The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-10-13
Form Patriotic Society--Close
Shops and Banks to Gain
Patriotic Demands. ,
GOVERNMENT ALLOWS POINTS
Miss Harriet Smith, Y. w. c. A. Student
Secretary in China, Relates Amaz-
ing Story of How 10000 Stu
dents Organized Themselves.
By BERNlcE GRisWoLD.

MISS Harriet Smltn, LOT ten years
student secretary of the Young Wom-
ems Christian Association in Shanghai,
China, relates the amazing story OF
how 10000 Chinese students organized
themselves to Dust the militarists from
Government offices in Picking and how
they succeeded in becoming the lead
ers of China.
Fearing that China was not to be
protected from the aggression of other
nations by the Peace Treaty, as she
had expected to be, some 10000 stu
dents, all of them between the ages of
twelve and twenty-one years and in
Guiding 5000 girls, organized them
selves into the Chinese Students Pa
triotic Society Immediately after the
publication OF the first draft OF the
Peace Treaty to fight for Chinese
rights.
Their first move was TO strike from
school or, rather, from lectures, as
they remained in their respective
schools and spent so many hours daily
In private study. They then organized
into bands for getting out propaganda
literature and for public speaking in
the country and small towns and in the
tea shops in poorer districts of the
cities in order that they might reach
the vast numbers of people who could
not read
Immediately upon organizing, the
students published their demands, four
In number: Cd that the miltarists.
who as party were pro-Japanese and
practically controlled the Government
at Picking, be put out OF office: ~ that
Shantung be returned 10 China; t3)
that the twenty-one demands made by
Japan in 1915 be cancelled; (4) that
there be freedom of speech and of the
press They also insisted that the
| Chinese constitution be finished.
| An immense amount of literature
was put out. much of It in the new
| phonetic script which is being launch
/ ed in China, so that the uneducated
| classes might learn what was happen
| Ing. Students lectured everywhere on
! the demands. stirring the people to pa
! triotism. When many of them were
| arrested while narading in the streets
| of Picking they formed n. Association
| Of Imprisoned Students within the
| prison and refused To be released, pick
| citing the stockade themselves when
| Government guards were taken away.
| until the Government submitted q
proper apology FOR having imprisoned
them in the beginning
When 1t became evident that eco
homie pressure was all that would be
effective both the bankers and mer-
chans' guilds were called upon to back
| the students. 'In less than two
hours" Miss Smith said, "the shutters
were up at Fvery shop In that great
city of Shanghai. where telephones are
few and communication difficult.
Every shop, whether large or small.
was closed The laboring people, feel
| Ing as patriotic as the bankers. mer-
chants and students, also joined the
| general strike. For week everything
| was closed-shops. money exchanges,
fish markets, shipping, everything,
The students struggled to keep public
utilities running. The telephone serv-
Ice was stopped for n short time, but
the students soon had 1t running again.
They held meetings day and night, try.