The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 23, 1926, Page 9

ae By James H. Dolsen. N my book entitled “The Awaken- ing of China,” which will be pub- by the Workers Party in March, I compare the condition of the Chinese workers, men, women and especially children to that which prevailed among the working masses of Eng- land during the early years when the factory system was first displacing hand industry. Altho the workers ‘of China, thus effected number millions where the workers of England num- bered hundreds of thousands, there is, indeed, so marked a resemblance that we can see here before our very eyes the same social material for the study | of which Karl Marx had to resort fo the archives of the British Museum and the great libraries of Paris. One trouble with us all is we do not real- ize that the drama of history is taking place before our very eyes. I was again impressed with this fact the other day in a most curious fashion.. I happened to drop into a second-hand bookstore and by the merest chance, picked up the second volume of a work by C. Edwards Les- ter, entitled “Condition and Fate of England,” published in 1842. A glance _ at the first page interested me, tho I had never heard of its author, and I doubt if ten others in this country have. The book concerned the hor- rible sufferings of the British workers whe were dispossessed by the intro- duction of the factory system in that country, and was an eloquent plea in their behalf from the humanitarian standpoint, The following quotations from this forgotten volume will give the reader some conception of the agonies thru “which the Chinese workers are pas- sing right now, in this year 1926. Re- member, that the conditions in China are even worse than those dipicted here, tho their prevalence in the Eng- land of the first half of the last cen- tury seemed “monstrous” and “ap- palling” to.the writer at that time. wollm! ordex,to show the conditions ‘athongzthe: factory operatives of Eng- land, Lester quotes the London Morn- ing Post, of February, 1841: “Thirty thousand children, many of them under eight years of age, are worked in cotton factories even now in many cases, more than twelve hours a day. Nay, these helpless are compelled (as was fully proved be- fore a parliamentary committee) to walk after the machinery from twen- ty to thirty miles a day. The cruelties proved by irresistible evidence, to be committed on these helpless victims of our gambling system of trade, are sufficient to chill the blood of every person possessed of the ordinary at- tributes of humanity.” ‘ Would Kill Every Third Child. “For several years,” Lester com- ments, “the destitution and distress of the lower classes (workers) have been steadily and rapidly increasing. The cry of helpless poverty is going up from every hamlet in Great Brit- ain... The state of society is so de- plorable, there are political econom- ists who have proposed as the only measure of relief, if the present state of things is to continue, that every third child born in the three kingdoms (Britain, Scotland and Ireland) should be instantly put to death.” He points out that not only were the conditions horrible beyond belief among the factory workers, but that there were great numbers enduring even worse conditions in the hand-in- dustries and small establishments which were forced to face the compe- tition of the growing capitalist sys- “Let us contemplate,” he continues, “the condition of infant laborers out of the factories. Their number prob- ably exceeds, says the London Quart- erly Review, ten times those who are engaged in the cotton, woolen, wors- ted and linen factories... No laws regulate their wages, employments, or hours of labor. They are engaged in the manufacture of lace and silk, and fn all the various trades of the king- dom; and the sufferings they endure are probably far greater than were ever inflicted on the childrem of the large factories... The following are a few of the principal employments in which children are engaged. In manufacturing lace, silk, And It’s Worse Thin printing, buttons, paper, etc. There is nails, arms, iron works, glass, calico- printing, buttons, paper, etc. There is | scarcely a branch of the immense sys- tem of British manufacturers which does not demand and exhaust the strength of your children. A history of these infant sufferers would appal the stoutest heart...” He quotes the Review's conclus- ions: “It is a monstrous thing to be- hold the condition, moral and phys- ical, of the juvenile portion of our operative classes, more especially that which is found in the crowded lanes and courts of the larger towns,—the charnel-houses of our race... Damp and unhealthy strata left altogether without drainage; frail tenements, low and confined, without convenience or ventilation; close alleys and no supply of water; all these things over- topped. by the ne plus ultra of rent, reward the contractor and devour the inhabitants, “Emerging from these lairs. of filth and disorder, the young workers— ‘rising early, and late taking rest’— go forth that they may toil thru the fifteen, sixteen, nay seventeen relent- less hours, in sinks and abysses, of- tentimes even more offensive and per- nicious than the holes they have quit- ted...” Child Slaves in the Mills. Lester reproduces the testimony given before the parliamentary com- mission which investigated the situa- tion of the working class.of England. In order to prevent being charged with partiality, he selects for examin- ation the investigation into the lace- making industry, in which, he ex- plains, the toil is “less prostrating for the children than many other kinds of labor.” He warns the reader that the situation so far as child-labor was concerned was much worse in other kinds of production. Mr. Saunders, a large lacemill own- ers, is being examined: Question—Have you many lacemillis in your district?, . Answer—I have about thirty mills. | Q.