Kazuo Nimura
Takano Fusataro and His Times

  Chapter 13    The Decline of the Ironworkers' Union
            - the Public Order and Police Law -

Return to management at head office

In July 1899, just six months after becoming manager at the Cooperative Store, Fusatarô returned to Tokyo. This time it was not to his mother's house but to 1-12, Hongokuchô in Nihombashi ward. The building and property had recently been acquired to serve as head office for the Ironworkers' Union. Today the property is the site of 4-4-15 Nihombashi-Hongokuchô in Chûô ward and is located adjacent to Tokiwa Primary School. It was not a new building but was a previously occupied private house and also served as the head office of Kiseikai. Fusatarô moved back to Tokyo because at the executive committee meetings of the Ironworkers' Union and Kiseikai, both held on June 25, it was resolved to reappoint him to his former posts as secretary of Kiseikai's executive committee and member of the executive committee of the Ironworkers' Union. This time, however, the posts would not be unpaid; he would be a 'paid official'. He would receive a total of 25 yen a month, 20 yen from the Ironworkers' Union and 5 yen from Kiseikai.

Only six months earlier, Fusatarô had been replaced on the executive committee by Katayama Sen. How had these new developments come about?   A conceivable scenario is that criticism of and dissatisfaction with Katayama Sen as editor of The Labor World and permanent committee member of Kiseikai and the Ironworkers' Union had been building up.
    Most likely, the main problem that had surfaced was the short period of time Katayama spent at work every day. Before Katayama took over from him, although it had only been from noon onwards, Takano Fusatarô had been at the office seven days a week. By contrast, Katayama was there only three days a week, and only in the afternoons. This was bound to lead to problems in the running of an organization with over 2,000 members. At the same time, Katayama continued to preside over various undertakings at the Kingsley Hall and also needed time for his editing and writing work at The Labor World; he had no more time available for work at the head office of Kiseikai and the Union. In this context, people must have begun to talk about the need for Fusatarô to return. His return to his former posts on the executive committee, however, did not mean that Katayama was required to step down from his own place on the committee. The size of the head office committee was increased, and both men were accommodated in the group. Katayama himself seems to have been in favor of Fusatarô's return to the committee. This is indicated by the presence of Katayama's name in the Kiseikai negotiating team that sought to persuade the Union to pay Fusatarô 20 yen a month.
    Another reason for criticism of Katayama by other executive committee members was that soon after he joined the committee, The Labor World had swiftly moved in the direction of adopting a socialist position. When the Union had got underway, there had not been any great differences of opinion between Katayama and Takano. In the very first issue of The Labor World Katayama had insisted that "the goal of The Labor World is the improvement of society and not revolution. It is not in any drastic divisive struggle with capitalists but seeks to bring about a genuine harmony".
    But Katayama, who was strongly drawn to the ideas of Ferdinand Lasalle and who had a great interest in social reform, gradually moved in the direction of socialism. From October 1898, when together with Abe Iso'o, Kôtoku Shûsui and others, he formed the Socialism Study Group (Shakaishugi Kenkyûkai), articles by socialist writers began to feature regularly in The Labor World. Soon after Katayama took over from Takano on the executive committee, he started a new column in The Labor World titled "Socialism" (Shakaishugi). Its support for socialism was obvious, and the sense of unease about Katayama grew among those such as Fusatarô and Sawada Han'nosuke, who opposed socialism. Clear evidence of the differences between Katayama and Takano surfaced in April 1899, when an article titled "A Warning to The Labor World" (Rôdô Sekai ni keikoku su) was published in The Labor World in the name of Kiseikai. It included the following two warnings.

     (1)   By its strident attacks on factories where Kiseikai members are working, The Labor World is exaggerating bad behavior on the part of the workers and is upsetting workers' feelings. As a result, it is stirring up trouble for Kiseikai members.
     (2)   Also, The Labor World is promoting socialism and is attacking capitalist owners.   This leads to the danger that Rôdô Kumiai Kiseikai will be misconstrued as an extremist group that holds socialist principles and regards strikes as the only weapon of the labor movement.

In response to this, Katayama wrote a piece titled "My Stance" (Onore no chii) which appeared at the top of the front page of the following issue of The Labor World. The burden of his counterargument was as follows:

    The Labor World considered socialism to be humanitarianism (jinruishugi). While pointing out that it was in the interests of society as a whole, he claimed that anarchism and Russian nihilism were things to be opposed and that The Labor World was against such inhuman individualism. The Labor World had, he wrote, never engaged in extremist actions and did not approve of extremist, illegal behavior. It had always promoted practical campaigns and had striven to encourage self-discipline on the part of workingmen.
    It may have been that critics had carelessly and brashly misinterpreted what The Labor World was saying, but The Labor World's weapon was in holding to the truth, and if one was holding to the truth there was no need for scruples. p.244 If the critics were criticizing the fact that The Labor World believed in truth, then not one inch of ground was to be yielded to them. The Labor World stood wholly and entirely on the ground of truth.

For Katayama, The Labor World was a place where he could unreservedly declare his belief in truth, and from that position he was not prepared to budge an inch.   By this point in time, The Labor World was already functioning not so much as the newspaper of the Rôdô Kumiai Kiseikai but rather as the vehicle through which Katayama Sen could express his personal values.

