The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-07-22
WAGES IN CHINA.
They Seem Small, but Their Purchasing
Power Is Good.

The following interesting figures and
statements are taken from NJ. w. Hazel
tines review in the New York Sun Of Sim
cox'S "Chinese Civilization"
We can touch only very briefly on the
wages earned by the artisan class, because
we would direct attention to the unique
position of the mercantile and banking
class in China, the only country in the
world where wealth of itself is positive
detriment to the owner, and must be
atoned for by the exhibition of superior
virtue. AS regards the distinction between
the cultivator and the artisan, the peasant
and the mechanic, we should note at the
outset that this is less strong in China
than in Europe; the difference between
the standards Of comfort in the two class
es is probably also slighter, this difference
being in favor of the peasant. Chinese
wages seem low when stated in European
currency, but, viewed in connection with
the purchasing power of coin in China
they do not compare unfavorably with the
earnings customary in most European
countries. OF course, wages, as well as
rents, vary in different parts of the coun-
try, but the following statements are said
to correspond fairly with the generaliZa-
ton of a Chinese writer, who puts the av-
erage earnings of a workman at 20 cents
a day, half of which is enough TO feed a
family of five
We learn that carpenters and masons earn
from 20 to 80 cents a day, boarding them
selves. The usual wages of farm servants
are about $3.50 per annum, with food
Servants boarding themselves receive from
81 to So per month; clerks and accountants
from SO to $50. There has been little or no
change in the rate of wages during the last
two centuries, for the penal code specifies
IL cents a day as the amount which Off
Gals must pay to carriers or workmen
whom they have pressed into their service,
for work required by them in their private
capacity only. Let us pause for moment
To see how the nay of artisans compares
with that of so-called artistic or profession
al work. A theatrical company. including,
perhaps, thirty performers, is paid $50 for a
performance lasting forty-eight hours; the
dresses, which the company must pay for,
are often very costly, and the employers
have the right to call for which pieces
they please out of the usual repertoires.
Tuition fees in China vary, with the teach
ers' regulations and the ages of the pu-
pills, from 81 to $50 a year; private tutors
generally live in their employers houses,
where they are treated with great respect,
ana allowed TO have pupils from outside. NJ
Blot estimated the cost OF a years school
ing at So in a town. and at SL2O or its
equivalent in rice in the country In many many
is maintained through life. Girls learn with
their brothers up to the age of eleven or
twelve. but the sacredness of the teach
er's relation is vigorously upheld by rule
which forbids marriages between tutor
amount to about $50 a year, half of
which is received in grain. We return
ers working in two shirts of twelve hours
receive about IA cents day and food, es
acteristic that coal miners in China take
a warm bath on coming off their shifts,
and that the galleries are not allowed to be
less than eight feet high, for the sake of
ventilation, nor to go so far underground
as to involve the least danger of accident
to life or limb. Pumpelly mentions a coal
field where the miners wages amount TO
one-third Of the value Of the coal got by
him, about 40 cents per ton Hired tea
pickers are paid 10 cents day, but ex-
pertS can earn from u TO 10 cents day
by piece work. Wages of laborers in the
tea district range from to cents a day,
which is almost always furnished by the
farmers Women and children earn about 6
from tea. Boatmen eat five meals a day,
and receive 10 cents daily in addition.
fuIs of cooked rice, and, though this class
is reckoned among the lowest of the pOpu-
lation, Mr.. Little found them paying Is
cents to hire flower boat to give con-
cert The pay Of a horse and man is
given at IS cents day. The men employed
a day and their food, but at the salt works,
where, however, some perquislteS in kind
are probably enjoyed, the workmen obtain
only cents a day and food. The weekly
wages of the operatives in cotton mill
recently opened in Shanghai range from 70
cents TO SLIP for women and from SLIP
to s. for men. In a silk-weaVing establish
ment visited by Mr.. Little, there were
twenty looms, besides spinning gear; about
one hundred men were employed, earning
10 cents a day and their food.
Perhaps the best method of estimating
the comparative value of wages in China
and other countries is to consider the num-
Der of years that il will take young man
beginning an industrial life at eighteen.
without capital, to earn and save enough to
keep himself, marry, and buy sufficient
land for himself and his family TO live on
by their own labor. According to DIR. Nc
Gowan, whose facts are taken from the
neighborhood of WenchOw, the wages of
able-boded young men average $12 a year,
with food, shoes and free shaving. Clothes
may cost 81, so that s. yearly is left TO be
put by. The savings of ten years, $50, with
accrued interest, will buy one-third of an
acre of land and implements to work it.
On this the man can live and save enough
up to two-thirds of an acre and buy one
third of a buffalo. His marriage would cost
another six years labor, SO that, starting
borer at forty-four may find himself indie
pendent and possessed of what for him is
competence As a matter of fact, few
laborers really start with nothing, for their
labor up to the age of eighteen is regarded
at least worth so much as to enable the
parents to provide the wife, which proprie-
rpQnirpS NOT 10 wait for tOO long