organisations, may be preparing a more vehement social conflict for the near future. LABOUR AND WAGES IN JAPAN ACCORDING to" N.," in The Japan Magazine, Japan is, like England, suffering from labour unrest. Looking back no further than the past five years, there have been no less than 140 strikes among Japanese labourers, involving protest on the part of at least 20,000 workmen; and it may be said that almost every month shows a remarkable tendency to increase. The whole question of labour and wage fluctuation in Japan is a very interesting one, a grasp of which will enable one to understand what to expect in the Japanese industrial world of the near future. During the last twenty years wages in Japan have in most cases almost doubled. Most economists would be inclined to attribute this to the constant increase in the rise of prices that has marked the course of Japan's progress for the same period; but a survey of the conditions will show that the rise in wages has been out of all proportion to the rise in prices. The cause of wage fluctuation in Japan seems to lie to a great extent outside the question of prices. Of course, the rise in prices has been a marked feature of the material progress of the world during the last ten years; but it is safe to say that the steady rise in the cost of living has been more phenomenal in Japan than in any other land, almost every necessity of life being nearly twice the price it was twenty years ago. At the same time, the rise in wages has been even more remarkable. Taking, for example, the year 1873 as the basis of 100, we have wages for common labour in 1887 at 133, a rise of 33 per cent. in fourteen years; but this is small compared with the rise during the ensuing twenty-three years, which was three times as much. The wages of maidservants, which in 1887 were only 67 sen a month exclusive of food, which in Japanese homes is always given with wages, had by 1897 increased to 1.24 yen per month, and in 1910 to 2.96 yen, which, taking 100 as a basis for 1887, would mean 440, or a fourfold increase. Skilled labour is stated to be so scarce in Japan as to be at a premium. AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS AND A MINIMUM WAGE. REGINALD LENNARD, in the Economic Review, states his reasons for believing that the good results of the proposed minimum wage legislation for agricultural labourers are sufficiently assured, and the evil consequences of a sufficiently nebulous and doubtful character to justify the experiment. The surgery of State In considering the economic consequences which might possibly follow from a determination of wage-rates, if carefully devised, it is necessary to deal with various hypotheses. The law might leave unaffected the industrial efficiency of either masters or men, or both of them. Or it might improve it in either or both cases. Or it might damage the efficiency of either or both parties. Into the various possible combinations of these hypothetical contingencies it is hardly needful to enter. Nor need the last of them-the supposition that efficiency might deteriorate in consequence of minimum wage regulations--be very seriously considered. Retaining the power of dismissal, farmers are not likely to tolerate a falling-off in the work of men to whom they are compelled to pay higher wages. And unless the determination increased the efficiency of the labourers in a greater proportion than their wages, there seems no reason to suppose that it would have a detrimental effect upon the skill or energy of the employers. If the labourers' work improved precisely in proportion to their wages, the cost of their labour would be unchanged, and the employer's position would remain as it was before. If there was no improvement in the labour, or an improvement less than proportional to the rise in wages, the farmers' cost of production would be increased. In this case the marginal or least efficient employers would either have to improve their methods or be driven over the margin into bankruptcy; and it follows that they could only be replaced by better men. SUBSTITUTE FOR APPRENTICESHIP. MR. CYRIL JACKSON, writing in the Edinburgh Review, refers to the decay of apprenticeship, and argues that some other means must be found to ensure reduction of uneducated boy labour : The only feasible way is to extend the period of compulsory school attendance, and to use the additional school time, partly or wholly, for industrial training. Apprenticeship of a kind will doubtless remain in some trades, more especially in the artistic crafts-e.g., silversmithing and cabinet-making. Perhaps it will continue in coach and motor building, and in the printing trades it may be maintained by a strong trade union with a shortened term of years. In the building trades it has already almost disappeared. Even the plumbers, who seemed likely by the nature of their work to require more special training, are finding it less important as iron replaces lead. The engineering trades, long the stronghold of the apprentice, are becoming more and more the home of specialised processes. Only premium and privilege apprentices, who are in training for posts as foremen and sub-managers, are now getting an allround training; the ordinary apprentices are placed in fitting or turning shops at once, and only learn to work the machinery of their special branches. BOYS UNDISCIPLINED. Boys to-day suffer from the want of control and discipline which the old apprenticeship system gave them. Neither employer nor parents can exercise effective control : The result of this want of supervision is seen in instability of character, in restlessness and irregularity at work; in fine, the boy loses those very qualities which command future success and which he was acquiring at school. For, whatever the shortcomings of the school, the discipline in them is remarkable and the diligence and regularity of the children beyond all praise. Practically to-day no compulsion is required, and all the children who are not prevented by sickness, or some other unavoidable accident, attend daily with cheerful punctuality, and inside school give ready obedience and attention to the teachers. To turn the boys out of school at the age of fourteen, when their intelligence is just beginning to quicken, and to give them over to unbounded independence when they have no capacity for self-government, is as thoroughly bad from the point of view of character as it is absurd on educational grounds. Under present conditions three-fourths of them give up all idea of further education when they leave school. Even if they were willing to attend even. ing schools, their hours of labour are too long to leave them really fit to receive instruction. EXPERIENCE IN MUNICH. As apprenticeship lasted until twenty-one, Mr. Jackson does not think that compulsory continuation school for half the day up to the age of eighteen is too much to require. In Munich general classes are held for those not engaged in the crafts. In the summer seven to nine hours a week are devoted to school, made up, as a rule, by taking one afternoon from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., another from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and the rest on Sunday. In the winter, in the building trades at any rate, twelve hours a week are spent in education, the hours so occupied being from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily. HOW TO MEET THE COST. How would the additional cost be met? Mr. Jackson answers : Alone among the civilised countries of the world the United Kingdom compels children to go to school at the early age of five, whether their parents wish it or not. In addition, children between the ages of three and five are received gratuitously in schools provided out of public revenue, if their parents choose to send them. Education at these ages is a farce; and the infant schools, though maintained at a very great cost, are really little more than crêches and playgrounds. It is submitted that the age of compulsion in this country might reasonably be raised to seven, leaving it still optional to parents to send their children below that age, but in that event charging fees. The resulting economy in public expenditure would render possible the extension of the school age as advocated above, and the establishment of an efficient system of half-time schooling for boys who have already started to earn a living. TRADES UNION CONGRESS AND SEAMEN. MERCHANT JACK, the man whose day is twentyfour hours for the whole of the seven days of the week-Sunday and Monday and all the rest that God sends-was, judging by the special report in the Nautical Magazine, well represented at the Workers' Parliament. Mr. Jackson, Secretary of the Seamen and Firemen's Union, in moving a resolution providing for efficient manning of ships and the safety of passengers and crew, said he spoke on behalf of those whom Samuel Plimsoll had described as the voteless and voiceless toilers of the deep. Shore workers had no conception of the hardships that seamen had to undergo at the present time. In 1850 this country owned five million tons of shipping, and there were 241,880 men and boys engaged in the trade, but to-day, in 1912, though the tonnage of shipping was 18,800,000, there were only 274,460 to do the work. The tonnage had increased by 275 per cent., and the men who had to do the labour and carried their lives in their hands only went up 16 per cent. The world had been startled of late by the increase in the number of ships which had proved to have been lost by insufficient and inefficient manning. In those cases the vessels were being heavily insured, so that it did not matter very much to their owners whether they were lost or not. Seamen were not concerned with the property, but they were concerned with the human life which was thus needlessly