The illusory campaign for the enactment of the Factory Law

Behind Fusatarô's return to the executive committee at head office there was a further bold plan by the Ironworkers' Union which it had resolved upon, having taken steps to secure a head office building. In short, this plan was to extend Kiseikai and the Union from its base in Tokyo and northern Japan throughout the whole country and make it a fully national organization. The method selected for this purpose was to campaign once again for the submission of a Factory Bill to the Diet, a campaign which had not long before failed just before it reached the Diet. It was thought that if such a new campaign could be launched, other labor groups would join in and a really large movement could be mobilized.
    The plan was presented as an urgent motion and passed at the same general committee meeting of the Ironworkers' Union that also voted to reappoint Takano Fusatarô to the executive committee. Fusatarô's active role in the recent campaign to revise the Factory Law was still fresh in the minds of the committee members, and so there was no opposition whatsover to his reappointment. Furthermore, the leadership of Kiseikai, which then received the Union's proposal, judged that this campaign movement offered them the best chance to make of Kiseikai a truly national organization. As an important part of the campaign, it was resolved to send Katayama Sen to the Tôhoku region (northern Japan) and then to the Kansai region (central Japan) to broaden the movement. The aim in sending Katayama to Tôhoku was not only to encourage the Japan Railwayworkers' organization Kyoseikai to join Kiseikai but to persuade Kyoseikai to join with Kiseikai in the campaign to get a new Factory Law presented to the Diet. In addition, it was decided that Kiseikai would lead the way in appealing to the various labor groups, including the Japan Railway's Kyoseikai, to set up a 'Factory Law Study Group', which would aim to draft a Factory Bill that would reflect workers' priorities.

Having been informed of these aims and objectives, at its next monthly meeting, the Kiseikai executive committee began to discuss the Factory Bill issue. Deliberations went on at its 25th monthly meeting on July 23, an extraordinary meeting on August 6, its 26th monthly meeting on August 27, and its 27th monthly meeting on September 30 and a Factory Bill was drawn up which reflected Kiseikai's concerns. Appeals were sent to the Japan Railway Kyoseikai, to the Printworkers' Union, to the Dai-Nippon Rôdô Kyôkai (All-Japan Labor Association) for them to join with Kiseikai in the campaign.
    However, despite all the high hopes at the outset, the campaign to present a Factory Bill to the Diet did not catch fire and eventually petered out. Not only was there no great assembly with other labor organizations, but Kiseikai did not even hold its own public assembly on the issue, and the initial goal of petitioning for a Factory Bill was not realized. The reasons for the failure were that cooperation from other labor groups was not forthcoming, and the Ironworkers' Union, which should have been the nucleus of the movement, suddenly lost its momentum, which led to a rapid decline in the membership. The Labor World reported on the results of the movement in its March 1, 1900 issue as follows:

February 13 eve. Council meeeting. The resolutions were as follows: ... Errors were found in the text of the petition document for the Factory Bill so that it cannot possibly be submitted to the present Diet. Consequently, council representatives will simply petition for the passing of a Factory Control Bill.

A flying visit to a Kôbe public meeting

At 10 p.m. on the evening of July 30, 1899, Fusatarô boarded a night train to Kôbe. At Jô Tsunetarô's request he was going to speak at a public meeting of the Anti-Chinese Workers' Immigration League. Jô was the representative of the Friends of Labor, which had been reorganized in Japan, and until the founding of Kiseikai in July 1897, he had been, with Takano and Sawada, one of the leading figures in the movement. However, although when Kiseikai started he was chosen as provisional secretary, later he was appointed to no official position at all. This was because, after he had given a speech at a public meeting, Jo was set upon by a group of thugs and beaten almost senseless. His assailants are unknown, but at the end of the previous year Jô was attacked by a fellow shoemakers and received serious injuries that required six stitches. During his medical treatment after the second attack, his chronic tuberculosis worsened, and he was forced to withdraw from activities in the labor movement. Then, with the added motive of relocating for the sake of his health, he moved to Kôbe, where his shoemaking junior and Friends of Labor comrade Hirano Eitarô was running a shoemaking shop.

In Kôbe Jô planned to set up a labor union study group and placed a notice to that effect in No. 26 of The Labor World and in No. 27 of the paper he listed the group's principles. The December 10 1898 meeting of the Kiseikai executive committee proposed that Jô be made an honorary member, and this was likely not only because of the hard work he had put in at the time of the founding but also because there were high expectations of his activities in the Kansai region. Kiseikai had members only in the Kantô area (around Tokyo) and north of that, so the organization had high hopes that Jô would be able to help in spreading it throughout the country. Both Kiseikai and the Ironworkers' Union were aiming for the goal of a 'Kansai movement' p.246 and started to raise funds for it, seeing it as a substantial step on the road to a national organization. Fusatarô's trip to Kôbe could be seen as the first move in this direction, but in fact, it was not a particularly deliberate move. That day, Fusatarô received a telegram from Jô Tsunetarô, and as he had been asked to speak at the public meeting that was to be held the following day, he responded immediately and boarded an overnight train that evening.
    It was the height of the summer holiday season, so after enduring a sleepless journey of 20 hours in a packed carriage, he arrived in Kobe in the evening of the next day and walked straight to the theater in front of the Nankô Company where the meeting was to be held. He was mostly unable to sleep at the party given after the meeting and on the following day, he had talks with Jô and members of the longshoremen's union about the possibilities for the labor movement in the Kansai region. That evening he returned to Tokyo. He had paid a lot of money for the train fare, had spent almost a whole day traveling to Kôbe and had come straight back to Tokyo without getting down to any organizational work. The reason was clear: that night saw the founding meeting of the Tokyo Western-style Tailors' Union, which was held at the Kanda YMCA Hall, and Fusatarô had promised some time before to give a speech at the meeting.

Sawada Han'nosuke had been engaged in the preparations for the establishment of this union for some time. At the beginning of an article in the No. 41 issue of The Labor World, which came out the day before the meeting, Sawada called for the formation of the union with the phrase: "A Call to Those in the Western-Style Tailoring Industry and to all Artisans".   While Fusatarô could not refuse the trip to Kôbe on account of his old comrade's request, neither could he fail to fulfil his promise to give the speech at the meeting in Kanda. The flying nature of his trip to Kôbe was the result of the obligation he felt to his two old friends.

Due to the effort expended in the trip to Kôbe, the trip did not result in any expansion of Kiseikai's organizational reach. The Anti-Chinese Workers' Immigration League was called a labor group but was essentially an organization for longshoremen. Over just a short period it had amassed some 30,000 members, no doubt because it was led by business owners. Links with bodies such as this were not going to help the labor union movement to expand.

