The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-05-05
CHINA RULED BY GUILDS
COMPLETE ORGANIZATION OF IN
DUSTRIAL SOCIETY ALL
OVER THE LAND
GOSSIP CLEARING HOUSES
Anything One Family Wants to
Learn About Another Can he
Found Out Through One
OF These Clubs.
,ston Globe.

Shanghai Letter in Boston Globe.
1t is impossible for a native VINO earns
his living in trade or by skilled work not
to belong to a guild. Indeed the guild
regulates the affairs of every properly
constituted Chinese to whose labor Dig
nifty attaches. 1t is an institution that
mas fastened itself upon this people with
the growth Of centuries, and its cohesive
quality and influence are such that trades
unions and labor organizations of all
kinds III other lands arc mere expert,
mcnt5 by comparison. Guild edictS else
where may be tentative. Here they are
final The people bow to them and the
government assents. Not only has every
trade its guild, but every locality, so
that not a detail Of industrial life in
China escapes guild notice.
There is no such thing as getting be-
hind them for they are ingrained in the
national composition Fortunately, they
seem to be managed with discretion.
They attend to the business for which
they were organized. No suspicion Of
meddling with outside affairs ever at
tacheS to them. If their power could be
used in politics it would be overwhelm-
ing, but tradition and precedent govern
them, as almost everything else in China,
and they dictate that a guild house is
place to talk shop and little else.
While this holds true and states the eS-
also Il club. When one sees a fine
structure, there is not much danger In
going amiss in concluding that 1T is an
official residence, a temple or a guild, and
as these various varieties Of buildings
are distinctively adorned, the eye needs
little practice to tell them apart The
guild is usually the most attractive. 1t
consists archtecturally Of a group Of
buildings, with Quadrangular arrange
mCnt and small, narrow entrances, which
enable gatekeeperes TO know who passes
within and to keep out those who do not
belong there.
The interior buildings furnish general
and special meeting rooms, quarters for
committees and council, a hail with a
stage for entertainment and joss COM
partment in which stands the image OF
the divinity on whose protection the guild
relies. Usually the central quadrangle
contains the stage at one end and the
altar and image at the other. Between
the two is a space capable Of holding sew
eral hundred people, who face one way
when they gather there for fun and the
other way when their purpose If serious.
Among the buildings are many small
rooms which, if no official use be re-
quired of them, serve the purpose Of
sOciabiity These rooms seem never
empty. Much of the leisure time of mem,
DerS IS spent in them. That Is where
they meet their kind and where tea al,
ways tastes best. OF course, tea is on
tap, and as every man takes his capacity
along with him, the fire is never per-
mitted to go out.
The establishment Of guilds by local.
ties multiplies numbers Of organizations,
but it serves to diversity custom and to
make simple affairs that might other
wise be obscure. In Shanghai there is a
Ningpo guild and a FOo-Chow guild and
d Swallow guild, and so on. A native of
one of those places it always credited
to that place. There is a shoemaker
here who, on completing his work and
receiving a compliment on the way he
had done it, said: "Oh, yes; l belong
Cantonese" GLOW Ions since You came
to Shanghai" "Twenty-e years"
That man is Of the Canton guild. He
does not look more than about thirty
years old, and he certainly could never
have learned anything Of his trade at
Canton; but his birthplace fixed his guild
He will take all the foreign orderss7he
can get, perhaps cutting prices with a
rival for them, but if a Ningpo man
went into his shop-one brought here
strapped to his mothers back as a baby
and now bent with age-he would net
dare fill an order for him. He relies on
Canton men for his trade, and wishes no
other Chinese customers. Customers go
to their own as matter of course for
trade or work of any kind. Two men