The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-10-02
CHINESE WOMEN STRIKE FOR
 MORE PAY
Desperately Poor, Their Fare of Rice and Tea Gut Still Further.
By EDNA LEE BOOKER International News Service Staff Cor
 reSDOndent

By EDNA LEE BOOKER International News Service Staff Cor respondent l Shanghai, Oct 2.-Ten thousand Chinese women employed in various silk flatures in Shanghai are striking
 for better pay and shorter hours of work.
 The workers, who at present work 12 hours at a wage of 3S cents a
 day, are demanding 10-hour day and an increase of five cents per day in their pay
 Early this morning more than 1000 workers, including young girls and old women, attempted to enter number of f11atures to enlist the sym pathy of the workers, but a hurry call from the employers brought a detail of police and the women were frightened away.
 Women Stage Parade Prior to the attempt to enter the fliatures the strikers paraded through the Chinese city carrying banners. The police did not interfere. The ban ners which the women carr.ed bore Chinese characters, which are trans later as follows:
 This is a Republican world, where men and women should be equal We
 are striking for the promotion of mor- ality and the protection of the rights of humanity!''
 perately poor and practically leader less, so there is little hope of their
 winning the s]x7ke. Out of it is growing, however the first efforts to form aguild of women workers of China.
 Seeing the wonderful Chinese silks and satins in the Shankhai silk stores roll after roll-rainbow hued hro caded. lowered and striped, the tour
 lst seldom thinks of the suffering and toll Of the little slaves of China who helped produce the beautiful fabrics Often before sunrise the squeak Of
 the wheelbarrows on which the fila
 ture workers are riding to work-10
 or l2 on one wheelbarrow pushed by one coolie-is heard The wornen
 begin their long day of toll at sun rise, relieving the night shift. Tiny Children Work inc workers range from kiddies of h, nve and six, whose little fingers are bhstered from the work, to bent and Yflnkied grandmo others, who must toll II they would live. The women han dle the baskets of silk worms, casting water, and it is up to them to wind the silk from the silk worms, and in do ing so their fingers and hands are burned and scalded.
 Tiny babies lie at the feet of many or the women. They are kept at their
 work so closely, however, that there is llttIe time to care for their little ones. The women carry their teapots to
 and from the filatures and bowls Of
 rice and chopsticks in their lunch
 baskets, although in a number of the
 natures the women are able to pur-
 chase hot rice. Just now rice is very expensive. and the bowls grow small
 CT and smaller The rice and tea
 make up the midday meal of the
 workers.
 Come From Country
 The women come to Shanghai from the country. Many of them have ac-
 companied tlnier husbands, who are
 for the most part, 'ricksha cooIies hawkers and street workers.
 The police have arrested six of the leading women in the strike and are
 holding them in prison. According to report, the strike breakers are go-
 ing among the strikers and telling the women that their leaders will be shot unless they go back to work