Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-12-16
Labor in China.

OuIlnS MI. ENdTtS occupancy OF the
State Department our consuls have been
made to do something in the way of
earning their salaries by collecting facts
bearing on the labor question. Rather
more than year ago number of re-
ports were published showing the prices
paid for work, together with the cost of
living, in European countries. These
data are now supplemented by infOrma-
tion of more curious and interesting
kind, the fruit of an inquiry into the
wages earned and the expenses borne by
Chinese laborer at home. Some au-
thentic statements on this head are, of
course, requisite 10 fix the minimum to-
ward which Chinese immigration would
inevitably tend to depress the price of
labor.
These statistics have been compiled
by o. n. Denny, Consul General at
Shanghai, who seems to have aimed not
merely to examine the state of things in
the treaty ports, but the average condi-
tion of labor throughout che Chinese
empire. The results of his researches
are classified under the three heads of
craftsmen, agriculturists, and what are
known as coolie workmen. 1t seems
that the 6rst-named category not only
includes artisans, but artists; the paint
er, the porcelain decorator, the designer
of patterns on silks, and the worker in
enamel, earning as rule no more than
the coffin maker or the butcher. Where,
however, raw material of great intrin-
sic value, such as gold and silver, is
confided the workman, the commercial
import of probity is slightly recognized
in the remuneration. The best paid day
laborer is said to be the silk reeler or
spinner, both on account of the skill
requisite and the necessity of reeling off
the cocoons within limited time; an
operation which exacts continuous la
Dor, by night as we'll as day, during sew
eral weeks. For such exhausting toll,
the wages vary, we are told, from 81 to
50 per diem. The average income, even
of the most skilful artisans, is far
smaller than this. A master workman,
for example, can ordinarily earn no
more than SO per week, or $156
year, while what we should call jour-
neyman receives but 51.50 week, or
$7S dollars annually. AS for appren-
tices, male or female, they must content
themselves with weekly stipend of
so cents, or $26 per annum. So much
for the receipts of skilled laborers, who
live, for the most part,in cities and large
towns, where the higher cost of food
and lodging cOmpels higher rate of
wages than obtains in the rural dis
tricts.
In China the farm laborer, if engaged
by the year, gets $12 per annum, with
board and lodging. If employed by the
month, he may obtain from $1.5O to So
monthly, and during harvest time he
may succeed in getting from 10 cents to
$1.O5 week in addition to his meals. 1t
appears that the owner or tenant of a
Chinese farm is little better off than his
employees. Every member of his fam
lily, including children from the age of
six years, has to take an active part in
the work of the farm, which, as a rule,
contains about two and half acres of
arabic soil. Under normal circum-
stances this amount of land will yield
crops valued at $3.50, which, after
deducting the yearly outlay for agricul-
tural purposes, estimated at $62, and the
cost of nourishing the family Go cents
a day, or $73 Year,, leaves q net annual
income of $25. The disbursements for
clothing, and objects other than those
mentioned, are perhaps met by the rails
ing of chickens and pigs, or where cot
ton is grown by the making of yarn and
cloth.
Unspeakably wretched as the condi-
ton of the Chinese agriculturist is thus
shown to be, it is secure and comforta-
BILE compared with the situation of the
coolies, under which term are CON-
prised boatmen, carriers, wheelbarrow
men, and generally those who do the
rough hard work of commercial centres.