The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-11-06

AAioNS ol uoAuS. IL WI SouiIiOu lOUOtCT,
who is now receiving $3.50 or 81 a
day. had IL similar increase, he would
be getting from SIS to $50 a day.
While was at the city of Fuchow. in
China. some time ago. I was told that
the daily wages of masons were IS
cents. and that the best carpenters
received 20 cents. Skilled Chinese
masonS and carpenters on the Panama
canal will eventually get from ten to
fifteen times these sums. and then he
will not be half as well paid for their
ten hours work as our eight hour
men who do similar business here.
Women tea pickers in China get
something like cents day. and
those engaged in making grass cloth.
a beautiful goods much like silk. get
about 3 cents from daylight to dark
An old missionary told me that he
| could get ten men to work whole
day for him for Il dollar. and out OF
that sum 10 per cent would be given
to the man who did the hiring. In
some parts of China ordinary field
! hands get 5 or cents day with
food. and skilled workmen less than
10 cents. This is. of course. in the
interior. where wages have not been
affected by the modern progress move
ments.
Professional men are paid similarly
low wages. In almost any Chinese
city you can get thirty theatre actors
to play forty-eight hours for thirty
simoleons. and in the backwoOds of
China doctor will charge you 20
cents !, visit and think himself we'll
paid.
IN, ho focfOrioS 1nu
There are about twenty thousand silk
hands in the mills of Shanghai, and
among them are children who work
for cents day and women weavers
who get cents. / went through q
large factory employing hundreds OF
females, and the highest paid woman
in the whole establishment got 26
. cents for 13-hour day. | also went
through the cotton mills which are
now springing up III various parts of
China and asked as to the wages. The
factory girls at Shanghai were then
receiving on an average about ii cents
Of our money day and the poorer
hands did not get more than 3 cents.
The hours were from until 6, with
thirty minutes for luncheon. and they
thought themselves lucky to get the
| job.
Chinese Unions ut Panama.
The coolies will probably organize
| their own unions at Panama. and that
soon after their arrival. There is no
country of the world more honey
combed with traces unions than
theirs, and when they go abroad they
will carry their union rules with
| them. This Is thu case with the Chi
~ ho Dhi1trrjnoc OF
in Hawaii and in almost every for
| at Panama. The labor unions in
our unions here. During my stay in
Tientsin some years ago. Ii Hung
Chang was the viceroy of Pechilli, and
as such he was interested in bringing
the Shanhaikwan railroad into Tien-
tsin. He was able to get it only to
the banks Of the Peiho river opposite
that city. He started to build
bridge, when the boatman's union OBJ
jected, and he had to put his station
on the other side. The boatmen are
among the lowest of the Chinese cool
les, and Ii Hung Chang was the
strongest official the celestial empire
has ever had; but Lii did not dare to
! dutdSOulLe TIE DUdtIueu.
/ Another strong union is that of the
wheelbarrow men. They DO the
freighting Of the empire. carting
| goods and passengers on rude bar
rows. pushed by hand There are
5000 such men in Shanghai, and when
they struck not long ago against an
increase Of license thelr was as much
/ distress in that city as there was in
Chicago at the time of the Transfers
Strike
| Another strong union is that of the
slop carriers. the men who bring the
| dish water and other offensive stuff
out of the houses and carry it away to
be saved for manure. There are no
sewers or modern conveniences in
most Chinese cities. and these men
form one of the most important parts
of the laboring element. Not long ago
all those employed in the city CT Nam
king struck on account of the unjust
arrest of one of their members. They
refused to carry out the Stops, and
at the end of three days the city stank
to such degree that the people rose
and insisted that their demands be
granted
China has beggars' unions. BARRIERS
unions. and unions of all sorts of fac
tory men. The BARRIERS union once
declared strike which reached most
parts of the empire, and for a time
the two hundred-odd million men and
boys in China went about with their
heads looking like black shoe brushes
1t is not difficult to shave ones face,
but to shave ones head is almost i'm
possible. and the hair of the Chinese
grew into bristles on the strike of the
BARRIERS. believe the strike was for
demand that BARRIERS sons might be
admitted to the official examinations,
and understand that it succeeded.
How the Chinese Fight the Capitalists.
Our first twenty-five hundred Chi
nese can probably be controlled with
out much trouble at Panama, but If
their nuslber is doubled and quad
rupled. as may be the case when the
canal is in full swing. serious strike
might cause considerable trouble and
even danger of life. There was a
strike at Shanghai some years ago
against a magistrate there during
which the strikers took possession of
the unjust official and bit off his ears,
and at Suchow there is record of
strike against an employer who took
on more apprentices in rushing an or
der of gold leaf for the emperors pal
ace, in which the employees killed the
offending capitalist. In this case they
bit him to death, each man being
forced to take chaw and show that
his lips and teeth were bloody before