The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1942-02-27
Industrial Co-ops-
CONTINUED from Page one)

Continued from rage One)
of the Japanese in the hotly-contested
Changsha battle front, thirty yards
from gun-fire, disguised hut shelters
grenade factory which shifts It's
quarters with the tide of battle. On
small river in Yunnan province floats
sampan cooperative which converts
fuselages from downed Japanese
planes into helmets and raincoats.
Hidden somewhere else in Free China
is a shoemaking cooperative manned
by wounded soldiers" who are car
rying on the fight against the in
vader with undaunted zeal, with eco
nomic weapons instead Of the guns
they are no longer fit to carry.
Many Of these industrial workshops
were equipped with machinery sal
vaged from the Japanese-occupied
territory When the Japanese invaded
the rich coastal cities, the Chinese
dismantled their factories and carried
the machinery on their backs 1900
miles into the interior of Free China
in one of the epic migrations of mod
ern times and reassembled it there.
Factories equipped with this machin-
cry formed the nucleus of the in
dustrial cooperative movement. Sup
ported by funds from the Chinese
government and the American Com
mittee in Aid of Chinese Industrial
Cooperatives, member agency of
United China Relief, these cooper
atives have grown into a great wall
of economic resistance against Japa-
nese aggression.
The first industrial cooperative was
organized in the inner city of Paochi,
in August, 1888, when nine refugee
blacksmiths set up an iron foundry.
From this single vestpocket industry
Paochi has grown from an isolated
backwoods community into the bust
ling, smoky Pittsburgh of China's in
dustrial renaissance, while today
more than 1000 vest pocket work
shops are active throughout China,
producing more than $1,000,000 worth
of consomer and military goods every
month More than 100000 refugee
workers, as well as 100000 part-time
apprentices, have also been given
gainful employment by the cooper
alive movement. More than 200 prod
ucts are now being produced by the
cooperatives, ranging from small
dynamos which can be propelled by
special small river waterwheels that
the co-operatives build to refine pre-
cision machine tools. The output also
includes shoes, canvas bags, cloth
ing, soap, dies, electrical goods, uni
forms, cots, tents and medical goods.
Chinese industrial cooperatives are
vital to China's wartime economy.
Besides filling the shortages in
Chinas production caused by the
loss of her prewar industries, they
fight the underground traffic in Japa-
nese goods, which is Japan's chief
economic weapon against poverty
stricken China. Every day, Japanese
goods are struggled across the guer-
rilla front, and are sold to the Chi
nese people in an effort to overwhelm
Free China's war-stricken economy.
Sometimes the Chinese are forced to
buy because no other goods are avail
able. More frequently the goods are
mislabeled.
So important are the cooperatives
in the national industrial renaissance
that the Chinese government has set
up an official department to aid the
movement under DR.. H. H. Kung, the
finance minister A revolving capital
fund forms the heart of the cooper
alive movement Rewi Alley points
out that the small sum of seven
American dollars from the central
fund equips a worker with the tools
he needs to get back into productive
work with his companions. Within a
year the loan is paid back and an
other worker can start to rebuild his
shattered life and home again and
help bolster the economy of his coun-
try in the bargain. In addition he sup
ports his own family.
Organizers and managers of the CO.
operatives go through an exhaustive
training course which includes book
keeping, marketing, social science and
score of technical courses. They
train and teach the unskilled workers.
Illiteracy is taboo among trained CO.
operatives and workers learn to read
and write as soon as they begin to
work. This same desire for learning
has wiped out the dark mist of il
literacy from 90,OO0,OOO Chinese minds
since the start of the war.
One important effect of the indus
trial cooperative has been it's slim
illus on civilian morale. Originally
driuap from thair hOpoac hu tho an