Source: Tanaka Shozo, Japanese politician, petition to the Emperor of Japan, 1901.
"For years, the poison from the Ashio copper mine has flowed into the rivers, ruining the fertile fields of several provinces and destroying the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers. The government, in its haste to industrialize and strengthen the military, has turned a blind eye to this devastation, protecting the profits of private mining corporations at the expense of its own subjects. If the laws are not reformed to restrain the greed of capitalists and protect the health and property of the common people, the nation itself will perish from within."
Based on the passage and your knowledge of world history, which of the following best describes how the author’s proposed solution to the problems of industrialization differed from the goals of revolutionary Marxists during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?
- The author sought to reform existing legal and political institutions to regulate capitalist enterprises, whereas Marxists called for the complete overthrow of the capitalist system and the abolition of private property.Answer
- BThe author urged the state to implement regulatory protections for workers and farmers, whereas Marxists argued that the primary goal of the working class should be lobbying the capitalist state for moderate legislative reforms like child labor bans and minimum wages.
- CThe author argued for state intervention to protect vulnerable citizens, whereas Marxists adopted Social Darwinist arguments to assert that the suffering of the working class was a necessary biological process of societal evolution.
- DThe author proposed mercantilist policies to restrict copper exports and hoard mineral reserves, whereas Marxists argued that private industrial corporations should operate without state regulation to maximize global trade.