The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-20
Tendency of Wages Is Upward, Owing
in Part to Decline in Purchas-
ing Power of silver.
AREA OF LABOR EMIGRATION
CHINESE GUILDS FAR MORE POWER
L THAN LABOR UNIONS.
Improved Make Way Slowly,
but Must Eventually
pines Not Directly Affected.


Correspon4ssce OF the Indianapolis Journal.
SINGAPORE, March among the i'm
pressions 10 be adjusted by the growth of
modern enterprise in the East is that relat-
ing TO labor. Possibly the day may be dis
tant when a labor problem in Asia will
press for solution. But commercial prog
ress has acquired an increasing momentum,
and II it produce conditions whereby man
saving devices shall come into widespread
use, intricate and complex factors in this
line may not hereafter be wholly reserved
for the West. Wages no longer remain
low. Their tendency is upward. Decline in
the purchasing power of silver does not
wholly account for the change. In ten
years silver has dropped from a dollar
value Of 3 shillings s pence to 1 shilling 9
pence. and it stands now near the low
point. Against these quotations. which rep
resent In gold the difference between so
cents and a. cents TO the dollar. wages
have gone from an average not exceeding
the equivalent Of u cents gold per day to
an equivalent averaging not less than so
cents, with extremes at Is cents and one
dollar gold. A decline OF 45 per cent. in sill
yer is Offset by an advance of 80 per cent.
in wages.
At the former scale OF wages men were
possibly cheaper than machinery. That
presumption is no longer admissible. One
may commonly hear that Americans in the
Philippines spoiled the labor market. Wages
jumped and multiplied there under the inn
pulse of American occupation, and they
continue higher there than anywhere else:
but the Philippines could not accommodate
the surplus offerings from China, even IL
the law permitted il. Since Chinese exclu-
sion applies in the Philippines. the increase
at all foreign ports in China and wherever
else the trade boom has favored Asia is 10
be traced 10 economic rather than TO polit-
icaI causes. American folly i'm scattering
money abroad has enough for which to an
swer without saddling upon 1t responsibility
for the law of supply and demand which
rules the labor market.
TWO PROBLEMS PENDING.
II wages advance with the growth of
trade there will be two questions to con-
sider-how long will capital put up with
avoidable expenses and what measures will
labor take 20 protect itself? Chinese rep
resent the labor element in every part of
the East with which white trade is init
mately concerned except Australasia and
India. They do not emigrate from the
north Rivers overflow and devastate the
fields and famine visits them there, but the
home instinct is strong enough to reconcile
them to suffering and death rather than
10 seek to better themselves away. A col
ony has been recruited for Sarawak.
Borneo, from Foo-Chow, which is thirty
hours sail h from Shanghai. That
may be said to be the northern point of
emigration. IL is as If American emigrants
were sought and none could be had north of
-
source OF the Philippine supply. is thirty
hours farther south, corresponding TO
Charleston. Swallow may be linkened TO
Savannah. It is distant less than a days
sail from Hong-Kong. and is In the same
province as Canton.
From that point southwark not only does
population crowd and poverty pinch. b
the spirit of adventure runs freer than in
any other part OF China. Piracy has been
driven out OF the savage islands hereabouts
and the Strait OF Malscca. where travel is
perfectly safe I'm the smallest craft, but
the fast line OF passenger boats on the run
OF forty miles from Hong-Kong to Macao
carries a rack Of muskets in the main
saloon and an armed patrol on the deck,
and within a month a missionary and two
companions on the boat from Hong-Kong
NAAh1N ~ AAh AhG
shore. Men who looked like Chinese SOL
oilers did the shooting. Since the only ex-
cuse so far offered on their behalf is that
they were after pirates and fired at the
biggest thing they could see, there being no
pirates in view. they may have been any
thing except soldiers. That region and the
country southwark have been prolific in
intrigue and revolt ever since history be-
gan to deal with it.
EMIGRATION AN OLD STORY.
Emigration naturally carries with it home
characteristics. the bad ones along with the
good. European colonization has stimu-
lated it. especially of late years. but CEN
turtles ago. when Europeans first came.
they found Chinese widely scattered over
Malaga and the Eastern archipelago. IL
may be that the regions south of China
owe their virility TO immigration, or, per-
haps better. that. except for II. the South
ern races would have to run to seed. for
while the law that binds Chinese 10 China
was permitted 10 lapse n respect TO men
so poor as to be a BURDEN TO the State. II
was for many years strictly enforced I'm re-
spect 10 women The resultant union OF
migrating Chinese with native women has
conspicuous example in the royal house OF
Siam. where the features OF the King be-
tray a Chinese strain: In the Philippines.
where Chinese mestizos long had dominant
influence over the native population: and
throughout Malaga and the archipelago.
where native trade and industry not wholly
Chinese. belonged mainly 10 those whose
antecedents trace readily back to that
source. Women come from China now in
Increasing numbers. but the proportion OF
two women 10 FIVE men, how by the re-
cent census I'm the Federated Malay States.
f. probably more generous than could be
truthfully recorded elsewhere. and the en-
ergizing alliances which attended immigra-
tion in other years have not yet become
uncommon China wants her sons back.
especially II they can carry money with
them. The magnet Of ancestral worsh!p
f. a powerful attraction 10 them. IL IL may
not. indeed, have been designed for that
purpose. and while IN this colony there are
thousands who never saw China and have
no wish TO do SO. they become Of the mer-
chant or trading class. Labor hereabouts
h furnished mainly by the 10000 Chinese