The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 10, 1927, Page 3

Labor in China The following facts on conditions of Labor in China are from an ex-| haustive study made by C. L. Malon They present a wealth of information on the terrible conditions under which Chinese workers are being exploited today and deserve the attention of every American worker. They will lead to a better understanding of the causes underlying the Chinese revolt against foreign imperialist and Ch nese capitalist exploitation —-Kditor. ° * . Shanghai. Nearly half the cotton mills in China are in Shanghai—58 out of a a total of 122. Of these 58, the ma- jority are foreign-owned, 22 being Chinese, 32 Japanese and 4 British. These are the figures given by the| China Year Book. Consul-General Barton in Cmd. 2442, states that there are 6 cotton mills in Shanghai of which 38 are Japanese and 8 British, Perhaps one set of figures refers to actual mills and the other|Tsen Huan mill, which started in| in part to firms owning mills. No. Spindles Chinese 2 700,682 Japanese 998,172 British 205,320 Looms Laborers 10,350 44,934 5,836 55,488 2,348 16,500 It will be observed that all the British cotton mills in China are in Shanghai. Wages.—Men 30 to 50 cents per day. Children 10 to 25 cents per day. Over 60 per cent of the- workers are ‘women. Average wage $12 per month, i.e. about 43 cents per day. (N.B.—The dollar in use is the Mexican dollar, value about 2s. 25 cents is therefore equivalent to 6d. in English money and 43 cents to about 104¢d.) The wages here are rather higher than elsewhere, but on the other hand the cost of living in Shanghai is said to be 20 per cent: higher than in the South or inland. Hours Worked.—11.5 to 16 per day. Seven days per week. The normal hours are 12-hour day and night shifts and sometimes 15 or | visit in the summer of 1926 before he Cantonese arrival. Since then here have been increases. | (Note.—The Chinese Shen Hsin mill gives better pay—-about 40 cents; at the Tai An (Japanese) the pay is lower.) | From the information which I re- |ceived from various trade union of- ials, it appears that 30 cents is | about the average daily wage of the ordinary adult cotton mill hand in China, though a few of the skilled oe | considerably more~-up to $2 (i.e. 4s.) per day. Hours.-Two shifts of teach. Séven days per week. Holidays.---The machinery is stopped for one day every ten days, on the Ist, 11th, and 2ist of the | month for general cleaning. | I visited several cotton mills at | Hankow and Wuchang. One was the 12 hours 1921. It employs 2,300 workers, of |whom 1,000 are women and 1,000 ttle children. Some of those whom |I saw were certainly not more than | eight years old. | The are 24,700 spindles. One spin- | dle produces 1 Ib. of 20 count. The | product of the mill is 70 bales per day, a bale weighing 430 lbs. The raw {cotton comes from about 200 mills | up country. | There are no meal hours. I saw |the men, women and children eating | from their rice bowls as they tended their raachines. The machinery was | supplied by Asa Lees of Oldham. I also visited the Hankow Dee Yee | Spinning and Weaving Co.’s mill at | Wuchang. This mill was erected in | 1915. There were 88,000 spindles and | 1,200 laoms. This mill employs 8,000 | workers, of whom about one-third are | children, As elsewhere, the hours of labor are two shifts of 12 hours. The Chinese employer said that this was ‘nui too long. They say that the | workers are very lazy and slack about {and so on. Perhaps they mistake ef- |fect for cause. | The Tsen Huan will, which was only erected about five years ago, compared very favorably with any Lancashire mill as regards lighting, Average wage.—30 cents per day.| men in the power house may earn} 16-hour shifts on the day before the| ventilation, ete. The Hankow Dee machines are stopped for cleaning, So} Yee mill, built earlier, was much that the women and children may) darker, I did see some rather prim- have to stand for perhaps 16 hours. | itive washing arrangements, and the Very young children are employed in javatory accommodation appeared to the mills. be insufficient. In these reports the There is no time or place for meals. | »nj}] compared very unfavorably with There is very little lavatory accom-/the Japanese mill which I subse- modation. Babies are not allowed in| quently visited. the foreign factories, so they have to! At every factory I noticed women be entrusted to a neighbor. Women) pringing in their babies. I followed are allowed two weeks away at the) one and finally ran the baby to earth time of their confinement. If they} ¥ do not return then, they are liable to tending—-one of 800 looms. Amid the be dismissed. They get no pay dut-| terrific din of the shuttles, in an at- ing this period. For serious accidents! mosphere full of cotton dust, the compensation up to 50 dollars ts some-| mother was suckling the child. It times given, but there is no obligation | was apparently brought in by some- to pay any compensation whatever.