succession of twenty-four hour periods, and (_b_) summarily to close
public meetings, and (3) by the franchise being so narrow that few
trade unionists have votes. During the six years of the War there were
as many as 141,000 strikers, but a not uncommon method of these
workers was merely to absent themselves from work, to refrain from
working while in the factory, or to "ca' canny." Nevertheless 633 of
them were arrested. When I attended in Tokyo a gathering of members of
the leading labour organisation in Japan it was discreetly named
Yu-ai-kai (Friend-Love-Society, i.e. Friendly Society). Now it is
boldly called the Confederation of Japanese Labour. A Socialist
League[152] and several labour publications exist. Workers assemble to
see moving pictures of labour demonstrations, and a labour meeting has
defied the police in attendance by singing the whole of the "Song of
Revolution." But crippled as the unions are under the law against
strikes and by the poverty of the workers, they find it difficult to
attain the financial strength necessary for effective action. Many
workers are trade unionists when they are striking but their trade
unionism lapses when the strike is over, for then the unions seem to
have small reason for existing. The head of the Federation of Labour
lately announced that the number of trade unionists was only 100,000,
or half what it was during the recent big strikes and it is doubtful
whether, even including the 7,000 members of the Seamen's Union, there
are in Japan more than 50,000 contributing members of the different
unions. But this 50,000 may be regarded as staunch.

The poverty-stricken unions certainly afford no real protection to the
girl workers, who form indeed a very small proportion of their
members. And the Factory Law does little for them. A Japanese friend
who knows the labour situation well writes to me: