are provided with radios and newspapers. These halls are reported to be the centers of edification and amusement in the villages. A radio consultation office is located in Tainan City to handle requests regarding radio such as the repair of sets, new subscriptions, and changes in subscriptions. Technicians to repair radio sets circulate in the province according to a regular monthly schedule, repairing sets either free or at cost. e. Motion pictures. Motion pictures in Taiwan are almost exclusively 35 mm. talking pictures. Of the 10,551 reels in 1938, 7,773 were Japanese products; 2,142, American; 9, Chinese; 306, German; 172, French; 115, English; 6, Russian; and 28 the products of other nations. The police inspected 2,198 pictures with 11,403 reels, while 1,220 pictures with 1,937 reels were exempt from inspection, apparently because they were official Japanese pictures. VI. ASSOCIATIONS 1. General statement. The many and varied associations in Taiwan spring in part from the life of the people and in part are superimposed by the Japanese authorities. This dual element is clearly evident in the agricultural societies, the credit co-operatives, the hoko, and the merchant associations, all of which were indigenous to the Formosan-Chinese and were then moulded by governmental authority to serve Japanese purposes. 2. Associations in the Japanese Empire. Mutual benefit associations of an economic nature, almost all of which extend credit to their members, are among the most important of Japanese institutions and are very numerous throughout the islands of the Empire. They typify the remarkably strong characteristic of the Japanese to align himself with others for the accomplishment of specific purposes and to act and exercise responsibility, not individually and independently, but jointly and collectively in organized groups. With the prompting of local officialdom, most of these associations are organized by the members themselves to serve their own needs: to provide credit, to fix wage and price levels, to establish standards of workmanship, to control competition, to purchase collectively and in large lots, to provide storage and handling facilities, to utilize fully and economically tools, equipment and machinery, to market and sell products collectively, or to accomplish other appropriate purposes. However, they are also used very extensively by the authorities as unofficial agencies of government to secure the better development and control of certain trades and industries, to enforce government decrees and regulations, to spread and propagate ideas of Japanese culture and patriotism, to prevent unfair practices, and to aid in the effective regimentation of particular occupational, industrial and commercial groups. In recent years many such associations have been formed at the direct request of the government in order to promote the attainment of these purposes. Government control is considerably facilitated by reason of the fact that all of the associations operate under government permit, and some of them also under government supervision. In the case of marketing and purchasing associations, for example, the government commonly fixes grades, standards, and prices and offers expert advice and other non-financial assistance. For purposes of licensing and registration, these associations are usually classified according to the functions which they are authorized to perform. These main functions or authorized activities consist of (1) credit extension, (2) marketing or selling, (3) purchasing, (4) co-operative utilization, and (5) retail selling through consumers' co-operatives. Usually the credit extension function is combined with one or more of the other functions, such as cooperative buying, selling, or utilization. The following is a list of the most common and important types of economic associations: Credit associations: generally known as shinyo-kumiai. They are authorized to engage only in direct credit activities, for which reason they have become less numerous and important than other associations which have broader power and can therefore engage in a wider field of activity. With capital accumulated from membership dues, periodical levies, and profits, these associations make loans and extend credit to participating members, who commonly belong to a variety of occupations. Marketing associations: usually known as hambai kumiai. They generally restrict their membership to a particular occupation and engage primarily in selling a particular product or line of products. Like producers' cooperatives in other countries, they benefit their members by negotiating contracts, selling in large quantities, providing warehousing and handling facilities, and by maintaining standards and prices. Purchasing associations: most often called kobai kumiai. Organized among members of particular occupations, they engage in collective purchasing, securing at favorable prices the articles needed