—What are ‘the usual hours of work in those mills? A.—The usual hours are, about Not- tingham, twenty ‘hours a day, being from four o’clock in the morning till twelve: o’clock at night; about Ches- terfield, the report I have had from the superintendent is that they work twenty-four hours, all thru the night, in several of the mills there. Q—Are there many children and young persons in those mills? A—tThe proportion is less in lace mills than in others, but it is neces- sary to have some of them. The pro- cess of winding and preparing the bobbings and carriages requires chil- dren, Those that I saw employed were from ten to fifteen years of age. Q.—Are the children detained in the mills during a considerable period of the day and the night? A—... I should say, that in most of the mills they do detain them at night. In some of them the report states that they are detained all night in order to be ready when wanted. Q.—Are the children that are so de- tained Hable to be detained thru the day, and do they sometimes begin their work at twelve o’clock at night? A—tIn the mills at Nottingham there are owners that make it a rule that they will not keep the children after eight, or nine, or ten o’clock, ac cording to the inclination of the mill- occupier, : Q.—Where are those children dur- ing the time they are detained in the mill? - A.—When detained at night and not employed, | am told they are lying about on the floor. Q.—Is it customary to close at eight on Saturday evening in the lace mills? A—tI think it is. Q--How then do they compensate for the loss of those four hours work in the mills? A.—By working all night on Friday; those are the mills in which they pay so much for their power... Q-~lIs there any possbiility of their obtaining. education under those cir- cumstances ? t A.-—None, whatever, except on Sun- days, f Q.—But after one hundred and twenty hours work in the week, is it hosiery, | possible that they can have much ‘cap- porcelain, earthenware, pins, needles, |acity for study on the Sunday? . A-—It is. not always that the same |chines are at work. They are general- children are kept twenty hours, be- cause some mills have two complete sets of hands for their machinery, and they work the same set of hands only ten honrs. Q.—But even under those circum- stances, it must frequently happen that the same children are employed during the night twice or thrice in the course of the week, A-—The practice generaily is that they take the night work for one week, and then the next week the morning work. Q—So that during one whole week they are employed in the night work? A.—Yes. Q.—At the end of a week dufing which they have been employed in the night, do you think they have much capacity left for study on Sunday? A.—No. My opinion is most decided- ly that either turning out at four o’clock in the morning or being kept out of bed all night must be most in- jurious to children, both to their phys- ical constitutions and their mental powers, Q.—The law, as it stands, does not prevent the children from being em- ployed even twenty hours? A.—It does not apply to lace mills, Q—Therefore the period of dura- tion which the child is employed de- pends upon the varying humanity of the individual proprietor of the mill? A—Yes. Q.—You say it sometimes happens that the children come to the mill at five o'clock in the morning? —It is reported to me that it does so happen about Chesterfield, Q—if a child is kept in winter till twelve o'clock at night and has to go home and return to the factory in the morning, a distance of two miles, does he not undergo fearful hardships? A.—Certainly. i Mr. Bury, another manufacturer, was questioned, Q.—Do you not find that this night work is extremely injurious both to the health and morals? A.—Yes. Q.—And that though the children may not be worked during the whole time, so long a detention from their homes is extremely prejudicial.? A.—Yes, j Q.—Are they not called up at all hours of the night? ly at work twenty. hours per day... Q.—And the children from nine to fifteen years of age are obliged to be in the mills during the whole night and day, too, and even when not de- tained the whole night, they are usual- ly detained till ten or eleven at night? A.—They very seldom get out till ten or eleven. They are probably not employed, but they must be either in more than eight hours a day actually the mill, or on the premises for all that length of time, and where the lace mills are worked twenty-four hours a day, the children must be during the whole of that twenty-four hours, either on the premises, or where they canbe called out of bed whenever they are wanted. Q.—Consequently it often happens that they do not go to bed at all? A—Yes, Q.—Is that for one day after an- other? A.—Regularly... Q.—What opportunity have the chil- dren of education? A.—None whatever. Q.—Are not young people of both sexes crowed together at all hours of the night? A—Certainly. Q.—Are the children often called to begin their work at twelve o’clock at night? A—Yes. Reviewing the evidence of the in- pectors, Lester quotes the London Quarterly Review (concerning the silk manufacturers): “Suffice it to say, that ten hours of labor in each day are assigned to children of tend- er years, of eight, of seven, and even of six; mostly girls, and so smail, as we learn from the inspeotors, that they are not infrequently placed on stools before they can reach their work.” Is it any wonder that the Chinese workers are rising in rebellion against horrors of exploitation even worse than what happened in England a century ago? Only by their establish- ment of a workers’ republic can they end the increasing miseries which are being forced upon.them. And such a republic can be established by them against the resistance of the imperial- ist powers only by an alliance with Soviet Russia, and thru the combined strength of the industrial workers and A.—They are when the lace ma-|the peasant masses combined, ; Senet