El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-01-29

FINANCIAL, China, Jan. 20.-The
growth of Shanghai beats that Of
~ the gOurd Of Jonah, which sprang
ND in a night. 1t 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
q 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 ma
tions and draw out at pleasure On
the same street are clubhouses, some OF
which have cost hundreds Of thousands
of dollars 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
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
In the big Cotton Mills.
Shanghai is preparing TO manufac-
t,lre for the new China. 1t is putting
I'D factories and foundr5es and starting
ali sorts of new industries. 1t has silk
failures which are producing bales Of
raw silk for our American weavers,
modern flour mills equipped with Mil
waukee machinery, and a cigaret fac
tory 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 have $4,000 or 10000
spindles in a single establishment. In
these mills over $4,000 Chinese men,
women and children are employed, and
they are spinning and weaving cotton
quite as well as in any Of our American
factories The most of them are man
aged by Chinese foremen and they give
scme 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 facto-
ries. / went through the establishment
of the Soy Chez Cotton Spinning COM
pany today. 1t lies on the Whampoa
river. the branch of the Yangtse which
gives Shanghai access to the sea, and
it is so situated that the bales can be
landed right at the mills and the goods
shipped thousands of miles into the in
terror by means of the rivers. or to
Japan or the United States. The suburb
connected with it is known as Hong
kew This is a great factory center,
and its sIhokestacks dot the stream,
running along its banks almost TO the
Yangtse-
Child Labor at 4 Cents Per Day.
The buildings of the Soy Chez com
pany cover several acres. They are of
gray brick and are shadoRed by a
smokestack which rises to the height of I.
a 12-story flat. Entering them. I
found over a thousand men, women and
children at work. L went through room |
after room filled with girls who were /
weaving and spinning. and I saw 200 /
children tending the machines Some |
Of them were little tots not higher than /
my waist and many did not reach to /
my shoulders. The smaller children (
were pulling baskets filled with bob /
bins here and there about the rooms. /
The larger ones were tending the spin /
ing mules and all Were working so hard /
that they scarcely looked up as 1 en- !
tered
I asked as 20 their wages. and found |
that they were about Of our cents per I
day, and that the pay of the older 1
hands ranged from that to 90 cents. !
Think of working ten hours for cents. !
aad that in the dust of spinning mill |
I photographed some Of the children, /