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There are no actual labor unions in Japan, and labor organizations as such are in effect prohibited. There is, however, an organization known as "The Friendly Society," which has about 400 branches and 30,000 members and whose purpose is the general betterment of labor conditions. It may be stated definitely that the workmen of Japan, like those in most coher parts of the world, are acquiring the general habit of looking after their own interests in a collective way. This fact was illustrated, to a certain extent, by the objection to, and effective stopping of, the bringing of Korean railway laborers to the Moji district in the early summer of 1917. The Japanese manufacturers, in years to come, will no doubt experience labor troubles, but, notwithstanding this, they will be able to take care of many (if not most) of their own railway requirements in the future, particularly if they can secure the requisite raw materials; and, in addition, they will unquestionably be active competitors in the other railway markets of the Far East, especially through their utilization of Chinese labor in Manchuria and possibly Shantung. The Japanese are manifesting administrative and organizing capacity in the utilization of Chinese labor in those regions, although they may not make the occupation particularly attractive or interesting for the Chinese coolie in their employ.

RAILWAY EMPLOYEES AND WAGES.

The number of employees in the Japanese Government Railways, as of March 31, 1916 and 1917, was 19.5 and 19.7 per mile of line for the respective years. The Bureau of Railway Economics Bulletin 103 gives the average number of employees on those American railways that earn more than $1,000,000 a year, for the year ended June 30, 1915, as 6.3-this indicating that the Japanese Government Railways have, in round numbers, three times as many employees as American trunk-line railways.

The following table of wages for the several classes of employees from 1894-95 to 1915-16 shows, notwithstanding the present low wages, that the compensation for all classes of the Japanese Government Railways employees has practically doubled during this period. The president of the railways received in 1915-16 $311.55 per month; the vice president and engineer in chief each received $207.75; the 11 directors in 1915-16 received an average of $161.65 per month, as compared with $157.17 per month for the 6 directors in 1914-15; 7 engineers in 1915-16 received an average of $148.96 per month, as compared with $165.84 for 12 engineers in 1914-15. The wages of other employees have been as follows:

1894-95

Class of employees.

Number

Average
amount

1899-1900

Number
of

Average
amount

1904-5

Number

of

Average amount

of employees. per month. employees. per month. employees. per month.

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Officials and engineers:

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Preliminary figures give the average wages for 115,282 employees for the year ended March 31, 1917, as $9.75 gold, which is exactly the same as that for 1916, notwithstanding the large increase in all other classes of wages in Japan. It is stated, however, that considerable advances have been made since that time; the writer has no detailed information as to the amount. Bulletins Nos. 100 and 103 of the Bureau of Railway Economics give the average monthly wages of all employees of the before-mentioned American railways for the years ended June 30, 1913 and 1915, as $63.70 and $68.88. This shows that the average wages on the American railways, in round numbers, have been normally seven times as high as those on the Japanese Government Railways.

The performance figures of the Japanese railways for the years ended March 31, 1913, 1916, and 1917 show that 30,425, 33,650, and 40,700 ton-miles (2,000 pounds moved one mile) were handled per employee. The above-mentioned bulletins show that the trunk-line railways of the United States, for the years ended June 30, 1914 and 1915, moved 166,050 and 195,700 ton-miles for each employee, or, in round numbers, five times as many ton-miles per employee as the Japanese Government Railways. The same data show that the Japanese Railways for the years ended March 31, 1914, 1916, and 1917 carried 32,900, 32,300, and 37,800 passengers one mile for each employee, and the American railways for the years ended June 30, 1913 and 1915, carried 19,000 and 23,000 passengers one mile for each employee. More than 85 per cent of all the Japanese passengers are moved third class and less than 1 per cent are moved first class.

With the above data it is a very interesting computation to decide the relative efficiency of the Japanese Government Railways as compared with the American railways. In the writer's opinion the Japanese performances are efficient enough to warrant the statement that in all probability the Japanese will largely take care of their own manufacturing of railway materials in the future and (at least at times) be active competitors in other railway-material business in the Far East.

III. GENERAL TRANSPORTATION CONDITIONS.

COASTAL SHIPPING.

Japanese progress in shipping in recent years, particularly since the beginning of the present war, has attracted much attention. Coastal shipping in one form or another has for hundreds of years been a feature of Japanese domestic trade. At present the coastal shipping is very extensive and consists of a great variety of vessels, from modern steamships to sailing vessels-the latter being similar in many ways to the ordinary type of Chinese junks. All the industrial centers, particularly Osaka, Tokyo, and Moji, are served by this coastal shipping. The Osaka and Tokyo districts are both provided with a system of canals on which is moved a very considerable amount of traffic, practically to the doors of the small factories that abound in both of these districts; this also applies to a number of the large plants. The writer observed the operations on these canals in Osaka and was very much impressed with the immense advantage to the district of this system of transportation, connecting with a protected basin in the Osaka harbor, where materials were received and delivered directly from and to seagoing coastal vessels. This arrangement, with the labor available, unquestionably affords a cheap and effective local handling of freight and greatly relieves the street congestion of these crowded districts.

