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Show jFEi JAPAN'S GHEAP LABOR Has Increased Foreign Trade Since Outbreak of Great War ' . (By International News Service.) LONDON. "Japan has Increased her foreign trade threefold since the outbreak of the great war. She has abundant and well-disciplined labor, gladly accepting about one-tenth the rate asked by the English workers. Her textiles and silk goods sell from Lancashire to the heart of Brazil. Her shipping lines are taking the place in world trade once held by Germany," writes F. A. McKenzie, in the London Express. "Her great weakness Is that many of the Japanese goods are slight, trumpery and unreliable. The world took them when it could buy no better, bet-ter, but the world Is already returning return-ing to its old producers. Tho experienced East India merchant mer-chant laughs at Japanese competition. They will never do anything really big,' he tells you. 'They are commerce com-merce hogs, and want to grab everything every-thing Tor themselves. You cannot trust them. Permanent business cannot be built up without trust. Their expansion expan-sion is a mere flash In tho pan.' Old-Timer Wrong. "The old-timer is partly right Tn his facts. But wholly wrong In his conclusions. con-clusions. The Japanese conduct busl-iess busl-iess according to a standard of their own, which Is not altogether our stand-1 ard. But their methods are improving and every year wo feel their competition competi-tion more. This is the mc remarka-ble remarka-ble because of tho tremc-i. Is handicaps handi-caps they have Imposed on themselves. them-selves. "The great .apanese industrial organizations or-ganizations work hand-and-glove with the government. Co-operation between politicians and traders, to the mutual interests of both, is carried in Japan at least as far as in any country in the world. The Mikado's government, when it became firmfcy established,' recognized that foreign, trade was es-j sential for world greatness, and so It started to foster it. High protection, heavy subsidies, and liberal orders to infant industries were inaugurated. Picked young men were sent at government gov-ernment expenses to manufacturing centres all over the world, particu J larly to England to Newcastle and Sheffield. Oldham and Bradford, i Thamesside and Glasgow. They noted j everything. A certain acount of ma chinery was imported. In some cases one machine was enough. The Japanese Jap-anese look it to pieces and mado it their model to build others. Paradise for Employers. . "A factory system was introduced without factory laws. Child labor and girl labor were driven to the maximum. maxi-mum. Young women from the country camo under contract to the great mills that sprang up around Osaka. They were herded in compounds, paid about two-pence a day and their food. They are housed sometimes in the roughest sheds,, and -worked ' twelve hours" a day. The factories ran the' wholo twenty four hours round, seven days a week, on two twelve-hour shifts. Here wasi a happy land where there were no strikes, no unions, no organized labor troubles. It as an industrial paradise for the employers. A few peoplo did try to introduce Socialistic doctrines among the workers; they wero arrested arrest-ed in a bunch, convicted of plotting i " O win- unit t.vuuli lull. "The factories grew to a hundred thousand workers, half a million workers, work-ers, seven hundred thousand workers! Eventually factory laws had to be passed. "At tho same Lime the Japanese began be-gan to make sure of exclusive markets mar-kets outside their own country. They were hampered by European and American diplomatic superstitions about the maintenance of the "open door" in the Far East, Now, the Russian Rus-sian in histattompt to monopolize the Far East, bragged a lot about how he was going to have everything for him-! self, while actually his advance helped our trade. The Japaneso tried another plan. They solemnly promised that iho door should be open, then shut it, declaring that their meaning of 'open door' Avas different from our meaning of the same words. Europe Awakens. "Europe, after a time, gradually awakened to the fact that Japan was building her own ships in place of buying buy-ing them from us, that she was sell' ing to our own customers; that she was making machinery not only for herself, but for her neighbors, and that) the output at the Osaka mills was Underselling Un-derselling Lancashire in Lancashire itself. it-self. "Then came the war. TJie world was now forced to go mainly to two countries coun-tries for its supplies. America and Japan. "Had Japan been five years further forward ehc might then have made her position secure over half the world. But, the opportunity came before site was really prepared to meet it. She turned out goods on an enormous scale. South America, Australia, India and tho Islands of tho Pacific had to rely on her, but the Japaneso killed their trade In many lines in Europe and America for a generation ahead by shoddy production. "Thero-was great improvement in quality, however, even during tho war. Many of the Japaneso goods which reached England in 1919 were far su-j su-j pcrior to those that came in 1915. The (Japanese are shrewd enough to learn, as Germany learned, that 'cheap and hasty' is not enough. "We nre only at tho beginning of Japanese commercial competition. It .will replace German in many mar-ikets." |