Beyond this one public meeting, there were no results whatsoever for Kiseikai's movement in the Kansai region. There were countless appeals in The Labor World for financial contributions to the movement in Kansai, but the results were meagre, and the effort was concluded six months later when the following apology was published in the name of Kiseikai:

Since last summer, appeals have been launched for contributions for the movement in Kansai to which many have responded by sending money. But as has been published in The Labor World from time to time, the total amount received has not attained the amount that was targeted. During that period, requests for cooperation were made to the Ironworkers' Union, and negotiations with that Union entered into, but the Union had its own difficulties, and the present situation has been reached without the goal being attained. It is not impossible to press ahead with a campaign, but in such a case the original goals would not be achieved; on the contrary, one can well imagine that there is the danger that the hard efforts of all those who have made contributions would come to nothing, resulting in the delay that has been experienced. As the intention is to press ahead resolutely with the campaign if the appeal target is reached, at this point it was felt best to inform our readers of the situation and to render humble apology for it.

At the time Fusatarô returned to the Union head office, the Union was in a robust condition but the situation with the contributions and the fact that even union dues were not being paid meant that its vigor had rapidly declined since his reappointment, and furthermore, Kiseikai, whose members were overwhelmingly members of the Ironworkers' Union, had fallen into a parlous financial position.

Fickle unionists

In mid-1899 the Ironworkers' Union had seemed on the surface of things to be really flourishing. It had 37 branches in the Kantô (including Tokyo), Tôhoku and Hokkaidô regions and a total membership of 3,800. It had acquired its own office, and its paid officials had increased from one to two; it was seeking to raise funds for the movement in the Kansai region and appeared to be making positive efforts towards developing a truly national organization.
    But when one looks at developments at the level of individual branches, it is evident that the situation was approaching a significant turning point. In September 1899, less than a year since the founding of the Union, of the three branches at the Shinbashi Factory of JNR, Branch No. 15, whose members were finishing workers, had in effect disappeared. Branches 12 and 13, which were also based at the Shinbashi Factory, and which when the Union was founded, accounted for over 50 members, had shrunk to fewer than 20. Also on the point of disappearance in September 1899 were branches 18, at the Kôfu Railways, and 19, at the Tokyo Arsenal artillery equipment workshop.   Branch No. 3, based in the Yokohama area, had had over 400 members in the first half of 1898 but shrank to only 200 after the second half of that year.   The only branches which managed to maintain the strength they had had when the Union was founded were Branch No. 1, at the Tokyo Arsenal small arms finishing workshop, Branch No.2, at the Japan Railway Works at Oomiya, Branch No. 17, at the Navy Arsenal at Yokosuka and Branch No. 20, at the Ishikawajima shipyard. Well over half of the total number of branches saw significant fall-offs in membership compared to when they were set up.

On the other hand, new branches were formed in 1899: in July at the Oki Electrical Company and the Tokyo Arsenal small arms division rifle stock workshop, in September at the Ôji Paper Company, and in October at the Japan Railway Ômiya Works woodworkshop.   In other words, while the number of branches that could not even maintain their own existence was growing, the organization was expanding into new industries.
    The problem was that only eighteen months on from the founding of the Union the members' initial enthusiasm was begining to wear thin. Issue no. 34 of The Labor World reported the following situation:

    The position of officials at the Ironworkers' Union head office is an important one, and for the Union, general meetings of officials at head office arereally important meetings. However, the head office general meeting on March 26 last and the special general meeting of committee members held on the 2nd of this month (April) were not held due to the insufficient number of those attending.

The Union's highest decision-making body consisted of 44 members. On these occasions it was not even possible to assemble 15 of them - one third.

Union members who did not pay their dues - the union's worsening finances

From the time Fusatarô returned to work at the head office, the Union's finances rapidly worsened. As is clear from the table below which shows the Union's income from December 1898 to February 1900, while there were concerns about the decline in the number of members who were paying their dues, expenditure steadily rose. Added to the rise in costs incurred in acquiring the union's own office premises and the employing of a second full-time staff member there, the extreme late summer heat in 1899 led to two to three time the incidence of sickness in a normal summer and a rapid increase in the number of Union members needing financial support, which put a great strain on the finances. To get through these difficulties, the Union resorted to various tactics, and at the head office general committee meeting on August 20, 1899, the following measures were resolved upon:

Ways to increase income
   1.  Head office rather than branch offices to determine the date of payment of dues for each member and the method of collecting them.
   2.  Suspension of aid and relief to those members who do not pay their dues; suspension of the delivery of The Labor World to such members.
        Ways to reduce expenditure
   1.  Reduce the union's overall membership payment to Kiseikai by reducing the amount each member pays towards it from 5 sen to 2 sen 5 rin. Reduce the free delivery of The Labor World to once a month.
   2.  Reduce individual members' branch dues from 5 sen to 3 sen.
   3. Provide for head office costs within a limit of 3 sen per member.

These measures resulted in some temporary improvement, and the number of members paying their dues in September 1899 was higher than the maximum previously recorded 2,418 members.

Income and expenditure of the Ironworkers' Union

Period	Union Income		Paying Amount			Balance
	Number of paying members	Amount paid	Head office costs	Relief	Total
1897.12 - 98.2	1,288	772.80	461.60	-	461.60	311.20
1898. 3 - 98.5	1,030	985.40	560.57	134.20	694.77	290.63
1898.9 - 98.11	1,497	898.40	531.38	299.00	830.38	68.02
1899. 3 - 99.5	1,690	1,019.00	878.82	400.25	1,279.07	-260.07
1899. 6 - 99.8	2,092	1,255.00	884.50	684.40	1,568.90	-313.90
1899. 9 - 99.11	1,831	1,098.60	487.69	832.25	1,319.94	-221.34
1899.11 - 00.2	925	554.80	425.88	123.43	549.31	5.49

N.b. Hyôdô Tsutomu Nihon ni okeru rôshi kankei no tenkai (The Development of Labor-Capital Relations in Japan) p.173

But in expenditures, relief and support costs to members continued to rise steadily, leading to a series of substantial deficits. As a result, at the general meeting of the Union's head office committee on October 8, reductions in payments of relief were decided on as follows:

     1.  The payment of relief per day to be reduced from 20 sen per day to 15 sen and the date of commencement of payments of relief to sick members to be extended from 21 days from the start of the illness to 30 days.
     2.  Funeral costs to be cut from 20 yen to 15 yen and the applicability threshold for funeral aid payments to be raised from 6 months' membership to one year's membership.
     3.  Members whose families have suffered bereavement to have their allowances cut from 10 yen to 5 yen and the applicability of payment to be raised from one year's membership to two years' membership.