| one else by whom, doubtless, it would | by the machine which its mother was | Here, as elsewhere, there is no fene-| ing of machinery, and owing to the very long hours worked and the youth of the workers very serious accidents occur. Tientsin. Average Wage.—30 cents per day. Hours—12-hour day and night shifts. Seven days per week. 60 per cent. of the workers are chil- dren, who get 15 te 25 cents per day. ‘Women are not so much employed as in Shanghai. The Japanese provide dormitories for their men and women workers according to their usual cus- tom. The rent is said to be 50 cents per person per month. In the course of a strike in Japanese cotton mills in August, 1925, 25 workers were killed. Hankow and Wuchang. | Hankow, Wuchang and Hanyang form together a triple city known as Wuhan, on the junction of the River Yangtze and the River Han, most of the cotton mills being in Wuchang and the steel works in Hanyang. It must be understood that all wage-rates given relating to Hankow are those obtaining at the time of my A Rare Pamphlet By LENIN SOVIETS AT WORK By real good fortune we ave been able to pur- ase the only remaining of this little booklet Lenin, right after the ssian revolution. No re are in print. Before se are sold out, we sk every worker who does not own a copy to secure one. 10 CENTS Other Hooks by Lenin: ON CO-OPERATIVES = —8,05 STATE AND HEVOLUTION ah ON ORGANIZATION (Cloth ) 1,56 The Daily Worker Pub, Co. 33 First Street New York ! reeling shed. be removed, when fed. There was a | notice at the entrance to the factory to the effect that babies must not be brought in. I did not see very many, | but this was because most of the women were quite young girls. | "There is no fencing of machinery. | If the workers are killed, the owner may give the family 20 to 30 dollars (Mex.) compensation. Cotton Packing. hide packing, appears to be almost entirely in the hands of eight British firms, who operate hydraulic cotton, | wool and hide packing presses at | Tientsin, Hankow and Shanghai. A representative of the workers in Hankow informed me that wages were 23 to 26 cents for a twelve-hour day. After seme strikes the ages had been raised from 26 to 30 cents. The workers live in the outskirts of the town in poor shelters. If accidents occur they must take care of them- selves. Silk Filatures. As has been said, the manufacture of silk is still to a large extent a pea- sant industry. The factory industry is established at Shanghai, Canton, Hankow, Chefoo, Soochow, Hang- chow, Chungking and Chingkiang where there are steam filatures. There are also silk-weaving factories, but not so many as filatures, the fac- tory-made silk, thread often being woven in the home. There are said to be 300,000 silk workers in factories in China, . of whom 95 per cent. are women and children. In Shanghai I was able to visit a number of silk filatures. Nearly all the -workers were women and young | children, men only being employed in the power house, and as foremen in the sheds, where they may be seen tion of the smaller children. packing and waste-product rooms, the main shed of a silk filature where the majority are employed, is the This shed contains rows of metal benches, On one side the women sit, on the other side the children stand. Some of the children could not possibly have. been more! than seven years old, and some were probably even younger. The children on their side of the bench have a basin, to which boiling water and steam is laid on, in which they stir the silk-work cocoons, frequently sealding their little hands. There is one child with its basin to every two women. The child passes the cocoon when soaked over to another tray of boiling water in front of the women. The web from six cocoons is made in- to one silk thread, woman joins the six together, passes tl h ocia nnd! hen has naa eae Cotton packing, as well as wool and | carrying a small cane for the corree-| Apart from the