The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-30

H.. NIs J Shanghai. TNHE growth of Shanghai. beats that of the gourd of Jonah, which 4 sprang up in night. It Is now modern European city. It has business blocks which might be dropped down in | New York or London and not be out of place, and residences which would be fine in Washington or Paris. Along the Bund, the wide road which faces the river, are a dozen or more banks whose capital runs into the tens of millions and whose managers are so trusted that they can dip into the pockets Of the nations and draw out at pleasure On the same street are club houses. some of which have cost hundreds of thousands of dol lars to build. There are big hotels where you can live as well as at home, and shops, with plate glass windows. containing European goods of every de- scription. Shanghai is the Paris of the far east. It is one of the richest cities of Asia. and it takes the best of all that is going.
 In the Big Cotton Mills.
 Shanghai is preparing to manufacture for the new China It is putting up factories and foundries and starting all sorts Of new industries. It has silk filatures which are producing bales of raw silk for our American weavers. modern four mills equipped with Mill waukee machinery, and cigarette fac tory owned by the American tobacco trust. which employs more tban 1000 hands. It has eight great co0n mills with several hundred thousand spindles, and some which have 5000 or 90000 spindles in single establishment. In these mills over 5000 Chinese men, wom- en and children are employed, and they are spinnig and weaving cotton quite as well as in any of our American fac tories. The most of them are managed by Chinese foremen and they give some Idea of how the Celestials expect to make their own cloth in the future.
 During my stay here have visited some of the biggest Of the cotton fac- tories went through the establishment of the Soy Chee Cotton Spinning com pany today. It lies on tho Whampoa riv- CT, the branch of the Yangtse which gives Shanghai access to the sea, and 1t is so situated that the bales can be landed right at the mills and the goods shipped thousands of miles into the in- terior by means of the rivers, or to Japan or the United States. The suburb con- nected with 1t is known as Hongkew This is great factory center, and Its smokestacks dot the stream, running along its banks almost to the Yangtse.
 Child Labor at 4 Gents Per Day.
 The buildings of the Soy Chee com pany cover several acres. They are of gray brick and are shadowed by a smoke stack which rises to the height of History fiat. Entering them, found over 1000 men, women and children at work I went through room after room filled with girls who were weaving and spining, and I saw 200 children tend ing the machines Some of them were little tots not higher than my shoulders. The smaller children were pulling bas- kets filled with bobbins here and there about the rooms. The larger ones were tending the spinning mules and all were working so hard that they scarcely look ed up as I entered
 asked as to their wages, and found that they were amout of our cents per day, and that the pay of the older hands ranged from ts.at to 20 cents. Think of working ten hours for { cents, and that in the dust of spining milll I photo graphed some of the children, frightening thel title ones almost to death as I did so. The manager tells me that he has many whole families employed in his factory-father, mother and children all working There are no laws against child labor, and the babies aid in kep- ing the wolf from the door.
 Speaking of babies, there were several
 
 the breast, and their mothers had brought them along that they might not lose work. I remember one girl of IS spin ming away with an almond-eyed infant on her knees, and another had a baby in basket beside her. The child was quiet. As chucked 1t under the chin two yellow dimples broke out in its cheeks and it smiled. In another place saw q three-months-o baby lying in a pile of white cotton waste on the floor of the mill.
 Cotton Yarn For Hand Looms.
 This factory works day and night, and there are quite as many children em- ployed in the night shift as in the day time. One thousand hands are always busy, Sunday and week days. all the years through. It's chief product is cot ton yarn for the domestic weavers. This Is made up into bundles, which are then packed into bales of 400 pounds each and shipped all over the country. The yarn is woven into cloth on hand looms, and 1t supplies a large part of the cloth- ing of the common people. It comes Into competition with the mills of India and Japan, and also with thoso which are now starting up in the other parts of China. am told there are sometning like 100000 spindles now working upon such yarn at Shanghai, and also a large number at Ningpo and Soochow. There is one Dig mill at HangchoW, one at canton and some at Hongkong, Wuchang and Han kow. The labor is abundant and the peo- pie easily learn to handle the modern machinery.
 New Milling Machinery. The Chinese are rapidly introducing the better class of machines. and their mills are already about as well equipped as our own. A great part of their ma chinery is imported from England, and only certain specialties come from the United States. In one factory I found an American light plant with 6o00 electric lamps burning, and in another thers were modern fire machines, and the employers had . fire drill every week. In nearly every place the wages were as low or lower than those have quoted, the high est price paid the men being something like Q cents per day. while a good aver age wage was or 10 cents. found