However, these radical money-saving policies - reductions in relief payments and the reduction in the free delivery of The Labor World from twice to once - had no effect; on the contrary, they only served to reduce the energy of the Union still further. An especially severe problem was the drastic decline in the number of dues-paying members: 1,544, the highest number ever recorded, for the following month of October 1,899, dropped suddenly to 1,509 in November and then 942 in December.

What accounted for this drastic fall-off in the number of members paying their dues?   One theory focuses on the cut in relief imposed in October.   This measure had the effect of depressing the members' spirits and led to many workers quitting the Union.   The fall in the number of members paying their dues immediately after the reduction in relief payments indicates the possibility that some members were angered by the reduction and left the Union, or that they cut the amount of the dues they paid.   But it is doubtful that this was the main reason for the drastic drop in members paying their dues.   Putting oneself in the position of workers who had joined the Union because they were attracted by the offer of relief payments, those payments had not been completely terminated but only reduced, and it is hard to imagine that they would suddenly quit the Union and opt to thow away the right to receive the relief payments that they had acquired.

Dismissals of the arsenal workers - 'exemplary punishment'

In fact, the reason for the sudden fall-off in membership at the Ironworkers' Union lies elsewhere. At the Tokyo Arsenal, the main organizational base of the Union's membership, there were increasing moves to force workers to quit the Union, and activists were being sacked to set an example. The Labor World was apt to overlook such incidents, avoiding reporting on them as it feared the impact such reports would have on Union members. However, the Mainichi Newspaper on December 2, 1899 carried the following report:

    Mamie Kintarô, Takahashi Sadakichi and others who were enthusiastic activists for the Rôdô Kumiai Kiseikai organization were sacked from their jobs at the Tokyo Arsenal for no obvious reason whatsoever.

Mamie Kintarô, who had been laid off, had occupied a number of official posts in the movement: he had been a member of Kiseikai's standing committee since its founding, a founding member of the Ironworkers' Union, the No. 10 Branch delegate to head office committee meetings and was the deputy general manager at the Union's head office.   In September 1899 there were 161 dues-paying members at the No. 10 Branch to which he belonged, but this number fell to 60 in October, 43 in November, and 22 in December.   From January 1900 onwards, it was zero.   There can be little doubt that this decline reflected the pressure exerted by the Arsenal management as exemplified by Mamie's dismissal.
    Like Mamie, Takahashi Sadakichi had been a zealous activist since the founding of Kiseikai, a founding committee member of the Ironworkers' Union, the No. 5 Branch elected delegate to head office committee meetings and a member of the Kiseikai special campaigns committee; he had also been active as an advocate for workers at public meetings up and down the country.   In September there were 50 dues-paying members of the Union in his No.5 Branch, 23 in October, 21 in November, 15 in December, 11 in January and zero in February - a similar pattern to that in No. 10 Branch. This is probably to be seen as reflecting the same direct impact of the dismissals of Takahashi and the others.   The Mainichi Newspaper report of the dismissals refers to "Takahashi and others", so others seem to have been sacked with him.

It thus seems that from the autumn of 1899 a new hardline policy was implemented at the Tokyo Arsenal with regard to the Ironworkers' Union and that the effect of the subsequent dismissals spread through the Union membership.   Even without reports in the official Union media, workers soon got to hear of such incidents.   The fact that important events such as the sackings of Union officials could not be reported in The Labor World itself shows the weakness of the organizational strength of the branches at the Tokyo Arsenal.   Defending the sacked activists in the name of the union movement was the most important duty of a labor union, but the Union members at the Arsenal were unable to take such action and quit the Union.   This also suggests that while Mamie and Takahashi had been conspicuously active outside the Arsenal Branches, at their workplaces they had been unable to gain the support of their comrades.   From the beginning, the Ironworkers' Union had grown steadily at the Arsenal because the technical engineers there had been present at the Union's founding ceremony, had shown understanding for the union movement and also because Muramatsu Tamitarô had advocated organizing unions around senior, experienced workers.   The engineers had shown this understanding for the Union because Kiseikai and the Union had consistently followed a moderate line, had an understanding of factories in the West and did not have such a hostile attitude towards labor unions.

However, from the autumn of 1899, the situation took a rapid turn.   It is not known whether the new direction resulted from orders from senior army commanders or from a change of policy at the Tokyo Arsenal, but at some level or other, the policy towards the Ironworkers' Union clearly changed.   It is likely that in the course of the discussions in the Diet in early 1900 of the Public Order and Police Law, the following concerns of officials at the Ministry of Home affairs were communicated by some route to the authorities at the Tokyo Arsenal as the reason for the Bill:

    Above all, if producers who supply military materiel were suddenly to be affected by strike actions, it would have no small effect on the capacity to wage war.   For example, if workers at the Arsenal were to go on strike during a war, our nation's military would be placed in an exceedingly disadvantageous situation.

