ABSTRACT
Japanese have been taught for years to do many useful things with their hands. Manual training has always been a necessity in rural districts where each househoid made paper and cloth, wove baskets, did needlework and wherever possible used their hands to make the necessities of life. When mechanical production made its demands for skilled workers it was soon discovered that country girls showed great skill in operating spindles and were adept at running all kinds of machines used in manufacture. With their natural skill in using their hands the girls are easily trained in factories. Today they are housed in dormitories where living costs are held to a minimum and entertainment, such as movies, is furnished. They work a few years and save enough to go back to the farm, marry, and settle down. Workers are always changing so that old people do not have to be employed. Even supposing that machine production, by its skill and cheapness, will threaten the existence of the fine art of handicraft production, yet the genius of the art periods of the past will reappear in the machine productions of the present and future.
