The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-08-06
BY SCOTT NEARING

under which they labored had been intolerable
Many of the foremen were foreigners. They neither
sympathized with the Chinese, did they spare
them.
Pay was pitfuly low. Colonel Malone has recently
written report for the British Independent Labor
Party which is published under the title "The New
China" Part II Of this study devoted largely
to very plain statement about wages, hours and
working conditions Here are some typical daily
wage rates, expressed in terms of American money:
Cotton industry (men) Is to 25 cents.
Railway workers, 25 cents.
Coal miners. IL to % cents.
Match factories, (women) to Is cents (children)
5 to 10 cents.
Silk factories (women) 20 cents; (children) 10 cts
Hours long. The twelve hour day and the
seven day week are common. Many strikes have
been called to reduce the working day to twelve
hours. Sometimes it is high 16 hours. Little
time is allowed for meals. Men, and children
young eight years work these hours
Working conditions are bad. There is dust. Ma
chnery is unprotected. Sanitation is inadequate
The worst conditions of exploitation in Britain in
the early years of the nineteenth century are ex-
ceeded in China
Foreign capital has exploited the workers of China
under such conditions. Beginning with the Hong
kong Seamens Strike of 1922 (Hongkong is Brtsh),
the movement to organize the workers has spread
rapidly over China.
Here is another menace facing the British i'm
periasts in China-the movement of the Chi
nese workers. They have been aroused by the ter
ribe conditions Of work and life that have been
enforced upon them. They have begun to use the
strike and the boycott-wth deadly effect. These
masses have grown anti-foreign through years of
suffering and hardship and humiliation suffered at
the hands of the British-led imperialists.
6,-The Soviet Menace.
British imperiasts face still another menace in
China: the menace of Sovietism. Until 1917 this
menace was non-exstant. Since the Russian Revolu-
ton of 1917 it is of the most serious of the
forces that confront British imperialism in China
There a number of reasons for this:
1.-The Soviet system presents a view of
social life that is very close to the experiences
of the Chinese villagers. They understand the
meaning of Committee government" because
they have practiced something very like it.
2.-Sovietism offers the Chinese masses
possible means of escape from the worst phases
of private capitalist exploitation What they
have known of this system has convinced them
of undesirabty.
3.-Sovietism is an appeal from system Of
society that rewarded parasitism, to system
that emphasizes the desirability of productive
and useful effort The great of the Chi
nese are workers, and again this idea very
close to their experience.
4.-The Soviets have been emphasizing and
practicing self determination In sharp contrast
with the imperialsts they have been demanding
freedom in the cultural life of dependent peo-
pies. The Chinese Nationalist movement is
striving for just that freedom.
Thus the Soviet system, both because of the time
when it is offered to the Chinese and because its
character appeals to the experience of the Chinese
has already had great influence in shaping the
thinking of the Chinese Nationalist movement
The imperialists have been appealing with gun
boats The Soviets have been appealing with offers
of cooperation and suggestions that Russia and
China make a common stand against immortal ap-
gression.
China AS Battle Ground
With the entrance of the Soviet Union on the
scene, China become battle ground across which
some of the most important military engage
ments in modern history were fought. Military bat
ties were fought but they were incidental The
major struggle waged between different levels
of social development.
Three principal interests were conteding for SUI
premacy in China:
1.-The imperialists, led by Great Britain.
Their watchword was Claw and order" which,
IN