When the outer circumstances changed in this way, the union organization that had proceeded under the favorable conditions of the engineers' support quickly began to collapse.
    Among those companies and enterprises which the Ironworkers' Union saw as the organizational basis of its activities there were, of course, from the time of the founding of the Union those which had an antagonistic attitude towards the Union.   For example, immediately after the Union was founded, the Yokohama Shipping Company put pressure on foreman Hirai Umegorô, who had been appointed General Manager at the Union's head office, and forced him to quit the Union.   The early collapses of the the Union branches at the Shinbashi Factory of JNR and the Kôbu Railway Company were most likely due to pressure applied by the managements of those railroad companies after they had seen and heard about the Japan Railway Company locomotive drivers' strike and became apprehensive about labor unions.   The Japan Railway Company itself, which had experienced the strike, was wary of the Ironworkers' Union early on.   Not only many of the top mangement but also many among the foremen and shop floor senior workers made no attempt to disguise their open hostility towards unions. The Union members at the company went on steadily with their efforts to organize in these difficult circumstances, and compared to branches at other companies, created a solid organization.   The Labor World was quick to report frankly on the Japan Railway management's hostile policy towards the Union, and its critiques pointed up the strength of the Union branches at the company.   For example, soon after the founding of the Union, the following report appeared:

Difficulties at the Ômiya Works
    The Ironworkers' Union movement at Ômiya is currently encountering a number of difficulties.   These are all due to problems occurring with the onsite technicians at the Ômiya Works, some of whom think that workers engaged in labor union campaigning ought to be sacked or else they summon the men's workgang leaders and make emotional appeals to them not to forget their obligations to the shareholders by getting involved with the union.   Or else, they say that the Union is alright but that the workers should withdraw from it for a while, or else that workers who end their connection to the Union will get a pay rise. By resorting to all kinds of low tactics such as these, they are trying in innumerable ways to block the Ironworkers' Union movement....

Despite these company tactics, the Union managed to set up a number of branches within the Japan Railway Company: No. 2 Branch (Ômiya), No. 23 Branch (Fukushima), No. 26 Branch (Morioka), No. 39 Branch (Ômiya Carpenters), No. 40 Branch (Mito) and succeeded in extending the organization in an atmosphere of conflict and tension with their foremen and supervisers. Of the more than 1,300 workers who were working at a number of large sites in the Kantô area in 1897, at the Ômiya Works, the number of Ironworkers' Union branch members was of the level of 150-200, the highest in the Union.

At any rate, it is worth noting that the Union branches were able to maintain and extend their organizational effectiveness at a company that was pursuing a suppressive policy against unions.   That locomotive engineers at this company were able to take strike action and secure improvements in their working conditions and were then able to establish The Japan Railway's Society to Correct Abuses (Nittetsu Kyoseikai), which was even called "a model organization of a militant labor union", and then even went on to succeed in getting the sacked strike leaders reinstated testified to the strength of the Union branches at the company.
    However, even at the Japan Railway Ômiya Works there were dismissals of Union members in November 1899.   A Union member was sacked after he had criticized a foreman's petty despotism at the foundry at the Ômiya Works.   The Ironworkers' Union No. 2 Branch openly began to organize a campaign in support of the sacked man, and Katayama Sen and others lent their support to the campaign.   They called on the President of Japan Railway to remonstrate with him, and claiming the role of 'mediators', sought to persuade him to reinstate the sacked worker.   The Union introduced a special 5 sen per member levy and held a number of public meetings at Ômiya.   This time, unlike the case of the sackings at the Arsenal, The Labor World reported on the case with a critical piece entitled "Rottenness at Japan Railway Ômiya Works". Eventually however, the dismissal was not revoked.   This proved to be a turning point and thereafter, the No.2 Branch at Ômiya, which had been the most energetic Union branch, fell under increasing pressure.

It is my view that the main reason for the rapid decline in the fortunes of the Ironworkers' Union from the autumn of 1899 onwards was due to the increasing severity of employers' attacks on the Union.   Another factor in the decline which cannot be overlooked is that the ordinary members did not have a really strong consciousness of belonging to the Union.   We shall cite here again a passage already quoted from Katayama and Nishikawa's The Labor Movement in Japan where they explain the reasons for the decline of Kiseikai in 1900:

When union members who had joined the union without actually understanding what the labor movement really meant, simply because they had been attracted during the boom years of the movement, and later quit one after the other, and a leading member put his own livelihood first and were not necessarily able to devote himself wholeheartedly to Kiseikai.

In other words, there were among the membership those who had 'simply joined during the boom years of the movement' and who then 'quit one after the other' when things became more difficult.   Without a sufficient understanding of the labor union movement, they joined the movement because their mates had joined and then soon quit afterwards.   As we shall see later, the proposal to raise the union dues by 2 sen to try to address the Union's financial difficulties did not become a contentious issue and was rejected without any fuss; this too was doubtless a reflection of the same background factor of the members' weak motivation and consciousness of what it meant to belong to a union.

The cooperative store at Hatchôbori

The Union's worsening financial situation directly impacted on Fusatarô's livelihood, as he was a paid employee. It meant that salary payments might well be delayed. It is likely that in order to cope with this situation, Fusatarô moved to Hatchôbori and started a cooperative business. From the following report in The Labor World of November 1, 1899 it would appear that the store must have been opened in October.

    Mr Takano Fusatarô Mr Takano has moved to 2-4, Hatchôbori, Kyôbashi Ward.

This was not just a notification of a change of address; the reason for the move was given in the English language column of the same issue of the newspaper:

    Mr F. Takano today opened a general store which distributes profit to the patrons by means of a partial application of the Lodgedale (sic.) [Rochdale] method.

The cooperative store was aimed at serving the Ironworkers' Union members who were employed at the Ishikawajima Shipyard and at the Oki Electrical Works (later Oki Electrics). This is clear from subsequent short reports and notices in The Labor World.

    Only a short time has passed since the opening of Mr Takano's cooperative store, but the venture is reported to be doing extremely well, and the store now apparently also has patrons in Urawa. Mr Takano's attention to detail and his enthusiasm are certain to bring his venture trust and profit. We trust that his store will enjoy the success it deserves as the first real profit-sharing store. (Issue No. 50)

    A clubhouse for workers at Ishikawajima has been set up on the second story of the cooperative and is splendidly well fitted out. (Issue No. 51)

    I would like to thank you most warmly for your kindness at the time of establishment of the cooperative store. I ought to have offered my thanks in person but I have been so busy at the store that I have had to take the oppotunity of offering my gratitude in the form of this notice.
               Takano Fusatarô    The Cooperative Company (Kyôeisha)
          2-4 Hatchôbori, Kyôbashi ward, Tokyo
To the workers at Ishikawajima Shipyard and Oki Electrical Works (notice in Issue No. 51)

There were five branches of the Ironworkers' Union at the Ishikawajima Shipyard: No.16, No. 20, No. 21, No. 31, and No. 32.   At the shipyard effective power was in the hands of the labor gang boss Ozawa Benzô, who was also a leading union activist, and this was a great advantage for the Union which it did not enjoy at other companies.