sacrificed. A Royal Commission which sat in 1895, whilst bringing about the concession that there should be six deck hands on all ships of over 700 tons register and 120 feet in length, at the same time put it into the power of the shipowning fraternity, by introducing the " not proven clause in the "articles," to bring men on board the ship who knew as much about sailor's work as a pig knew about astronomy. Let them look at the tragedy recently enacted when the finest example of marine architecture in the world-the Titanic-was lost with 1,674 lives, and as an old seaman he asserted that the Board of Trade were responsible for the loss of life in that disaster. When the boats of the Titanic were put out there were insufficient men to man them, and if the sea had been bad there would have been more loss of life. HAPPINESS AND SOCIALISM IN NEW ZEALAND. IN the Forum Mr. Hugh H. Lusk, a New Zealander himself, describes the recent developments in his Dominion as illustrations of practical Socialism : Their application to a small nation of one million citizens during twenty years has enormously increased the wealth, contentment and happiness of the whole people, and not of a small class of that people only: its application to a large nation of ninety-five millions would, the writer is convinced, have a similar effect. If so, it is Socialism, not theoretical but practical. It is this; but it seems to him it is something more than this -it is the reign of justice and fair play to all; of brotherhood and kindness to all, especially to those who have hitherto been deprived of these things for the supposed benefit of others. In a word, it is an effort, and already a largely successful effort, to carry rational principles to a rational conclusion. ARTS AND ARTISTS. CHORAL MUSIC IN ENGLAND. PROFESSOR BANTOCK'S VIEWS. MR. GRANVILLE BANTOCK, says Mr. Robert J. Buckley in the October Pall Mall Magazine, is aggressive, a born pioneer. Up to the present he has written about forty thick folio volumes of music, covering the whole range of the art, yet he did not take up music seriously till he was twenty. ORCHESTRAS TOO BIG. Speaking of the musical prospect in England, Professor Bantock told his interviewer it was hopeful. Things are looking up; we are progressing steadily. But orchestral music has developed towards megalomania. Bands are becoming too big, for financial reasons. Composers write for the band, making the chorus secondary; but the result is that the chorus gets six months' rehearsal and the band, the predominant partner, only a few hours'. To have a sufficient number of band rehearsals might cost several hundred pounds. The result is imperfection. Orchestras are too expensive, and the composer who relies on orchestral effects must suffer. We must return to orchestras of moderate dimensions. Strauss has taken instrumental music as far as it can go; Debussy has shown how much can be done with a small orchestra. England is primarily a singing nation, and our true and safe course of development is on choral lines. Every village in Germany has its orchestra; every village in England and Wales has its choral society. At the Blackpool and Southport Festivals Professor Bantock says he was amazed to hear all sorts of choirs singing the music of Bach and Brahms, and singing it expressively and intelligently. A MUSICIAN'S HOBBIES. Referring to music in the Birmingham University, Mr. Bantock said the desire was to produce musicans who will emulate Sibelius, Strauss and Debussy, in his opinion the best orchestral writers living. He also named Frederick Delius as a truly great musician, one of the most interesting of living British composers. The Professor has many hobbies. Napoleonic literature is one, and his shelves contain thirty-six volumes of Napoleon's letters. Another is Asiatic travel. He is familiar with Persian, French, Arabic and Greek, and he knows enough Japanese to enable him to read the titles of Hokusai's drawings. A Buddha from a Llama monastery in Tibet is his mascot. WELSH MUSIC. THE recent Esteddfod at Wrexham, says a writer in Wales for October, marked the highwater mark of success-in regard to the magnitude of the audiences and the number and excellence of the competitors. Financially, also, it was a success, for, notwithstanding the outlay of £5,000, there was a surplus of £1,000. Yet, we read, criticism has not been wanting. A CRY FOR reform. Mr. Granville Bantock, in delivering the adjudication on the chief choral competition, pointed out that Welsh music was in serious danger of losing its individuality and preeminence under the present condition of competitions at the Eisteddfod, and he urged Welshmen to establish a Welsh National School of Music if they desired to retain for Wales its position as the home of the first musical race in the British Isles. Many other suggestions for reform were made. Eminent musicians in Wales have time and again been pointing out