The Wilmington morning star., 1946-02-17
Interpreting
The News
BY JAMES D. WHITE
Associated Press st,ss


~, If a the Shanghai Herald is s' rtst,
the Chinese government is t ,s.N
soring a small economic revo, SpoA'
This paper says that tn. vo u..oa'
ment plans to eliminate tb s', I'm
sha by May, 1949, to MAKE LICK. a
for motorized traffic. va!
This would be Revolutionary
cause many millions Of Orisr. We
make what passes for a livins ,'t ~
pulling a ricksha, and manv "
lions more find it handy w,m r'l *.
getting about. Nowhere is ths ny W. VI
sha more widely used thai W. 4
China. 1t is social and econo r n
factor Of considerable inportsr...
there. 'e
Ricksha is a contraction ~
japanese word, jin-riki-sha, u,S;,s
means "man-stretch-cart." Ta
story goes that an American nj. '
sionary in Japan had crjnnl ,',
wife, and devised this way for ' bss
to get out and about.
No Shock
The idea of one human b.ir.
pulling another around came Is
no shock to the Orient, whers -.
centuries the wealthy ard povsr.
full had been lugged about in -,
dan-chairs on the shoulders Of th.i,
servants.
For in the Orient, one biz tm
BILE has been that there were IA,
many people, and this means som NJ,
Of them had to do things which
were humiliating or otherwi,. IN,
desirable.
British pneumatic tires vsr.
what made the ricksha practr,
1t wasn't just a "sedan.chair a,
Wheels" but one that only On.
man could power, and much TASTE,
Japan virtually abandoned n,
ricksha because enough streetcar
buses, trains and so on were d..
veloped to crowd it out.
But in China, particularly m,
ricksha spread. Like the bicycle
it could be made locally except for
the tires, filled a great need 70,
short-haul transportation that moth.
ing else answered, and above al
provided jobs for uncounted nil.
lions of laborers who could find
nothing better to do.
The employment factor was i'm.
portant enough that in several
cases ricksha-pullers rioted agains
the installation of some of China
few tramWay systems.
Westerners usually are upset BY
their first ricksha ride. The idea
of another person pulling them
around bothers them deeply.
Someone then points out that i
your ricksha-man doesn't pull VOL
or someone, he may starve. When
upon the westerner feels somewha
better and begins to enjoy the easy
open-air features Of this light little
cart, which have been compared
to those of small buggy pulled by
talking horse. 1t also becomes
apparent that, under the right cir
cumstances, pulling a ricksha isn't
necessarily such hard work, either,
It's only later that the westerne
begins to see the system Of usurg
and exploitation which gets The
ricksha-man in debt and keeps
him there, the victim Of the money
lenders, the ricksha-dealers and
his own ignorance and helpless
ness.
The plight of the ricksha'puIf
is only part of the whole picture
of terrible poverty, inefficient pro-
duction and over-population which
plaques the Orient.
Strengthening this picture out is
the problem that faces these
crowded Oriental countries and the
world.
China's proposed abolition Of The
ricksha is one attempt to re-dr'V'
in more dignified human terms
one dark corner of that picture
But the Chinese governHen'
knows that as long as some CHI,
nese are poor enough they will pull
rickshas in order to eat