At the end of the Tokugawa period (late 1860s) Ozawa Benzô had moved from being a blacksmith to an ironworker, one of Japan's first of the new 'western-style metalworkers'; he had many workers under his command and at the Ishikawajima Shipyard he had the role of overseer of the workforce.   Ten years before the establishment of the Ironworkers' Union, with his brother Kunitarô and others he was a pioneer of the ironworkers' movement who had planned the formation of an ironworkers' union.   At the time their efforts were not successful, but in 1889 he was the leading figure in a combination of ironworkers from theTokyo Army Arsenal and the Tanaka Mechanical Engineering Works who formed an organisation called the Dômei Shinkôgumi (Workers' League for Union and Progress).   The Dômei Shinkôgumi introduced new workers to companies, mediated between labor and management at times of dispute, set up a workshop aimed at teaching workers technical skills. It was a group that deserves to be called a forerunner of the type of organization such as the Kôgyô Dantai Dômeikai (Federation of Engineering Groups) that Muramatsu Tamitarô and his colleagues later established. Rumors spread that Dômei Shinkôgumi funds were being used in a corrupt manner, and the group was forced to break up. With all this experience of the labor movement behind him, Ozawa was one of the first to join the Ironworkers' Union and served in the Union's pre-eminent representive post as the Chairman of the Union Head Office Council.

No. 38 Branch which had organized at the Oki Electrical Works, had been formed around July 1899 and was still brimming with its early enthusiasm.   Having opened the store at Hatchôbori, Fusatarô's decision to turn the upper floor over to a 'workers' clubhouse' for workers to socialize was not just for the sake of his own livelihood; he surely was aiming to restoke the energies of the Ironworkers' Union on the foundation of the Union branches at Ishikawajima and the Oki Electrical Works.   But it proved no easy matter to run the store and carry forward his activities as central committee member at the Union head office.   His wife Kiku was still breastfeeding their first child, and Fusatarô had to spend much time at the store. He spent many days pedalling to and fro on his bicycle between the store in Hatchôbori and the Union head office at Motoishichô.

'An aesthetic of manliness' - Takano gives up his remuneration

On January 30, 1900 the Ironworkers' Union held a 'Special Head Office Committee General Meeting'.   The regular meeting was to have been held on the 21st but it had had to be postponed owing to heavy snow.   The deliberations of the special general meeting were reported in detail by The Labor World.   It is a rare case that we are able to know how Japan's first labor union conducted its meetings and the real state of the Ironworkers' Union were told by those who involved, including Takano Fusataro.   So the citation is rather long, but it is worth looking in detail at how the meeting went.

Jan. 30, 7.30 p.m. meeting held at head office. The committee members took their seats, and the chairman first took the roll. (names omitted)
    Chairman:   15 committee members are present, which constitutes over a third of the total and thus a quorum, so the meeting will now begin...
    Chairman:   A record of the meeting will be taken and will be printed in The Labor World. No motions have been submitted by the branches. Head Office has no motions to put forward either, so I am hoping that some of you will have something.

It was rather unnatural to arrange for someone to record the notes of a meeting with no motions from either head office or the Union branches, that is, a meeting where it was not even clear what was to be discussed, but Katayama Sen, the chief editor of The Labor World had probably arranged for that beforehand.   The chairman's name was not recorded anywhere, but from the content of his remarks, it was almost certainly Katayama.   There were 44 committee members altogether, so on this occasion 15 constituted the minimum for a quorum. It was noted that there were, besides the committee members, over 20 others present. It was a Tuesday, and many committee members were attending after a day's work, and so it is not surprising that many were absent.
    The first issues for discussion were the finances and the current level of unionization.

    Umakai (Chônosuke: No. 4 Branch delegate to head office) :   At the previous special general meeting it was resolved to put into effect methods to reduce full provision of relief payments. Is there currently any prospect that such payments can be resumed?
    Accounts manager Nagayama:   Since the last special general meeting the Union's finances have been consumed ravenously, and debts have had to be incurred. We have had to take temporizing measures. We are going to repay this debt from this month forward on a monthly basis and intend to repay the debt, which is 300 yen, between now and June at a rate of 50 yen a month. Currently, relief payments are being paid at one fourth of their original sum and we should be able to maintain this rate of payment and expand our activities, but because we made inappropriate use of our remaining base capital before taking out the loan, we shall have to do so only after we have paid off the loan, otherwise it is very doubtful that we will be able to expand the newspaper and other activities. As for the collection of Union dues, if we manage to collect the amount we did last September and October, we shall get by, but if it is the amount of last November and December, that will not be enough. Large branches such as those in Yokohama and elsewhere, which had been remitting 30-40 yen each in dues were now sending only 7-8 yen or 12-13 yen. From now on, if we do not manage to return to the situation of last August and September, we shall have to cut production of the newspaper to twice a month and we shall then easily be easy to repay the loan, but with the present situation this cannot be guaranteed. We cannot take any adventurous risks.
    Tanida (Hideshirô...No. 27 Branch delegate to head office):   How many members do we have at present ?
    Chairman:   2,500 names are registered on the Union list. However, those paying their dues in December numbered around 1,000.
    Yoshizawa (Shûzô....No.30 Branch delegate to head office): When did the number of members begin to fall?.....
    Chairman: We have not heard from all branches at this point, so we cannot be certain, but from investigations we have made here at head office, the fall began last September and had become significant by December.

These statements form an important record of the condition of the Ironworkers' Union in January 1900. In particular, from the chairman's last statement, it becomes clear that the onset of the fall in membership was in September 1899, and that by December there had been a sharp decline. It is also evident that in January 1900 there were about 2500 members of whom only 1000 were paying their dues. The finances were thus under great pressure, much of the basic capital had been used up, and the crisis had been averted by securing a loan from the bank, but the Union was left in a very tight corner.
    The next topic for discussion was whether to return to a twice montly distribution of The Labor World from the once monthly system they had been forced to adopt by the financial difficulties, and if they were to do so, how could they contrive a way to afford it?