from time to time by their members, such as tools, seed, fertilizer, or supplies. They differ from consumers' cooperatives in the seasonal character and limited variety of their purchases, in that they sell their purchases only to their members, and in the fact that they do not operate stores. Consumers' cooperatives: known usually as riyo kumiai. They purchase general merchandise at wholesale or from producers and sell at retail to their members and sometimes to others. As is the case with such cooperatives elsewhere, the savings effected by purchasing in large lots and eliminating middlemen's commissions are passed on to the members in the form of reduced prices, periodic dividends or other credits. At least some of these associations do not restrict their memberships to particular occupations. Utilization associations: are formed primarily for the purpose of purchasing, operating and maintaining tools, equipment, machinery, and other facilities for the joint use and benefit of the members of the group. It is a cooperative method of using to the best advantage of a particular occupational group, those tools of production which are ordinarily beyond the financial means of individual producers. Fishing associations: (gyogyo kumiai) engage in credit operations, undertake collective marketing and purchasing, and promote the improvement of fishing methods. Marine products associations: (suisan-kai) engage primarily in marketing with only limited credit and purchasing activities. Agricultural associations: (nokai) are organized chiefly for the improvement of agricultural methods and on the initiative of the government, which engages in demonstration work and subsidizes improvements through them. Usually, they perform marketing and purchasing functions as well. Associations are formed with one or more of these purposes and functions. Recently, credit, marketing, purchasing and ultilization associations have been by far the most numerous and popular. 3. Agricultural associations. a. Nokai (farmers' associations) and chikusan-kai (livestock farmers' associations). Under a law of 1908, the existing voluntary nokai were given a legal basis and regulations were established for their guidance. Each province came to have its nokai which became important auxiliary organs for the administration of the government's agricultural policy. A 1937 law unified all the provincial nokai into an islandwide Taiwan Nokai and separated the live-stock farmers from the previous nokai by establishing the Taiwan Chikusan-kai. The law took effect in 1938. Each province has its nokai and chikusan-kai supported by fees and assessments, but it is not known whether each gun and sho has a branch of the organization. In Tainan Province each nokai member in 1940 was assessed 30 sen plus 15 percent of the amount of his land tax; each chikusankai member 100 sen per head of cattle, 100 sen per horse, 100 sen for each hog carcass, and 30 sen for each sheep The latter two figures appear to refer to animals slaughtered; the former two, to stock on hand. The nokai budget for 1940 was as follows: carcass. Source: Taiwan Agricultural Review, No. 409, Special Number, 1939. The chikusan-kai included among its regular activities such programs as hog-skinning contests, special courses on horse raising, experiments with Indian oats to develop a new horse feed, experiments on heat-resistance of the horse, training of blacksmiths, standardization of live stock breeds, and operation of a model mixed-grazing forest. The special budget included expenses for horse racing. The association has done much to eliminate many of the undesirable features of horse racing and aims to put horse racing on a sound business basis. TABLE 30.-Chikusan-Kai budget for Taiwan and Tainan Province, 1940 b. Rice associations. Associations centering about rice production, storage, sales, and control are numerous, but their organization and interrelations are not clear. Rice control associations, composed of producers of rice and landlords who receive rice as payment from tenant farmers, were established under government auspices in 1936 in the cities, gun and sho. The purpose, at least in part, was the construction, over a period of five years, of warehouses for the long-term storage of over a million bushels of rice. The program of construction ended in 1939 for reasons of economy. In order to supervise the local rice control associations, a rice control federation was established. In each province there seems to be an association of rice dealers under the name of the Rice Merchants' Business Association. c. Other agricultural associations. The nokai and the chikusan-kai appear to be the only agricultural associations organized on a provincial or island-wide scale. The others are on a gun or smaller basis. A statement in the Taiwan Agricultural Review for 1939 gives the clearest picture available at present of these organizations. “Voluntary associations of farmers in