Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-30
Copyright, 1919, by Frank C. carpenter)

~NHANGHAI, ls0e.-(speoiai Cor
respondence Of The Bee)-Ths
growth Of Shanghai beats that
=e or the gourd OF Jonah, which
fH sprang I'D in a night. II ia
- now a modern European CITY.
IL has business blocks which might n.
dropped down in New York or London and
not be out Of place, and residences which
would be fine I'm Washington or Paris 4
Along the Bund, the wide road which faces
the river, are a dozen or more banks whose
capital runs into the tens Of millions ana
whose managers are so trusted that thew
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 dollars to
build. There are big hotels where you can
1--we as well as at home, and shops, with
plate glass windows, containing European
goods OF every description. Shanghai is
the Paris Of the far east. 1t is one Of the
richest cities OF Asia, and It takes the best
of all that is going.
Tn the Mig Cotton Mills.
Shanghai is preparing to manufacture
Tor the new China 1t is putting up fac
tories and foundries and starting all sorts
of new industries. 1t has silk failures
which are producing bales Of raw silk for
our American wesvers, modern flour mills
equipped with Milwaukee machinery, and
a cigarette factory owned by the American
Tobacco Trust, which employs more than
LOCO hands. 1t has eight great cotton mills
with several hundred thousand spindles.
and some which ave $1,000 or $4,000 spin
dies in a single establishment. In these
mills over 10000 Chinese men. women and
children are employed, and they are spin
ming and weaving cotton quite as we'll as
in any of our American factories. 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 I have visited some
of the biggest of the cotton factories. 1 went
through the establishment of the Soychee
Cotton Spinning company today. 1t lies
on the Whampoa river, the branch OF the
Yangtse which gives Shanghai access to
the sea. ana it is so situated That the bales
can be landed right at the mills and the
goods shipped thousands of miles into the
interior by means of the rivers, or to
japan or the United States. The suburb
connected with 1t is known as Hongkew.
This is a great factory center, and its
smokestacks dot the stream, running along
its banks to the Yangtse-
.
Child Labor Mt 4 Cents Per Day.
The buildings of the Soy Chez company
cover several acres They are Of gray
brick and are Swallowed by a smokestack
which rises to the height of a twelve-story
flat. Entering them, 1 found over 1000
men, women and children at work. 1 went
through room after room filled with girls
who wera weaving and eDfnninu and I a N
200 children tending the machines. Some OF
them were little tots not higher than my
waist and many did not reach to my shout
ders. The smaller children were pulling
baskets 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 looked
up as 1 entered.
l asked as to their wages. and found
that they were about 4 Of our cents per
day, and that the pay to the older hands
ranged from that to 20 cents. Think of
working ten hours for 4 cents, and that in
the dust of q spinning mill. 1 photographed
some of the children. frightening the little
ones almost 20 death as / did so. The
manager tells me that he has many whole
families employed In his f~actory-father,
mother and children all working. There
are no laws against child labor, and the
babies aid in keeping the wolf from the
door.
Speaking Of babies. there We're several
of these in the mill. Some were still at
the breast, and their mothers had brought
them along that they might not lose work.
l remember one girl ofg Is years spinning
away with an Acknowledged infant at her
knees, and another had a baby in a basket
beside her. The child was quiet. As 1
chucked it under the chin two yellow
dimples broke out In its cheeks, and 1t
smiled. In another place I saw a 3-months-
old baby lying in a pile of white cotton
waste on the floor of the mill.
% W" !
Cotton Yarn for Hand Looms.