    Umakai: My question is, I was wanting to return to a twice monthly distribution of The Labor World, and if the finances don't allow it, then it can't be helped, but if a newspaper that's published twice is distributed only once, then we shall only get half of any good discussion of issues....
    Chairman: If the provision of relief money were reduced, your wish could be granted...
    Takeda: A newspaper for a thousand people means no small amount of money.
    Chairman: It would require 30 yen. Twice a month [distribution] would mean having to pay Kiseikai 5 sen per copy.
    Takeda: We should pay 5 sen per copy.
    Matsuo (Suketarô...No. 12 Branch delegate to head office How about distributing twice, raising the price per copy by 2 sen and the Union dues to 22 sen?....
    Tanida: You all here may not think so but when you go to the branches the members there will tell you, as you know, that Kiseikai is of no obvious benefit to them. Many fellows say that it's no use joining it.

Next up for discussion was the proposal to raise the dues from 20 sen to 22 sen as an obvious way to solve the financial crisis.   Although it was only over a matter of a two sen increase, it was rejected after hardly any real discussion.   The opinion that 'it makes no sense to become a member of Kiseikai which brings no direct benefits' was widely shared among the membership and the fact that a rise in membership dues could not even become an issue at such a meeting shows the weakening of the centripetal forces that held the union together.
    An important proposal was made next.   It was proposed that The Labor World be distributed twice a month and that to guarantee funds for this, the number of members of excutive staff be reduced.   The proposal came from Suzuki Hangorô, a Union council member.   He was the deputy manager of accounts at the head office and a member of No. 30 Branch which was based at the Tokyo Arsenal small arms rifle body workshop.

    Suzuki: I feel, after all, that The Labor World should come out twice a month.   The level of dues is not sufficient for this. I am wondering where cuts can be made that will enable the costs of The Labor World to be met adequately ... Some may say that the movement should be contracted, but by reducing the number of executive officer to one, we can have a twice monthly distribution of The Labor World. If we can agree to drop one man from the excutive staff, we'll be able to distribute The Labor World twice a month.

As a major item of the meeting, this proposal may well have been partially discussed beforehand.   It may also be that, at this meeting that supposedly had no agenda, the fact that a notetaker had also been prepared in advance was not unrelated to this proposal.   The meeting accepted the poposal and discussion continued:

    Matsuo: I am against it.   Even at once a month The Labor World has to have two excutive staff.   Just one will not be enough.
    Suzuki: I think one is enough for office work.
    Tanida: I'd like to hear about the work of the office staff.
    Takano: As you members of the head office committee will be aware, I am of the view that the need for the appointment of executive officer goes without saying.   Distributing The Labor World twice a month is certainly the desirable thing to do.   At last December's general meeting it was resolved to resurrect this, but there has had to be a temporary retrenchment, and Mr Suzuki's proposal has resulted from the fact that the current condition of the finances does not allow a return to twice monthly distribution.   Without saying that there must be a reduction to one executive staff, I believe it would be good to have one unpaid member of executive officer.   I had been intending to suggest this to the council for some time but there was no opportunity to do so.   As an executive officer I am paid 20 yen.   I would therefore like this to be discontinued from January 1.   I hope that this will suffice to cover the costs of the distribution of the newspaper.   As the need today is to come to an agreement about how to cope with the financial pressure we are under, I think it would be really good if we had one paid and one unpaid member of staff.   However, we would still be some 15 yen short, so I would like to hear views on how we can find a source of funds to fill this gap.

Fusatarô here had actually proposed that his own payment as executive officer be terminated.   In effect, he had caustically commented that "I am not engaged in the movement for the sake of money".   Of course, he was able to say such a thing because he thought that his livelihood would be securely based on his work as manager of the cooperative company.   This proud man most certainly felt that he wanted to determine his advances and retreats in life by himself and did not wish to be in a situation where he was forced to quit by someone else.   This was, so to speak, Fusatarô's 'aesthetic of manliness'.

When considering the question of a reduction in the number of the excutive officers, the candidate should not only have been Takano but also Katayama.   From considerations of personal livelihood and of the amount of time that could be committed to the movement, Katayama was certqainly such a candidate.   From the point of view of personal livelihood only, Katayama's situation was much more stable than Fusatarô's; he owned the Kingsley Hall in which he lived, he managed enterprises which yielded him an income such as a kindergarten and school and also earned an income from his writings.   Nevertheless, the head office general meeting quickly moved to accept Takano's proposal and decided to confirm Katayama as an paid secretary and Takano as unpaid secretary.   Anyone could recognize that the fact that the decision to remove Fusatarô's income could be taken so easily signified that, at that point, the leadership of the Ironworkers' Union had slipped from his hands.

The promulgation of the Public Order and Police Law

Just at the time when the Ironworkers' Union was struggling to cope with its financial difficulties, it was hammered from another direction - the Public and Police Law (Chian keisatsu hô).   This was promulgated on March 10, 1900 and came into force on March 30, 1900.   In marked contrast to the Factory Law that Kiseikai had wanted to see passed and which took almost 20 years to move from the proposal stage to enactment and enforcement, the Public Order and Police Law was passed by both Houses of the Diet after just 11 days' deliberations and was promulgated.
    The Public Order and Police Law was passed as a revision of the 1890 Public Meetings and Political Societies Law (Shûkai oyobi seisha hô) and many of its clauses were continued from that earlier legislation.   The Public Meetings and Political Societies Law was passed with the civil rights movement in mind and its main object was to regulate political activities.   The Public Order and Police Law, on the other hand, was characterized by a series of new controls - those placed on the labor movement.   It is quite evident that behind this change was the emergence of Rôdô Kumiai Kiseikai and the Ironworkers' Union, and then the Japan Railway strike and the Nittetsu Kyôseikai that was formed after the strike.   The proposer of the new legislation, Arimatsu Hideyoshi, secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs, gave the following explanation at the Diet as the 'reasons for the legislation'.