Taiwan have increased with surprising rapidity in recent years. There were, in 1939, over 5,000 farmers' organizations of one kind or another. These organizations embraced such districts as gun, gai, sho, aza (village within a sho), hashutsusho (police branch station), ho, etc. Organizations based on gun, gai, and sho districts are, as a rule, engaged in giving direct leadership and encouragement to the farmers. They follow the lines of leadership set by the provincial authorities and by the provincial nokai, The noji kumiai (farm associations) and the nogyo kamiai (agricultural associations), both of which aim to effect general improvement in farming, the gyoden-kai (tenant associations), and kono showa-kai, which seek to improve the tenant-landlord relationship, belong to this group. The gyoden-kai was first organized in 1922 in Tainan Province, Shinei-gun. The organization proved its worth by bringing about improved conditions in tenancy practices in times of bad harvest, by arbitrating tenant disputes and by otherwise effecting general improvements in the tenant situation. Similar organizations spread rapidly in the five western provinces. Today these tenant associations are performing the most notable activities of all the agricultural associations." At the end of March 1938 there were 121 tenant associations in Taiwan based on the shi, gai or sho and 45 based on the gun. 4. Credit and consumers cooperatives. Sixty-five of the one hundred and ten credit and consumers cooperatives in Tainan Province in 1939 combined the functions of credit, sales, purchasing and utilization. Only twelve did not have the credit function. These probably were irrigation associations. All the credit associations in Taiwan in 1941 were reported to have 607,262 members; paid-in capital, ¥20,604,091; cash on deposit Y50,127,524; savings deposits, ¥182,452,140; money loaned, ¥152,636.512. The credit associations in December 1942, had savings deposits of ¥228,550,000 and loans of ¥166,208,000, while the banks in Taiwan had deposits of ¥522,425,000 and loans of ¥612,275,000. ¥70,000,000 of the bank deposits were deposited by credit associations. If the amount deposited in the banks by the credit associations is sub tracted from the total bank deposits, the savings deposits in the credit associations prove to be almost 50 percent of the amount of bank deposits. The interest rate on savings and loans is stated in terms of sen per day, 4 sen per day, for example, appearing to mean 4 sen per day on a hundred yen, or 14.6 percent annually. Interest rates on loans made by the credit associations during 1940 varied from 1.9 to 4.0 sen, and interest rates on savings from 0.7 to 3.0 sen. The maximum interest rate on loans at the Bank of Taiwan was 2.2, and the minimum 0.9 sen; while interest on savings was 0.5 and 0.1 sen as maximum and minimum. The interest rates on loans and savings have steadily decreased both in the banks and the credit associations since 1924. Secured loans constituted 52.9 percent of the loans made by the associations in 1940. The secured loans averaged larger in size than the unsecured, the ratio being ¥887 of secured to ¥205 of unsecured loans. The total association membership in 1949 consisted of agriculturalists, 63 percent; laborers, 18 percent; commercialists, 14 percent; industrialists, 3 percent; fishermen, 1.3 percent and forestry men, 0.6 percent. A greater part of the officials of the farming village associations are of the land-owning class. Officials are subject to approval of the government. The principal products sold by the association were rice, ¥40.999,069; tea, ¥3,972,226; citrus fruits, ¥2,648,967; jute, ramie and castor beans, ¥674,981; bamboo products, ¥435,019; and fish products, ¥399.805. The principal products purchased for members were: industrial goods, ¥34,501,625; fertilizers, Y32,597,535 ; farm tools, ¥247,060; "economic use" goods, ¥11,735,466; rice and grain, ¥7,093,512; food products, ¥1,860,519; feed, ¥1,470,391; hemp bags, ¥186,639; wine and tobacco, ¥864,991; foreign paper and miscellaneous, ¥1,916,442. The association was supreme in the management of agricultural warehouses. It managed 132 storehouses, while the nokai (farmers association) had but two on July 1, 1941. Considerable competition appears to have existed between the nokai and the other associations for the control of warehouses. Most, if not all, of the warehouses have equipment for hulling rice. The Tainan People's Credit Association is reported to play a prominent part in the financial and monetary activities of Tainan. The names and location of a number of other associations are known as follows: Hokko-gun, Gancho-sho. Gancho Shinyo Hambai Ko- Hokko-gun, Koko-sho. Koko Shingo Kobai Hambai Hokumon-gun, Shogun-sho. Kari Gyogyo Shinyo Kobi-gun, Niron-sho. Niron Shinyo Hambai Kobai Kobi-gun, Rompai sho. Credit association, but name Niitoyo-gun. Kijin-sho. Jinin Shinyo Kobai Hambai Shinka-gun, Yamakami-sho. A