n better homes, eat more wholesome food, wear better
clothing, have more leisure {174} and more recreation, endure less
bitter toil; in short, we find human life fairer and sweeter than our
fellow man in Asia, not because you or I as individuals deserve so
much better than he, but because of our richer racial heritage. We
have been born into a society where a higher level of prosperity
obtains, where a man's labor and effort count for more.

In China a member of the Emperor's Grand Council told me that the
average rate of wages throughout the empire for all classes of labor
is probably 18 cents a day. In Japan it is probably not more, and in
India much less. The best mill workers I saw in Osaka average 22 cents
a day; the laborers at work on the new telephone line in Peking get 10
cents; wheelbarrow coolies in Shanghai $4 a month; linotype operators
in Tokyo 45 cents a day, and pressmen 50; policemen 40; the
ironworkers in Hankow average about 10 cents; street-car conductors in
Seoul make 35 cents; farm laborers about Nankou 10 cents; the highest
wages are paid in the Philippines, where the ordinary laborer gets
from 20 to 50 cents.

Since writing the foregoing I have looked up the latest official
statistics for Japan in the "Financial and Economic Annual for
1910," the latest figures compiled to date being for 1908. In 1908
wages had increased on the whole 40 per cent, above 1900 figures,
and I give herewith averages for certain classes of workmen for 1899
and 1908:

Daily Wages in Cents
1899 1908
Farm laborer, male $0.13 $0.19
Farm laborer, female .08-1/2 .11-1/2
Gardener .24 .34
Weaver, male .15 .22
Weaver, female .09 .12
Shoemaker .22-1/2 .32-1/2
Carpenter .25 .40
Blacksmith .23 .34
Day laborer .17 .26-1/2

When I asked Director Matsui what he paid the hands I saw at work on
the Agricultural College farm, he answered, "Well, being so near
Tokyo, we have to pay 30 to 40 sen (15 to 20 cents) a day, but in
the country, generally, I should say 20 to 35 sen" (10 to 13-1/2
cents a day).

{175}

Moreover, there is a savage struggle for employment even at these low
figures; men work longer hours than in America, and their tasks are
often heart-sickening in their heavines