sorting, classifying, | ‘THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JUNE 10, r9zTv Page Three 7 a) j COOLIDGE MAKES A SPEECH , SOVIET UNION EXPOSES SERIES OF OUTRAGES BY | | BRITISH; RANGE FROM ARSON TO MURDER (Continued from Page One) mer Various instances were like- against Rykoff and Stalin, Gurevitch | Wise discovered of damage to indus- | was arrested in due time. trial estigation es- | On May 10th a group of Kolchak’s, tablished purpose. Thus | | former officers, inmates of the J it {s quite clear that the British gov- | | grad Institute for Noble Orph ernment, which is rapidly preparing | urrested. This group, acc {war against the U. S. S. R., is striv- | ! the testimony of its members, was! ing by all ways and m s to prevent | directly connected with the white chief | the peaceful labor of the workers and consular department of the British nts of our st he fact that } mission in Moseow. It was preparing | #l! these adv« empts have | at the sion’s instructio at- | no roots withi et Union it- tempts at explosions in the Kremlin | 8e!f is characteristic. country-is und an explosion in the big (Bolshoy) | 8"oWing rapidly economically, and Theatre during any big meeting of | the welfare of the masses is increas- the workers’ and peasants’ represen-| ing. The union of workers and pea- tatives of Moscow or the Union. sants is ever eraveng sonia bs British Bomb. the national might of the proletaria On the nights of the second and|“ictatorship is increasing. The mis- third of Jute: the: sents political de- | crable criminal adventures of reae- partment prevented an explosion in| “onary foreign cliques are a flagrant bi hon Tecated contradiction of the powerful organic on’ Dae swe dis- growth of the gr proletarian union, covered | weighing The government is de ntly defend- four kilo; nite was of | in its position of y ul labor and | Grand ine Oh ane sia ee but deems it Se bane | bomb: was “f Thus | While still more energetically pursu- beyond a doubt, the constituent parts | M& constructional work to ps in of the bomb were brought from | Pe Oe ts ae oe abroad, which fact is. likewise proved | #!! the Fee oS ee by other things left behind by the | ‘TY the criminal policy of the Be~ Lie Nircae Sih tish cabinet and its agencies. The criminals. 28 “Ton dune 7 a Polish subject assas- | £°¥! A ie ce a | sinated Woikoff, Soviet plenipotenti- |™ ieee Pri os | ary representative in Warsaw ind eee ate Sotgs beanies) ye English papers have already published |the Working class ant peasants ow | an arrogant interview with the tsar- | T@’S¢ thelr ta Ne = "ha tha ae list diplomat Sablin who is unoffi-| thé utmost cohesion in their ranks, | |cially connected with British cabinet, The government calls all honest | | ministers and justifies the murderer |toilers of the country to still more joutright. The English hand which, energetically work on the construce Draw. S» Wm. Gropper. lwhile itself standing aside, directed |tion of socialism and strengthening | “There is scarcely a civilized nation which is not our debtor.” jthe blow of the Polish subject, is|the defence capacity of the country, | “We have robbed no people of their independence, we have laid on no country the he » 4° oppression.” here detected sufficiently clearly. The British cabinet and its vassal of- “While we wish for peace everywhere, it is our desire that it should be not a peace it o sd by America, but a Assassinate Opansky. gans are discouraged by the success | peace established by each nation for itself.” On the same day, June 7th, be- of our cons ructive work. Every néw Loe ee —— — ———-———--— - serpent | sides Ae silttees of Jismaeloh! gil | MOU Sie station, every success of winding-frame or drum behind her. army. A representative of the Kai-) e s ving a railway pesidant was engi- the peasants’ economy provoke a This is driven by machinery which | lan Miners Union told me that mee Daacefil air Shi § heated during which perished Vice- | {00d of unrestrained hatred in the 4 she stops or starts by a pedal with/ thought it was done on purpose to| aL3i | i chief, agent of the All-Union State British capitalists, who are eager to her feet. Kach woman keeps five | help Chang Tso-lin. Political Department in the white | make our country 4 sory of the sets going, ‘ie. five threads or 30) Flour “fills. et Hi . | Russian military district and Opan- | imperialistic states, Its workers ob- cocoons. | ‘ ‘ npyse a si 4 : ‘ ject to their exploitation; whose ‘ ; I visited some Chinese flour mills | aSl y onve | e sky, who was taking with him a Polish ts, landless slaves of fauna The operating cocoons are unwind-| 4, Hankow. They work day and/ jlieutenant spy, just arrested. With Peasants, tande rekon h "Ce ing whilst they also float in boiling) jignt in two shifts, employing 16| Opansky was killed the driver and |'8™, can be shot just as the Chinese. water, so that there is ample water tdaids 4h. eae shift. It is chiefly into War Wea Ons two collaborators were seriously Protect Workers’ State. surface to provide steatn to fill the} citeq work, tending machinery; and, | wounded, Again on that same day,| The government calls on the work- whole shed, besides leaks in steam according 4 information given by the | ees June 7th at 9,22 o’clock in the eve-| ing class to protect its mills, fabries, Tay kav eae be cs a id Managing Director, their pay is from| WASHINGTON, June 9.—Fifty Bed two a foigeials (of | stores, aes — phen: a 60 cents to $1 per day. commercial airships, converted over. | which one explo¢ ec ) in the Commun- and created by the toilers, who, There was absolutely no means of No provision is made for sickness} night int ial warshi 4 ean ad.| t Party’s Debating Club in Lenin-| our country, conquered the landown- artificial ventilation for drawing off). injury vt fee 7 biel the U ce States | ekads and about thirty persons were|ers and capitalists. The government the steam or providing fresh air. All! ’R on p teag Shad eallicy Mere ate. i¢| Wounded, several very seriously. Be-|enjoins the all-union state political y, “ Sent ; ‘ailway Workers. {from invasion by enemy fleets, it ‘ ‘ be | 2 the women were dripping with per- : |was declared today by Walter Link, | !ongings left behind by the criminals|deps¢reent to take energetic mea- spiration, the whole shed being full} Whenever possible, I made en- a ee a iy T wine’ |likewise quite clearly show the for-|sureo ‘o yrotect the country against of a hot, damp vapour. There was a| quiries of railway workers regarding President of Mogg efx ee sane eign origin of the terrorists. foreign sp'es, incendiaries and mur- pungent stench from the dead cocoons| their conditions. ee cove ibae Ge eeea lea British Guilty of Arson. derers and tho monarchist white- on the floor. | In Tientsin, railway workers get dagalinaey © develop Nenter-! at the same time in various parts | guardist allies. The government bows I saw great many infants and) from 50 cents and drivers as much as) ‘M8D-81F aviation. _. .. lof the union arsons of works, mills,|the red banner of the Union before/ babies, at least one to every two|$1 (Mex.) per day. | _Link stressed the value of dirigibles| nititary stores, ete., occurred. Inithe body of Comrade Voikeff and women. They were lying asleep on| ‘There is a Railway Union on the! ®% # Part of the national defense. | May a powder store was set fire to|those other true champions of the aie. the floor under reeling drums behind |He declared these huge birds could their mothers’ backs—thus passing | the early years of their lives in a good imitation of a foul Turkish bath. Wages.—T he women reelers in Shanghai get about 44 cents per day (about 10%2d.) and the children 20 cents (nearly 5d.) Hours.—They work 12 hours per day. Seven days per week. There is no night shift, because the threads are too fine to handle in ar- tificial light. Unlike the cotton mills, there is a break for the midday meal, made necessary by the fact that the work requires both hands, I received the impression that, bad as are conditions in the cotton mills, | with their long hours, their night work and the exploitation of tiny children and women for incredibly low wages, conditions in the silk fila- tures are even worse, because of the great heat and damp and the awful 1923 Wu Pei-Fu had a number of the | Yding enemy fleet, while being pro-| strikers shot and their leaders ar.