credit association re- Sobun-gun, Kanden-sho. Kanden Shinyo Kumiai Sobun-gun. Mato-gai. Mato Shinyo Kumiai, Toseki-gun, Gichiku-sho. Gichiku and Gyutowan 5. Business associations. A Chamber of Commerce exists in some of the larger cities of Taiwan. There are many dealers' and manufacturers' associations, and they are used by the government as instruments of control. (See Section VII, "Government," p. 32, for a list of names.) VII. GOVERNMENT 1. General statement. Government of the FormosanChinese by the Japanese is a combination of the thorough governmental methods developed in Japan to control almost every aspect of the life of the people, plus the exploitative practices of a highly developed colonial administration which keep the small minority of Japanese in complete control of the large majority of FormosanChinese. This control rests upon police powers, but also upon the manipulation of "voluntary" associations of Formosan-Chinese, in particular the hoko system. 2. Government control of economic life. a. General statement. The government owns the main railroad and bus lines, the telephone, telegraph and radio facilities, most of the forests, and has a monopoly of salt, opium, camphor, tobacco and liquor. Its extensive pre-war control of the general economic life of the island has been extended to a tight control of prices, production, distribution, wages, the movement of workers and other aspects of a war economy. According to the National Labor Service Law Pocket-book Enforcement Regulations (Kokumin Tomu Techo Ho Shiko Kisoku) of September 28, 1942, it appears that each laborer must carry a record book similar in nature to the military pocket book carried by soldiers. Control companies and control associations seem to be the chief mechanism for the control of commerce and industry. b. Control companies (Toseikai) and control associations (Tosei-kumiai). A number of control companies and associations had been established in Taiwan prior to Imperial Ordinance No. 831 of August 29, 1941, which provided for the establishment of such organizations in each type of industry. The regulations for the control associations are essentially the same as for the control companies, both being corporate bodies. It may be that the distinction in name is due to the fact that in certain lines of trade the people are accustomed to associations and in others to companies. A control company is established with a capital stock und upon order of the Governor-General who appoints the president and who may order the Control Company to undertake any necessary enterprise, or may order changes in the articles of association, or anything else necessary. The company establishes regulations and may assess fines against violators of the regulations. The president may, with the approval of the Governor-General, remove from member corporations any officials whose actions are particularly prejudicial to the conduct of control over the industry involved. A tendency to integrate and organize the individual control companies into super-control organizations can be observed in the organization in March, 1942, of the Federation of Industrial Associations, which in August had bank deposits of ¥25,399,000 and in the same month underwrote Taiwan Development Company debentures of ¥2,500,000. Branches were established throughout Taiwan. A supercontrol organization for basic food stuffs was announced on December 25, 1943, in an ordinance providing for the establishment of a Foodstuffs Control Company with a capitalization of ¥8,000,000, of which the government was to provide half. The entire island was considered one jurisdictional area, with branches in each district. All present distribution associations (for cereals, grains, starch, etc.) were absorbed and merged with the control corporation. A Taiwan Economic Diary for the year 1942 mentions the names of many associations and control companies, most of them organized in 1942, but it is not clear that all are control associations. The names are as follows: The Taiwan Association of Steel Industries. Taiwan Steel Goods Sales Control Co. (Taiwan Kozai Hambai Tosei Kaisha) Federation of Industrial Associations of Taiwan Taiwan Industrial Enterprise Control Co. (Taiwan Taiwan Farming Tools Mfg. Control Co. (Taiwan Taiwan Fiber-cleaning Tool Makers Assn. (Taiwan Taiwan Iron Manufacturing Industry Control Assn. Taiwan Council of Financial Institutions (Taiwan Taiwan Negotiable Securities Business Association. Taiwan Sauce Distribution Association (Taiwan Taiwan Timber Association (Taiwan Mokuzai Ku- Taiwan Fiber Goods Rationing Co. (Taiwan Seni Taiwan Miscellaneous Cereals Distribution Assn. Taiwan Dye Makers and Distributors Assn. (Taiwan Southern Fisheries Development Co. (Takunan Gy- National Association of Importers and Wholesalers Taiwan Glass Manufacturers Association. Taiwan Water Utility Assns. Federation (Taiwan Federation of the Sugar Wholesalers Associations |