HIGHWAYS.

There are several historical highways or roads of travel in Japan, of which the most noted is probably the Takaido, the ancient highway from Tokyo to Kyoto and Osaka. There are roads over all parts of Japan largely used for moving agricultural products in mule carts, hand carts, and to a considerable extent by carriers. Few of these roads are macadamized, but since many of them are through the agricultural districts where irrigation is extensive, particularly for the growing of rice, the general practice is to raise the road considerably above the surrounding ground, generally giving good drainage. These roads are usually well maintained, and this method of construction in the course of time has caused the roads to become surprisingly hard, considering the class of material used in their construction, and the result might be called an extreme case of the adaptation or solidification increment as spoken of in the valuation of grading work.

CHARACTER AND DEVELOPMENT OF JAPANESE RAILWAYS.

CLASSIFICATION.

Railways in Japan can be divided into three groups, as follows: (1) Imperial Government Railways of Japan; (2) privately owned and operated steam railways; (3) tramways. The second of these are again divided into what are known as private railways and light railways. The private railways are lines not ordinarily having any guaranty from

the Government, although some of these private railways in recent years have made extensions and additions to the extent of $1,296,075 gold, which has been so guaranteed. The light railways are lines subsidized under the Light Railway Law, promulgated in 1911 and revised in 1914, whereby private light railways are guaranteed a profit, with the limit of 5 per cent of their construction expenses, for a period of 19 years after the date of opening for business. Most of this light-railway mileage has been built since the Railway Nationalization Law was passed in 1906, although a few of the lines were in existence as early as the nineties, and one in 1888. Tramways, as shown later, can be subdivided into electric, steam, gas-motor, horse, and man-power, and can also be subdivided into those municipally owned and operated and those privately owned and operated. No guaranty is made for any of these tramways, and they are therefore shown under one general group.

The following table shows the classification and general statistics of all classes of railways in Japan as of March 31, 1916. The mileage for the Government railways had increased to 5,857.6 miles by March 31, 1917, but as complete information for that year is not yet available the data for the previous year have been used:

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Dr. Watarai, in his "Nationalization of Railways in Japan,” gives the first proposals for railways as made by the English ambassador in 1869, which, after much opposition, finally resulted in the opening of the 18-mile line from Tokyo to Yokohama in 1872-the first railway in Japan constructed and operated as a Government line. The next was a Government line between Kyoto and Osaka, opened in December, 1873, and extended to Kobe in July, 1874.

Dr. Watarai very properly divides the history of the railway development in Japan between the Government railways and the private

railways; he then divides each of these into three different periods. The three periods for the Government development are as follows: (1) From the beginning to the completion of the Tokaido Railway, covering the interval from 1872 to 1879; (2) from 1890 to the nationalization in 1906; and (3) from that time to the present. The three periods for the development of private railways are: (1) From 1882 to the war, with China in 1894; (2) from 1895 to the nationalization in 1906; and (3) from that time to the present.

Until 1882 the actual building of railways was done entirely by the Government, although private interests had considered several projects. The first really private line was the Ueno-Kumagai line, 38 miles in length, opened in July, 1883. This line promptly showed a profit of about 10 per cent, and from this time until the beginning of the Chino-Japanese War private interest was active in building railways, with the result that by the end of 1893 (or practically the beginning of the war with China) there were 1,368 miles of private railways against a total of 557 miles of Government railways. Many of these private railways were given assistance in the way of loans or other help and encouragement from the Government, and from the first their construction was regulated so that there never has been any destructive competition between the various lines.

As a result of the war with China the need of railways was appreciated more than ever, particularly by the military authorities, and until the war with Russia there was a growing sentiment for the nationalization of all the important lines, though there was sufficient opposition to prevent such action. The result was that during this period Government building was accelerated but private building still continued extensively. At the end of 1904 (practically the opening of the Russo-Japanese war) there were 1,470 miles of Government railways and about 40 private companies, with a mileage of about 3,230, of which 2,340 miles were owned and operated by the six largest companies.

Since the nationalization in 1906 the private railways have been gradually disappearing and the so-called light railways, for the development of the immediate country through which they are built, are being encouraged and fostered by the authorities.

NATIONALIZATION OF RAILWAYS.

The nationalization of the Japanese railways is a very interesting incident in the world's railway history, and for a student of this subject Dr. Watarai's book, above mentioned, will be found to give a very good account of how it was consummated and the attendant results up to the end of 1914.

The first move to nationalize the railways was made in 1891 by the Matsukata cabinet. This same cabinet made the second effort in 1892. The third movement was made by the Liberal Party in 1899 as a result of the Chino-Japanese War. The fourth movement was by the Yamagata cabinet in 1900, and the fifth and final effort was made in March, 1906. This law was passed by the Japanese Parliamert in considerably less than a month by a large majority, notwithstanding the fact that if extended discussion had been allowed there would probably have been considerable opposition. It was first proposed to nationalize 32 of the largest lines, but the scope of the plan was reduced to include only the 17 most important railways. At

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