The body of the article Japan (Vol. 15, p. 156) is by Capt. Brinkley, long editor of the Japan Mail, whose opportunities of seeing Japanese life from the inside have been greater than those of any other foreign observer. Baron Dairoku Kikuchi, President of the Imperial University of Kyoto, a statesman of great experience and authority, contributes to the article a section (Vol. 15, p. 273) dealing with Japan’s international position. His remarks upon the commercial morality of the Japanese are so ingenuous and so candid that an extract from them cannot be omitted:
Now when foreign trade was first opened, it was naturally not firms with long-established credit and methods that first ventured upon the new field of business—some few that did failed owing to their want of experience—it was rather enterprising and adventurous spirits with little capital or credit who eagerly flocked to the newly opened ports to try their fortune. It was not to be expected that all or most of those should be very scrupulous in their dealings with the foreigners; the majority of those adventurers failed, while a few of the abler men, generally those who believed in and practised honesty as the best policy, succeeded and came to occupy an honourable position as business men.... Commerce and trade are now regarded as highly honourable professions, merchants and business men occupy the highest social positions, several of them having been lately raised to the peerage, and are as honourable a set of men as can be met anywhere. It is, however, to be regretted that in introducing Western business methods, it has not been quite possible to exclude some of their evils, such as promotion of swindling companies, tampering with members of legislature, and so forth.
The account (Vol. 15, p. 201) by Capt. Brinkley of the curious system of creating branches of Japanese business houses is another part of this article which should not be overlooked.
Mill Labour
The proportion of labour cost to the total cost of production is in most industries so great that you cannot study too carefully every aspect of the labour question. The chief articles are Labour Legislation (Vol. 16, p. 7), jointly written by the late Dr. Carroll D. Wright, the great American authority on the subject, and Miss A. M. Anderson, Principal Lady Inspector of Factories to the British government; Trades Union (Vol. 27, p. 140); Strikes and Lockouts (Vol. 25, p. 1024); Wages (Vol. 28, p. 229), by Prof. J. S. Nicholson; Profit Sharing (Vol. 22, p. 423), by Aneurin Williams and Apprenticeship (Vol. 2, p. 228), by J. S. Ballin. The article Employers’ Liability (Vol. 9, p. 356), has already been mentioned.
CHAPTER V
FOR MERCHANTS AND MANUFACTURERS OF TEXTILES
Practical Men Among the Contributors
The Course of Reading outlined in this chapter will help anyone who has to do with the making or with the buying and selling of textiles, in three ways, at least, each of the greatest importance to him—and possibly in many more. Taking up these three:—In the first place, it will teach him many facts about manufacturing and merchandizing in general, and about dry goods in particular, that he could learn nowhere else, because the scope of the Britannica is broader than that of any other book—or, for that matter, than the scope of any collegiate course can well be. In the second place, the number of distinguished men who have devoted their exclusive attention to the subjects upon which they write, and have given to the Britannica the results of their research and of their experience as practical experts—in many cases, indeed, as successful business men—is far greater than the number of men who form the faculty of any university in the world. The fifteen hundred contributors in fact include no less than 704 connected with the staffs of 151 different universities, technological and commercial institutes and colleges in twenty countries. The reader thus gets the benefit of contact with the thought of many, of varied, and always of authoritative, personalities. In the third place, the textile trade is peculiarly an international trade, the raw materials often traveling from one end of the world to the other before manufacture, and making as long a journey in the finished form, before they reach the consumer, and the international character of the Britannica gives equal weight to the articles which deal with the textiles and with the markets of all countries—a statement which it would certainly not be safe to make about any other book.
Textile Fibres and their Treatment
The article Fibers (Vol. 10, p. 309), by C. F. Cross, whose name has been much before the public in connection with the recent scientific investigation of the subject, compares the fibres yielded by all the vegetable and animal substances used in textiles. The 18 microscopic photographs on the full page plates (facing pp. 310 and 311) and the table of vegetable fibres (p. 311) should be carefully studied. Cellulose (Vol. 5, p. 606) deals with the “body” of cotton, flax, hemp and jute fibres. Carding (Vol. 5, p. 324) deals with the brushing and combing of fibres. Spinning (Vol. 25, p. 685) covers both cotton and linen, and it is curious to note from this article that in preparing yarns for the exquisite Dacca muslins one pound of cotton has been spun into a thread 252 miles long; while the article Dacca says that a piece 15 feet by 3 was once woven that weighed only 900 grains. Yarn (Vol. 28, p. 906) deals with cotton, woollen and silk yarns. Weaving (Vol. 28, p. 440), by Prof. T. W. Fox, author of Mechanics of Weaving, and Alan Cole, is the first article you should read in a group dealing with processes applied to more than one material. The first section is on the various combinations of warp and weft, and contains 23 illustrations showing the chief weaving “schemes.” A section on weaving machinery follows, and then one on weaving as an art, illustrated with a number of reproductions of famous specimens of hand-loom work. The whole article is full of practical every-day information of the kind the merchant and manufacturer wants to know. Bleaching (Vol. 4, p. 49) describes the chemical processes which have expedited the bleaching of cotton, wool, linen and silk, which it used to take all summer to complete. Dyeing (Vol. 8, p. 744), by Prof. Hummel, author of The Dyeing of Textile Fabrics, and Prof. Knecht, author of A Manual of Dyeing, is another of the thorough articles which entitle the Britannica to rank as a great original work on textiles. Every dye is separately treated, and the latest models of dyeing machinery are carefully described. Finishing (Vol. 10, p. 378) deals with the processes used for cotton, woollens, worsteds, pile fabrics, silks and yarns. Textile-Printing (Vol. 26, p. 694) is by Prof. Knecht and Alan Cole, author of Ornament in European Silks, and not only describes all the styles of printing, but gives sixty recipes for various shades of colour. The full page plates reproduce fine specimens of early printing. The art of textile-printing “is very ancient, probably originating in the East. It has been practised in China and India from time immemorial, and the Chinese, at least, are known to have made use of engraved wood-blocks many centuries before any kind of printing was known in Europe.”