The Omaha guide., 1932-10-08

Mo-; Special Asst. u. s
was, it remains insignificant besides
his slave-trading activities in South
Africa.
In 1904, after the Boer War, the
white mine-owners told the African
natives that their wages in the mines,
with food and huts, must be cut from
$9.40 to $500 per month, about &c
cents a day. The robust Kaffirs re-
fusedThey were unwilling to submit
to the imperialists, American or
British.
With this 'labor problem" on his
hands, Hoover conceived the idea Of
~enslaving Chinese coolies and making
them work for the mere pittance
which the Kaffirs had refused.
Whereupon a slave-trading deal was
concluded, which is so monstrous as
to seem incredible. The record, how
ever, stands in print in numerous of
fetal publications of the English gov
eminent, in reprints Of speeches made
in Parliament, and n the London pa
pers Of that time.
Hoover vas then in charge Of the
Chinese Engineering and Mining
Company, a British firm which he had
helpd to organize in one of the most
shameless steals.
"On April IS, 1904, the Chinese En-
cheering and Mining Company, Ltd,
sold into slavery 100000 fellow hui
man beings. These were Cinnamon"
says the writer John Hammill. AL
though 100000 were contracted for
10000 were shipped before this nefar-
ious practice was uncovered.
Profits from Slave-Ships
Not only did Hoover profit through
exploiting the labor Of these coolies,
but he was also interested in the ship
ping company which conducted the
slave-traffic between China and South
Africa.
The charge for transporting coolies
was $35 a head. Under the contract,
Hoover's company was to get $40 for
each coolie rounded up, and $25 more
per head for transportation. Cat 20
cents a day, they would have to work
22O days to carr this $55.)
The Chinese were shanghaied. They
weer told Of a veritable paradise with
ideal working conditions and garden
cities"
Many of them were thus fooled into
signing up for three years of slavery.
Even the reactionary ex-premier of
England, Lloyd George, in a speech
before Parliament, denounced these
advertisements for coolies as fraud
ulent. 1&t sv AIA AN
In the course of Is months. over
10000, mostly agricultural workers,
had thus been duped about the nature
of their work.
These were carried overseas to be
brutality beaten at work which the
Kaffirs had rejected.
Coolies Crowded on Ships
Though the law allowed only 1000
on a ship, Hoover crowded almost
twice that number on. Many died on
the voyage, and many others goaded
into desperation at the intolerable con-
ditions, are known to have jumped
overheard. They preferred death to
Hoover's slave-ships.
These horrors recall the nightmares
Of the Negro slaves transported in
the 18th century to America. Indeed
a British statesman said in Parlia-
ment that the mine owners must have
sought their model from the southern
landlords before the Civil War.
The survivors of this awful trip
were rushed to the mines, where they
shaved hundreds of feet underground,
IN knee-deep water and constant rain.
garden cities" proved to be filthy
prison stockades, closely guarded by
armed men. The coolies were packed
into abominable quarters where free
movement vas denied them. The fate
OF those caught wandering from the
restricted area or of those attempting
escape, may easily be imagined.
Not only were those men forced to
slave 10 hours a day for rs cents. but
their pay was further reduced by
~hnes" placed against them at the
slightest pretext.
by Order of Ell. C. Hoover"
All OF the orders Of the company
personally signed: al. C.
Hoover" The company paid 20 to 30
per cent dividends on its more than a
dollar capitalization.
SO lnhuman and cruel was this slav-
cry, that it became an international
scandal and was prohibited. Not how