the sterility of the festival in the domain of music, and the writer agrees that no music of commanding merit is being fostered under its ægis. Also there has of late been a marked depreciation in quality of the literary output. Thus a cry has gone forth for drastic reform of the old institution. CHINESE DRAMA. M. G. de BanZEMONT contributes to La Revue of October 1st an interesting article on Contemporary Chinese Drama. Scenic representations accompany religious festivals and every year, at the time tutelary divinities are solemnly venerated, a temporary theatre is improvised in front of the temple. In some large towns, however, permanent theatres have been erected, where plays are performed all the year round, except during the first month of the year and the time of mourning for an Emperor recently deceased. The stage is a simple platform with two doors. All the per formers enter together by one door and go off by the other. There is no curtain. When one act is finished the performers go off and others come on. At one performance, usually a dozen oneact pieces are given. Admission is free, but refreshments have to be paid for. Eating and drinking, the public follow the performance. The stage may be at the south, east, or north side, but never at the west side of the building, generally regarded as the unlucky side. Scenery is represented by tables piled up one above H another, representing mountains to climb or ramparts to storm. The costumes are of silk or gold and silver brocade for an Emperor, a general, or other high personage. The people are dressed as in real life. All the parts are played by men, women's parts being taken by boys. It is only during the last century or so that women might go to the theatre. The plays may be military and historical in character, or they may have to do with everyday life. The writer analyses several of them. Neither writer knows what to make of Mr. Shaw. To M. Cestre his plays appear profoundly philosophical. Though the paradox is his medium M. Cestre finds him profound and serious. M. Faguet, on the other hand, sees nothing but paradox pure and simple in the plays. Mr. Shaw, he says, has not the tranquillity, the calm, the moderation of Ibsen. His personages are not solid, they have no plenitude; everything is on the surface. In Ibsen one feels this plenitude. One feels why Nora leaves husband and children to recover her soul, and that there is foolish vanity but also some remorse in her determination. It is seldom one feels anything like that in Mr. Shaw's plays. He is not sincere in the real sense of the word. He amuses himself; he is a Swift. He is both a clown and a preacher, but M. Cestre thinks he is a preacher dressed as a clown, while M. Faguet is inclined to believe he is a clown dressed as a preacher. He is consumed with humour; humour has made him its eternal prey. M. Faguet doubts whether there is anyone in Europe with more wit. The plays performed at Paris were not a success. The French are blasé as to paradox, and the plays are too English. Mr. Shaw depicts only what he sees. Shakespeare and Molière depicted much more than they saw and became European in consequence. Mr. Shaw's plays might be described as paradox versus hypocrisy, humour versus cant. SONGS OF RUSSIAN EXILES. A SWEDISH musician, William Hartfeld, conceived the idea of visiting the prisons of Siberia to collect the songs of the people who furnish their contingent to these "houses of death." It was not an easy matter to arrange, but finally with the aid of M. Stolypin, himself a lover of music and national songs, he was enabled to undertake his quest. In La Revue of October Ist Léonie Siénicka gives an account of his enterprise. Arrived at Tobolsk, the exiles declared they knew no songs, but the governor of the prison explained to M. Hartfeld that songs, other than those of the Church, were prohibited in all the prisons. It needed the most categorical declaration on the part of the governor that they would not be punished this time if they sang for the visitor before any of the prisoners would admit their ability to sing and play. Finally, under a conductor chosen from their number, they performed a whole series of songs of the most diverse character. During his travels in Siberia M. Hartfeld collected and transcribed 120 songs and melodies, some as sung by the convicts and others as sung by the people of foreign races who inhabit different parts of the country. In the prisons musical instruments are forbidden, but the prisoners used combs to play their accompaniments, marking the rhythm by clanking their fetters. TWO WANDERING MINSTRELS. THE master of all the Minnesingers, Walther von der Vogelweide, is the subject of an interesting article by Mr. Henry Bett in the October number of the London Quarterly Review. THE MASTER MINNESINGER. During the last half century there has been a remarkable renewal of interest in the lyrical poetry of the Middle