| tected in the air by squadrons of; P planes. The airships also can be used, rested and executed. Despite these |). edited, ta: catty theit own. com- jin Leningrad, The criminal was the! proletariat who fell at the handS oF ~~ \director of the store, an Esthonian,| infamous hired murderers who are Usild, who was working at the in-| provoking a new war. ‘The govern- structions of Esthonian agents of the| ment declares that, supported by the |British government. Still earlier,| broad toiling masses and their unlim- smell of dead cocoons in which the women and children work. Unorganized as they are, there are recent signs that, the value of the strike weapon is being learned by the women. In June, 1926, 800 women in the Yung Yui Filature, Shanghai, went on strike, as a result of the re- fusal of the management to grant a 10 per cent, increase in wages and an hour’s reduction in working hours. Two days later the women and chil- dren at other filatures declared a sympathetic strike. Then they all presented four demands: (1) an in- crease of 10 per cent. in wages, (2) work to start at 6 a.m. instead of 5 a.m., (3) no wage to be left unpaid at the end of the month, (4) no work- er to be dismissed without ood | cause. Match Factories—Tientsin. Wages.—Men 15 cents to $1 per day. Women 10 cents to 50 cents, Children 10 cents to 20 cents per day. Working hours.—Daily 13% hours. | Weekly 54 to 87 hours. | Canned Food Industry— | Province of Chihli. Wages——Men 8 cents to 15 cents. Girls 8 cents to 11 cents, Working Hours.--Daily, 12 hours, | Weekly, 78 hours, | Holidays—2 days per month, Glass and Glassware Industry— Province of Chihli. | Wages.—-Men 10 cents to $1. | dren, 5 cents to 20 cents, | Working hours—Daily, 8 to 10 hours per day. Weekly, 52 to 65 | hours, Time for rest.--2 to 4 hours per jday. 2 days per month. Three months’ wages are given in case of death due to injury. Mining Industry. Wages.--20 to 40 cents per day. | Hours—-In the coal mines at Pos- han in Shantung Province, 24-hour shifts are worked. These were for- merly German, and are now Sino- Japanese. In the Kailan Mining Ad- Chil- ministration (Sino-British) there S a lock-out a year or ve ag veh ig measures the organization has con-| tinued in secret. It is not a Bolshevik organization, in fact it is anti-Red. | Telegrams have been received in England from the “Railway Workers’ Federation” in Peking. I was unable} to discover that this was an organi-/| zation of any substance. I was told that it existed chiefly for the purpose of sending cables to Labor bodies in| foreign countries. | Travelling from Nanking to Shang- hai, I had a talk with an engine- driver. Engine drivers on the Hu- Ning (Shanghai-Nanking) Railway receive from $1 to $2.50 per day, fire-| men $1 per day. They work an eight- hour day and get three days’ holiday per month. The company has its own hospital and employees who have to} go to hospital get free attendance on| full wages. If permanently invalided, | some light work is found for them} with .suitable pay. Engine cleaners get 30 cents per day. The conditions are better than in| other industries, which, perhaps, ac-| counts for the fact that the rallway| workers on this line have no organ- ization. Skilled Workers. | Skilled workers in Peking, that ts, carpenters, masons and sawyers, who | are organized in guilds, get about 60, cents to 70 cents per day, the coolies | who work with them about 25 cents per day. This is a combined money thought that many of the coolies wage and food allowance. It is must provide their own food and eco- nomise by spending less than their food. allowance on food. Otherwise it is difficult to see how they exist on their money wage, $4% (9s. per month) if they are employed. The Peking working man’s budget has been worked out as follows:— WOM obs senes ..70 per cent. Clothes oe 12 " Fuel 5 ° Rent .. _ RR Miscellaneous ....,5 ” The 70 per cent. food is comprised as follows:— Bean and Millet Flour 29 per cent Wheat Flour .. | ag Corn Flour . Millet Rice ” ” ” This is, of course, in the North. In the Centre and South, in Shanghai, Hankow and Canton, the budget would be quite different, rice form- ing the main article of diet, mixed with a minute portion of salt fish or pork, CCO and VANZETTI | plement of planes. |Saceo and Vanzetti Shall Not Die! \fire was set to the Dubrovka mill) ited heroism, it will clear the coun- near Leningrad, the ihcendiary being| try of its enemies and protect the con- |a Finn working at the instructions of! struction of socialism from all at Finnish agents of the British govern-! tempts against it. A Chance to Visit i LL NOT DIE!| PRICE FOR ENTIRE TRIP WORLD TOURESTS, SOVIET RUSSIA Seven Weeks’ Trip JULY 14 to LABOR DAY A round trip on modern steamers of the Swedish American Line, equipped with every up-to-date convenience, Three Weeks Stay n Russia, visiting all the places of in- terest—public buildings, factories, work- ers’ clubs, theatres, etc. A CHANCE OF A LIFE-TIME $575.00 Inquire Now at the INC. 41 Union Square, New York City r