    As you know, unions of laborers, that is, combinations are now active in Osaka, Tokyo and elsewhere, today even in Kyûshû, and it has become increasingly common for them to resort to strike actions when seeking changes in the clauses of work contracts or pay increases....  As you will know, as a result of a strike by workers at a certain railway company, the railway ceased operations for several days.   That the public should have to suffer as a result and be to no small extent inconvenienced thereby, and that the situation has come to this point in today's society in which the rule of law obtains, is truly deplorable.   Whether it be in this large factory or mine or that shipping transport or in other manufacturing concerns, when workers go on strike, it does not only cause damage to a single company, there are many cases of harm caused to society as a whole.   Above all, were manufacturers who supply the armed forces with military equipment to be suddenly affected by strike action, it would have no small effect on the capacity of the military to perform its duties in time of war. For example, if during a war, arsenal workers went on strike, our military would be placed in an extremely disdvantageous situation. From the perspective of the national economy, it would not only cause great harm to our country but would lead to great inconvenience in our trade and other relations with foreign countries.

With his words as a result of a strike by workers at a certain railway company, Arimatsu was clearly referring to the locomotive drivers' strike at the Japan Railway Company and by if during a war, arsenal workers went on strike... he certainly had in mind the existence of the Ironworkers' Union, which had its main organizational base at the Tokyo Arsenal.

However, in the actual text of the new Law there are no clauses that provide for any prohibition of workers' unions. Perhaps that is why the preamble to the Bill included the following explanation:

In principle, the government recognizes workers' rights to form unions or take collective action in pursuance of wage rises or other claims. Consequently, it is the government's belief that excessive legal restrictions in such cases are not desirable in the present conditions of society.

Nevertheless, until its deletion in 1926, article 17 of the Law had the de facto effect of suppressing the labor union movement.   What kind of ordinance was article 17?   Let us look at the text:

The aims of the following clauses relate to those who seek to gain advantage from committing violence against third parties, or who seek to intimidate or defame [hiki] third parties. The aim of the second clause relates to those who entice or incite third parties.
     1.   Forcing others to join unions in order to engage in collective action in relation to working conditions and remuneration or attempting to prevent others from joining those unions.
     2.   Collective dismissals or strikes; employers' summary dismissal of workers or summary rejection of applications for employment; workers' refusal to work or refusal to accept notice of dismissal.
     3.   Obtaining by force the consent of others with regard to working conditions or remuneration

Hiki (defamation, defame) is a word not normally used nowadays but means to slander or libel someone. The text of the law appears to treat workers and employers evenhandedly, but of course, the concern and target of the bureaucrats at the Ministry of Home Affairs was actually workers, not employers.
    Acts of violence, intimidation, and libel were all actions subject to punitive sanctions under the criminal law, but whereas in the case of normal libel, if the person libeled did not bring charges then there was no case to answer, under the Public Order and Police Law, it was at the discretion of the authorities to determine what constituted libel.
    Another problem was the second clause, which actually had the effect of making strikes illegal.   The clause prohibits 'the enticement or incitement of third parties' with a view to starting a strike, but a strike can hardly be expected to occur if someone does not take a lead and seek to persuade others.   By regarding such attempts at persuasion as 'enticement' and 'incitement', strikes could be banned.   This clause gave the police legal sanction to ban any strike at any time as they saw fit.   The harsh penalty for violation was between one and six months' imprisonment, added to which was a fine of between 3 yen and 30 yen (clause 30).

Since its founding, the Ironworkers' Union had trodden a very careful line with regard to strikes.   It did not deny the workers' right to strike but consistently followed a policy of seeking a solution to disputes by acting in a mediating role.   Also, the head office of the Ironworkers' Union did not directly organise campaigns for wage rises and improvement of working conditions for those workers under its umbrella.   When Union branches engaged in disputes the head office did no more than offer support by seeking to act as 'mediator in the dispute'; it strenuously tried to avoid supporting strikes as such.   Nevertheless, it can well be imagined that the passing of the Public Order and Police Law would severely damage the movement in the future.   On February 14, the day after the new law was passed, a 'Discussion on the Public Order and Police Law' was therefore on the agenda for discussion at the Union's next regular monthly meeting and the following points were resolved upon. [N.b. Article 18 of the published Law was Article 17 in the original bill]:

    With regard to Article 18 of the recent Law and the question of how far it will impact the activities in which this Union has been engaged, we venture to believe that they will not be affected by the law.   However, there is the danger that it will create difficulties for the Union to press for the workers' advantage when acting as mediator in disputes.   Now that the law has been passed, we should, as soon as possible, call upon the head of the Office of Police, the head of the Office of Commerce and the chief of police and hear their views and accordingly, determine the stance of the Union thereafter.   The Chairman has therefore delegated this task to three committee members: Katayama Sen, Nagayama Eiji, Sawada Han'nosuke.

The Ironworkers' Union, which, at its peak, had campaigned so vigorously for the Factory Law did not have sufficient strength left to mount a campaign against the passing of the Public Order and Police Law which was feared would have such a direct impact on the union movement.   But even if it had had had the requisite energies they could not likely have been mobilized in the mere 11 days it took between the submission of the bill and its passing into law; there simply was not sufficient time.
    However, The Labor World came out strongly against the new law.   The front page of issue no. 56 (March 15, 1900) carried a critical article by Katayama Sen titled 'Workers and the Public Order and Police Law'.   The 'Miscellaneous Reports' column included the article "The Public Order and Police Law Means Suppression"by Kôtoku Shûsui, while in the 'Features' column was an article titled "Oh no, here comes a law of repression" by Nishikawa Mitsujirô.
    It has been claimed repeatedly that it was the Public Order and Police Law that crushed the newly-born Ironworkers' Union.   Many have argued that the Public Order and Police Law was 'the death sentence for labor unions' or 'the union-banning law', and certainly, the law did have a considerable negative impact on the Ironworkers' Union.   However, it was not the case that the Public Order and Police Law soon forced the Union to disband.   The fact of the matter was that the rot had set in at the Ironworkers' Union even before the law was passed.