Page:The Cannery Boat.pdf/119

Rh But the onward march of industrialism got the better of the farmers’ tenacity, and this land, too, became factory sites.

The farmers had worked because they hoped to become rich like the soy manufacturer; that was why doddering old men and children went out into the fields.

When Uematsu changed his concern into a company, and increased the capital, he urged the farmers to take shares in it. They, with five or six shares each, were in high joy, feeling that they too had entered the ranks of the soy manufacturers. They mortgaged their property to make the payments. To make sure the stocks wouldn’t be stolen, they hid them under the old matting and just as before went on toiling away in rags. The farmers, rejoicing at the prospect of dividends, did everything possible to scrape together the money for the payments.

They paid at the rate of fifty yen a share. Next came the dividends.

But actually what did happen next? … The bonds they had hidden so they wouldn’t be stolen were taken from them, with their paddy-fields and the rest of their lands.

“This is no good!” They found themselves completely fleeced. “Ah, ah, what a pity we did it!”

But still they did not know how to defy Uematsu.

Now the case was different.

Now the soy workers felt independent of Uematsu; they did not bow and scrape. They planned how they could get back what had been