-stricken unions certainly afford no real protection to the
girl workers, who form indeed a very small proportion of their
members. And the Factory Law does little for them. A Japanese friend
who knows the labour situation well writes to me:
"According to the Factory Law, which came into force in the autumn of
1916, 'factory employers are not allowed to let women work more than
twelve hours in a day.' (Article III, section 1.) But if necessary,
'the competent Minister is entitled to extend this limitation to
fourteen hours.' (Section 2.) As to night work the law says that
'factory employers are not allowed to let women work from 10 p.m. to 4
a.m.' (Article IV.) If, however, there are necessary reasons, 'the
employers can be exempted from the obligation of the Article IV.'
(Article V.) Article IX says that 'the employers are forbidden to let
women engage in dangerous work.' But whether work is dangerous or not
is determined by 'the competent Minister' (Article XI), who may or may
not be well informed. There is also Article XII, 'The competent
Minister can limit or prohibit the work of women about to have
children' and within three weeks after confinement. But anyone who
enters factories may see women with pale faces because they work too
soon after their confinement.
"I cannot tell you how far these provisions are enforced. I can only
say that I have not yet heard of employers being punished for
violating the Factory Law. Can it be supposed that employers are so
honest as never to violate the Factory Law? As to working hours, in
some factories they may work less than fourteen hours as the law
indicates. In others they may work more, because 'there are necessary
reasons.' This is especially true of the factories in the country
parts. As 200 inspectors have been appointed, the authorities must by
now know the actual situation pretty well."
Dr. Kuwata, a former member of the Upper House, with whom I frequently
discussed the labour situation, declares the Factory Law to be
"palpably imperfect and primitive." At the end of 1917 there were,
according to official figures, 99,000 female factory operatives under
fifteen years of age and 2,400 under twelve. Some 20,000 of these
children were employed in silk factories. What protection have they?
Before passing this page for the press I have shown it to a
well-informed Japanese friend and he says that he has never seen any
newspaper report of a prosecution under the Factory Law. Obviously a
Factory Law under which no one is ever prosecuted is not
operative.[153]
It is excellent that Japan has sent a large permanent delegation to
Switzerland to establish a system of liaison with the International
Labour Office of the League of Nations. This company of young men will
keep the Japanese Government well informed. There is undoubtedly in
Japan, under Western influence, a steady development of sensitiveness
to working-class conditions and a rapid growth of modern social
ideas. But the Government and the Diet will not step out far in
advance of general opinion, the most will naturally be made by the
authorities and trade interests of bad factory conditions on the
Continent of Europe and in some industries in the United States, and
the majority of a public which has been carefully nurtured in the
belief that a profitable industrialism is the great desideratum for
Japan will not be restive. Real factory reform is not to be expected
until an enlightened view is taken by Japanese in general of the
exploitation of girls for any purpose. It is not in commercial human
nature, Eastern or Western, that factory directors and shareholders
should forgo without a struggle the advantage of possessing cheaper
and more subjected labour than their foreign rivals. Some influence
may be exerted in the right direction by the fact that those who are
profiting by cheap and docile labour may themselves be undersold
before long by cheaper and still more docile labour in China.[154] And
in 1922 Japan is under an obligation, accepted at the Washington
Labour Conference, to stop women working more than eleven hours a day
and to abolish night work. Meantime the labour movement makes
progress. It is significant that many of its leaders are under the
influence of "direct action" ideas. They hope little from a Diet
elected on a narrow franchise and supported by a strong Government
machine backed by the Conservative farmer vote. Although, however,
there does not seem to be as yet a junction between the labour
movement and the unions of the tenant farmers, who have their own
interests alone in view, the future may present unexpected
developments. As I write, the labour movement is conducting a trial of
strength with the great Mitsubishi and Kawasaki enterprises and is
presenting a stronger front than it has yet done.
