The Connecticut labor news., 1924-12-20
TINY TOTS TOLL 12 HOURS
 A DAY AMID DUST AND FOUL . AIR OF SHANGHAI FACTORIES

By International Labor News Service. Washington, D. C., Dec. 2O.-How cruelty child workers are exploited in ! countries where there is almost no la bor movement or labor legislation is il- lustrated by the child labor situation in | China.
 The evils of child labor in China are barred in a report recently made by a commission appointed to investigate child labor conditions in Shanghai. The commission found that the average earnings of unskilled 1aborers in the Shanghai district are not more than $l 5 month, while i'll some instances they are as low as $8 a month. The aver age cost of living for a man and his wife of the very poorest class is esti- mated at $16 a month As result, the great majority of Chinese children are put to work at the earliest age possible. Medical witnesses before the comnis- sion agreed that the children work un- der conditions extremely detrminetal to their bodily and mental welfare
 In mills and factories visited by the commission many children were seen at work who could not have been more than 6 years of age The hours of work are usually 12 with not more than hour off for lunch, and the children us- ually have to stand the whole time they are at work Most factories stop for one shift at week ends and with this exception and the customary holidays at the Chinese New Year, work is contin- uous.
 Atmospheric and dust conditions and sanitation generally are very bad. The earnings of young children do not aver age more than 20 cents, silver, day and in some instances contractors obtain young children from the country, paying the parents $2 month for the services of each child. These children are poor ly housed and fed, and as they receive no money their condition is practically one of slavery.
 In silk hlatures most of the employees are women and young girls, in propor- ton of one child to every two adults The children brush the cocoons, remov- ing the waste and so exposing the silk thread. This operation is performed over basins of very hot water with which the fingers of the children ire quently and necessarily come in contact and they are required to stand the en- tire time they are at work Many of the children were not more than years old
 The temperature of the workroom is usually above normal because of the hot water in the basins, and faiting in hot water Is not uncommon The children, whose earnings amount to from 20 to 25 cents, silver, a day are said to present a pitiable spectacle.
 Children in the Shanghai district are employed in the match factories in box ing the matches and making up parcels of boxes, for which as little as copper cents is paid for days work. In one large factory visited by the commission children not more than 5 years of age were seen to be working with almost in credible rapidity.
 White phosphorous Is used in some of the match factories, but 1t is said that there was possibility that native regulations coming into force next year forbidding the use of phosphorus
 might be observed. No precautions were taken against the risk of fire, although | it is a special hazard in this industry Much of the box making is home work. a mother and two children being able to finish from two to three hundred parts of boxes day at the rate of coppers per thousand
 In an appendix to the report the evils of the factory system as 1t Is develop ing in China without adequate national regulation are summed up as follows:
 Actual overstrain and injury to life, health and limb of workers, adult and youthful, but especially to very young workers, through excessively long hours without pauses, through night work, in furious dusts, poisonous substances hu- midity, exteremes of heat and cold dan gcrous unguarded machinery, rapid crovding into towns without good hous- ing, with consequent i'll effect on family life, and breakdown of ancient village customs of local government and hy- giene; strain on expectant and nursing mothers, and on young, adolescent girls and boys, the future parents of the na- tion; breakup of the old guild system, and lack of social and economic pro lection for unorganized and unrepre- sented workers where personal and fra