person well qualified to express an opinion said that a "wise and
benevolent" chief constable could exercise a good moral influence.
Others believed in public opinion. A policeman said, "The first thing
is for people to have food and clothes; without such primary
satisfaction it is very difficult to expect them to be moral." In
considering the influence of the police and the schoolmaster it is not
without interest to remember that a chief of police and the head of a
school receive about the same salary. Assistant teachers and plain
constables are also on an equality. I found the salary of the
administrative head of one county, the _gunchō_, to be only 2,000 yen
a year.

I was told that in the prefecture we were passing through there were
no fewer than 360 co-operative societies. The credit branches had a
capital of two million yen; the purchase and sale branches showed a
turnover of three million yen. In time of famine, due to too low a
temperature for the rice or to floods which drown the crop,
co-operation had proved its value. The prefectures north of Tokyo
facing the Pacific are the chief victims of famine, for near Sendai
the warm current from the south turns off towards America. I was told
that the number of persons who actually die as the result of famine
has been "exaggerated." The number in 1905 was "not more than a
hundred." These unfortunates were infants "and infirm people who
suffered from lack of suitable nourishment." Every year the
development of railway and steam communications makes easier the task
of relieving famine sufferers.[122] In the old days people were often
found dead who had money but were unable to get food for it. As Japan
is a long island with varying climates there is never general
scarcity.