This Chapter would give an unfair impression of the relations of
capital and labour in Japan if it included no reference to the
well-intentioned efforts made by several large employers to improve
the conditions of working-class life and labour. Sometimes they have
followed the example of philanthropic firms in Great Britain and
America. As often as not they have been inspired by old Japanese ideas
of a master's responsibilities. Many leading industrials have believed
and still believe that by the conservation and development of old
ideas of paternalism and loyalty the trade-union stage of industrial
development may be avoided. This conviction was expressed to me by,
among others, Mr. Matsukata, of the famous Kawasaki concern, who has
made generous contributions to "welfare" work. My own brief experience
as an employer in Japan made me acquainted with some canons in the
relationship of employer and employed which have lost their authority
in the West. Given wisdom on the part of masters, the prolonged
bitterness which has marked the industrial development of the West
need not be repeated in Japan, but whether that wisdom will be
displayed in time is doubtful. The Japanese commercial world has been
commendably quick to learn in many directions in the West. It will be
a serious reflection on the intelligence of the country if the lessons
of the industrial acerbities of Europe and the United States should
not be grasped. Meantime it is a duty which the foreign observer owes
to Japan to speak quite plainly of attempts as silly as they are
useless[155] to obscure the lamentable condition of a large proportion
of Japanese workers, to hide the immense profits which have been made
by their employers and to pretend that factory laws have only to be
placed on the statute book in order to be enforced. But if he be
honest he must also recognise the handicap of specially costly
equipment[156] and of unskilled labour and inexperience under which
the Japanese business world is competing for the place in foreign
trade to which it has a just claim. Such conditions do not in the
least excuse inhumanity, but they help to explain it.
FOOTNOTES:
[144] It is a chastening exercise to read before proceeding with this
Chapter an extract from Spencer Walpole's _History of England_, vol.
iii, p. 317, under the year 1832: "The manufacturing industries of the
country were collected into a few centres. In one sense the persons
employed had their reward: the manufacturers gave them wages. In
another sense their change of occupation brought them nothing but
evil. Forced to dwell in a crowded alley, occupying at night a house
constructed in neglect of every known sanitary law, employed in the
daytime in an unhealthy atmosphere and frequently on a dangerous
occupation, with no education available for his children, with no
reasonable recreation, with the sky shrouded by the smoke of an
adjoining capital, with the face of nature hidden by a brick wall,
neglected by an overworked clergyman, regarded as a mere machine by an
avaricious employer, the factory operative turned to the public house,
the prize ring or the cockpit."
[145] See Appendix XL.
[146] Number of factory workers, a million and a half, of whom 800,000
are females. For statistics of women workers, see Appendix XLI.
[147] The Minister of Commerce has himself stated that the
sericultural industry is rooted in the dexterity of the Japanese
countrywoman.
[148] This section of the Chapter was written in 1921.
[149] In Japan in 1918 there were, per 1,000, 505.2 men to 494.8
women.
[150] Of the workers under the age of fifteen in the 20,000 factories,
82 per cent. were girls. The statistics in this paragraph were issued
by the Ministry of Commerce in 1917.
[151] For sketches of women and children (with a chain between their
legs) harnessed to coal wagons in the pits, see _Parliamentary
Papers_, vol. xv, 1842. "There is a factory system grown up in England
the most horrible that imagination can conceive," wrote Sir William
Napier to Lady Hester Stanhope two years after Queen Victoria's
accession. "They are hells where hundreds of children are killed
yearly in protracted torture." In Torrens's _Memoirs of the Queen's
First Prime Minister_, one reads: "Melbourne had a Bill drawn which
with some difficulty he persuaded the Cabinet to sanction, prohibiting
the employment of children _under 9 in any except silk mills_."
[152] More than 200 books on Socialism were published in 1920.
[153] For a declaration by Dr. Kuwata concerning bad food and
"defiance of hygienic rules," see Appendix XLII.
[154] See Appendix XLIII.
[155] See Appendix XLII.
[156] In a pre-War publication of the United States Department of
Commerce it was stated that the cost of cotton mills per spindle is in
England _32s._, in the United States _44s._, in Germany _52s._, and in
Japan _100s._
[Illustration: ARCHERY AT AN AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL.]
[Illustration: CULTIVATION OF THE HILLSIDE.]
[Illustration: RAILWAY STATION "BENTO" BOX (OPEN) AND POT OF TEA WITH
CUP. p. 110 The _bento_ box provides rice, meat, fish, omelette and
assorted pickles; also paper napkin and _hashi_ (chop-sticks) and
(between them) a toothpick.]
FROM TOKYO TO THE NORTH BY THE
WEST COAST