Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-20

woods of China doctor will charge you 20
cents visit and think himself we'll paid.
In the factories wages are very low.
There about twenty thousand silk hands
in the mills at Shanghai, and among them
are children who work for cents day
and women weavers who get 3 cents.
went through large factory employing
hundreds of females, and the highest paid
woman in the whole establishment got
% cents for thirteen-hour day. l also
went through the cotton mills which are
now sprnging up in various parts of China
and asked as to the wages. The factory
girls at Shanghai were then receiving on
the average about IA cents Of our money
a day and the poorer hands did not get
more than 8 cents. The hours were from
until G. with thirty minutes at noon
for luncheon. These girls were about the
best paid in that part of China, and they
thought themselves lucky to get the job.
Chinese Unions at 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 honeycombed with trade unions
than theirs and when they go abroad
they will carry their union rules with them.
This is the case with the Chinese in the
Philippines, at Singapore, in Hawaii and iii
almost every foreign settlement and is
bound to be so at Panama. The labor
unions in China are almost as important as
unions here. During my stay in
Tientsin some years ago Ii Hung Chang
was the viceroy of Pechilli, and as such he
interested in bringing the ShanhaiK-
wan railroad into Tientsin. He was able
to get it only to the banks of the Peiho
river opposite that city. He started to
build a bridge, when the boatmen's union
objected, and he had to put his station on
the other side. The boatmen are among
the lowest of the Chinese coolies. and Lii
Hung Chang was the strongest official the
celestial empire has ever had; but Ii did
not dare to antagoniZe the boatmen.
&c f1,of af fh. ,Ian1
barrow men. They do the freighting of the
empire. carting goods. and passengers on
rude barrows, pushed by hand. There are
5000 such men in Shanghai. and when they
struck not long ago against an Increase of
license there was as much distress in that
city as there was in Chicago at the time Of
the teamsters 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 1t away to be saved for ma
nure. There are no sewers or modern con-
veniences in most Chinese cities. and these
Of the laboring element. Not long ago all
those employed in the city Of Marking
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 eorts OF factory
men. The BARRIERS union once declared a
strike which reached most parts of the en-
pre- and for 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 a demand that
BARRIERS sons might be admitted to the off,
cial examinations. and I understand that 1t
succeeded.
How the Chinese Fight the Capitalists
Our first twenty-five hundred Chinese can
probably be controlled without much trou
BILE at Panama. but If their number Is dou-
bled and quadrupled. as may be the case
when the canal is in full swing, a serious
strike might cause considerable trouble and
even danger of life. There was strike at
Shanghai some years ago against magis-