The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-08-01
BY ANISE.

HANKOW, China, July 81. (FP).-
In the great 4th congress of the ALI
China Labor Federation meeting in
Hankow, / was struck by the faces
of some women delegates. Girl dele
gates, / should have said, since they
were clearly not over 20. One of
them, when she bent her soft round
face and soft bobbed hair over the
desk to write her notes, might have
been 10-year old in a primary
school, so gently childlike was she.
Later | learned that she was Wang
Ken-Yin, head of the Shanghai
women's delegation, who delivered
on the second day of the congress a
most fiery speech against Gen. Chi
ang Kai-Shek's suppression of work.
ers.
Ardent Speakers.
There was another girl who sat d.
rectly below tfe platform. At first
l was hardly lure if she were a girl
at all and no some glorious glowing
boy in his t, ! rs, full of ardor and
devotion. He toyish bob, the swing
ing gesture aRh which she hurled
her clenched st into the air. cry
ing out the 4ogans, and especially
the embarrassed grin with which she
sank back when once she had
shrieked slogan all alone, were all
boyish rather than feminine. At
high moments of the congress her
rapt uplifted face showed deter
mined willingness to walk straight
into machine guns whenever demand
ed. Only when she turned at the
meetings. end to drop her arm around
the two girls behind her, and | saw
her entire figure, was certain of
her sex
l invited the women delegates to
dinner, on behalf of the workers
press of America. We talked for
hours together, and they told their
stories. Of 20 women from a prov
inces attending as labor delegates, IL
were workers direct from the shop
Direct From Shops.
Wang Ken-Yin,. the child-faced
orator from Shanghai, is 20. From
the age of she has worked in SPIN
ming mills. For the first 6 months
of labor she got no wage at all, be-
ing merely an apprentice. Then she
began to get cents day. MISS
Wang has worked in A different fac
tories through the days Of her youth.
She gets now the magnificent sum OF
81 American cents day.
Miss Wang told me the benefits OF
the union, organized two years ago
in the great explosion OF labor ac-
tivity after the May 80 shooting by
the British in Shanghai. Formerly
we had half day holiday on sun
day; now we have all day Sunday be-
cause of the union" she said. when
l was young and made mistakes, the
foreman beat me; the older girls ne
did not beat, but fined them very
high. Now the union protests the
beatings and does not allow big fines.
Studied in Lunch Hour.
Twelve hours day is the time
Miss Wang must work. But other
girls from Shanghai told me they
worked 16 hours, from a. m. to s
y. m. In the modern factories which
work two shifts the day is IL hours.
I asked the Shanghai girls how
MANY could read and write. Three
out of eight mot counting the stud
ents). said they could read but not
write. Since most had begun their
factory life at the age Of 8 and had
worked IL hours or more ech day,
asked when they had learned.
"Till Chang came the union sent
teachers to the factories at lunch
time" they explained. ut was the
one free moment in the day and we
used it to learn to read"
Even though illiterate, they were
fully aware Of the work of their trade
union. 1--WE held public meetings be-
fore Gen. Chang Kai-shek started
his expressions" said Miss Wang,