ABSTRACT
IT is necessary to give some further consideration to the development of political consciousness among the working class. In 1921 there was a sufficient revival of trade to arouse evanescent hopes that perhaps the outlook was more hopeful than it had seemed, but strikes after the slump of 1920 took on a different aspect. They were not merely “prosperity strikes,” but were associated with discharges of hands and reductions of pay. Naturally, too, they were associated with the study of the Socialist and Labour movements in Europe, and to be a Socialist was to be in constant danger of arrest and imprisonment. Some of the Socialists, Osugi Sakae setting the example, would refuse to stand up in court to hear their sentence. The outraged dignity of the court officials and their inability to make a man stand when he is determined not to do so made good copy for newspaper reporters, but though the demonstration was almost a childish one, it made a far-reaching impression as a demonstration of the impotence of authority when a man is bold enough to challenge it.