Ages and Walther von der Vogelweide (about 1170-1230) has been acclaimed afresh the greatest Minnesinger of South Germany. Many of his poems have been modernised and translations have made them accessible, though the translators are compelled to admit that reproduction of the original is almost a hopeless undertaking. As a minstrel Walther wandered from castle to castle and court to court, and passed his life depending on the fickle patronage of princes. One of these castles was the famous castle of the Wartburg, the home of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Legend makes him play a prominent part in the Sängerkrieg, or poetic contest, of 1206, when Landgraf Hermann summoned the best-known poets of the day to a trial of skill at this castle. Apart from the politics of his time, many of Walther's poems are difficult to understand. But it may be said he always denounced the Papacy and took the side of the Empire and German nationality and his poems exercised a widespread influence. His lyrics, in strange contrast, belong to a dainty world of fancy, and deal with gay ladies and gallant knights in place of flattering courtiers and mercenary priests, Kaisers and Popes. THE AUTHOR OF THE STABAT MATER. A very different type of minstrel was Jacopone of Todi, about whom Mr. James Foster writes in the Holborn Review for October. Converted to the faith of St. Francis, Jacopone (1230-1306) became a wanderer among the mountains, singing hymns and songs, for some ten years. Then we hear of him entering a monastery, and later he was involved in a strife with Pope Boniface VIII., the Pope who was the ultimate cause of Dante's banishment. As a writer of Latin hymns he is best known as the author of "Stabat Mater Dolorosa," familiar in the translation beginning "At the cross, her station keeping." His Italian poetry was written in the dialect of the people. It consists of satires, penitential hymns, etc Mr. John Addington Symonds attempted some English renderings, but acknowledged that translation was almost impossible. WHISTLER LITERATURE. THE autumn (October) issue of the Bookman is a double number containing two special articles on Whistler-one by Mr. Joseph Pennell, joint author with Mrs. Pennell of the "Authorised Life of Whistler," and the other by Mr. G. S. Layard. Never were the words "He being dead yet speaketh" better exemplified than in the case of Whistler, writes Mr. Pennell. "The idle apprentice" happily lived long enough to know that his place was among the great. Almost all his important canvases have been secured by the most important galleries, and his few great pictures still in private collections will be acquired by other galleries as soon as opportunities offer. In portraiture, in his nocturnes and marines, he is the modern master; in etching he is the supreme artist of all time, and his pastels, water-colours, and lithographs are among the triumphs of the art of our day, asserts Mr. Pennell. Moreover, Whistler's theories are accepted by those who never knew he propounded them as well as by those who knew he was right when he uttered them. It is only nine years since he died, and in that short time over sixteen books about him have been published. Mr. Pennell in his article has something to say of a number of these. Mr. Layard's article is based on the "Memories of Whistler by Mr. T. R. Way. IN LADY STREET. MR. JOHN DRINKWATER is a poet with a sense of colour, and his contribution to the Fortnightly will be appreciated by all who seek to discover romance and sentiment, even in mean streets. The poem is entitled "In Lady Street":All day long the traffic goes In Lady Street by dingy rows Fried fish, old clothes and fortune-tellers- 66 THE PEOPLE'S THEATRE. THE Royal Victoria Hall has again started its wonderful musical education of the masses. On October 3rd the grand costume recital of 46 Lohengrin" was given to a crowded audience. Surely whenever the attempt to have a national subsidised opera house in London is made, the promoters should consult Miss Lilian Baylis, the repository of all the secrets of the late Miss Cons, who, in spite of the supposed indifference of the working classes to good music, has been able to show practically that this indifference is all rubbish, and that, presented to them in their own home, as it were (for the Royal Victoria Hall is a true palace of the people), they appreciate it as fully as the most aristocratic audience could do. The programme for the season will include "Tannhauser, "Faust,' Rigoletto," "Fra Diavolo," and "The Daughter of the Regi ment," etc., and the presentation of these special operas, so modestly described as costume recitals, takes place on Thursday nights. The prices range from 2d. to 2s. It can easily be understood that help is needed to suplement these low prices, and those who wish to encourage so great a work should write to Miss Baylis, at the Royal Victoria Hall, Waterloo Road. |