OCR Text |
Show No Ftsr of Jcp Coxapttitioa. t The bogey of Japanese'competition in industrial fields has been raised so often of late, especially In Bussia and Germany, that it is something of a surprise sur-prise to find Pr. Max JS'itzsche declaring in the I 'rea8&ische J ahrbucher that there is nothing to fear. The principal reason for this belief is to be found in character of the Japanese workman. Dr. rmtzsche says: ' . ; , "According to the unanimous testimony of in- j prejudiced observers, three times as many persons are required for the same kind of work in Japan as in England. One English spinner, with an assist Jant, looks after two frames of "BOO spindles each, or even a self -actor of 3000 spindles, while the Japanese Japa-nese (or Chinese) spinner only looks after 200 to 300 spindles. The English spinner loses 5.8 per cent of . his time in knotting the broken threads, while the JunaiiPfiA Iotua 25 ner cent. In conseouence, the En- glish spindles run twice as fast as the Japanese spin-'die, spin-'die, It is the same in weaving. In Massachusetts, one girl attends to six looms; in iLancashire, to four; but in Japan, only to one. This slowness ap pears not only in machine work, but also in ordinary - earth works, in building, mining, tc. . ' ; ; "The average Japanese hates continuous, hard work; he does not care how long bis hours are, if he can work leisurely. Every few minutes he stops, to sing, chat, smoke, or sip tea. I If the work-give? tries to stop such dilly-dallying by punishments, he loses his working force without finding a better one. This esthetic race actually despises machinery on ae Cttint of its regularity and precision, and because it destroys all artistic individuality. The workman will always prefer the less expeditious hand work, if he can. An immense amount of material, moreover, is .Iosi through the carelessness of the workers." ' Other reasons for holding the Japanese harmless In industrial competition, at least for a long time to come, are pointed out by Dr. Jfitzsche. One of these is. the lack of economic concentration, as shown in the numberless small establishments with , a, very limited capital. In 1901 only seventy-eight banks jout of 1316 had a capital of over onemillion yen, while 376 banks had less than thirty thousand yen. The lack of capital within the last decade is severely felt, resulting in an abnormally high rate of interest. The bank rate is from 4 to 7.5 per cent for deposits, 9 to 14.5 per cent for loans, and 1JS to 5.2 sen a hundred hun-dred yen for call money., |