Evening star., 1924-01-07
CHILD LABOR EVIL
FOISTED ON CHINA
Coming of Industry to Celestial
Nation Brings Ill as Well
as Good.
2. W. C. A. SEEKING REFORM
Chinese Do Not Understand Cam.
paign Being Waged.


Correspondence to The Star and the Chicago
Daily News.
SHANGHAI, November 2.-Twelve
little girls riding in q wheelbarrow-
q Chinese wheelbarrow Is q man.
power adaptation Of an Irish jaunt-
ing-cart-were being pushed across
one of the camel-humped bridges as
the correspondent ricashawed toward
his hotel 1t was the time Of day
when little girls in other countries
were putting their dollies to bed or
listening to good night stories. These
little girls were going to work. as
were many others not Of the wheel
barrow aristocracy. in one Of the
foreign-owned cotton mills which are
making Shanghai prosperoua
Modern industriallsm Is one Of the
blessings which the west has brought
70 CHINA and with ith ave come all
the evils which were stamped out in
foreign countries years ago. Cotton
mills, match factories. mahjong
plants, silk factories and others are
Iured to the land where raw materials
are close at hand and labor Is cheap
and still unprotected. The conserva-
tive Chinese of the past considers the
big industrial plants another mani
possibly he has finally found n cor
rect explanation OF his favorite phase.
Appeal Of Y. w. c. A.
The twelve little girls of the wheel
barrow suggests the Young Women's
Christian Association. Miss Esther
Hor3en. a new secretary from Nor
way, told about them or another
dozen SO vividly at the annual con-
vention in Hangchow this year that
the organization decided to launch
campaign for better working condi-
tions for women. 1t was among her
been longer. it would not have made
an impression. Everything is diff
fcrent in China, and impressions come
90 fast that they cease to impress.
That Is why the Chinese are bland.
They have had 5000 years of China.
and are SURPRISED at nothing, for they
never know what to expect.
The three proposals of the asso-
citation seem moderate--no employ
ment for children under twelve years
women and protection of health and
safety for all workers Even twelve
years is early to begin life as a
wage Garner. but not in China. They
or on the little farms, but that Is
trivial compared to factory work.
The largest of the British cotton
mills agreed to exclude chi dren, and
few days later found they were
still there
Diversity OF Jobs.
China's system Of private pigeons
extends even to the big manufactur-
Ing plants. When you begin a meal
in a foreign hotel. one boys pigeon
ts to bring salt and pepper, another
the clean" plate, another fills the
glass with water and after many
hands finally prepare the table the
boy with the waiter pigeon may ar
rives with some food. Ore Chinese
has the dining room concession, an
other has the bar, another furnishes
the clean linen for the rooms. and SO
on until the guest wonders what the
hotel does except print Its name on
stationery and collect-the latter,
three times what it is paying each
Chinese contractor for his pigeon.
So in the cotton mill, the Chinese
contractor who was turning out the
worl. explained that TIE woman
home and that as long as the
youngsters were at the mill they
might as well be out to work and
earn a few coppers. Child labor is
that near to abolishment in China.
The Chinese does not attempt to
the Y. NJ c. A. 1t rather puzzles
him. He has been told that the ways
of the west are better than his from
religion to business, and here is one
= other foreigners do is not right. If
the foreigners want the Chinese to
believe that everything foreigners do
is right-which nobody except the
diplomatic corps thinks the Chinese
do believe-they must not stage their
debates in China.
Has Rapid Growth.
The W. c. A. will make the situa-
tion interesting. Though it has only
5000 members out of China 100000
900. 1t is the largest womenS organiza-
ton in the country and is growing rap
Idly. Its members are OF the emanci-
pated elite, some of whom regularly
evoke the admiration Of the equally
emancipated foreign secretaries by re-
fusfng to accept a family picked and
unseen husband, or by disobeying a
previously acquired husbands orders
not to attend school or otherwise etep
out of the ancient obscurity allotted to
women in this country. However, Chi
nese women have led revolutions and
lost their heads in past years and sew
eral' are leading bandits and pirates to-
day. All the new women of China are
not Y. w. c. A. members.
The headquarters of the associ4-
tion are in Shanghai. Other branches
are located In Canton, Peking, Muk-
den, Tieptsin and other cities. In
addition there are ninety-one student
associations and three summer campo.