Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1902)
Trades Unions of China and the Modern Invasion I 'A Ml- ' ..t .i " !' 1 c - - . r : s ONE OF THE COBBLERS WHO SMASHED SHOEMAKINQ MACHINERY. iCopyrijsht 1902. by Frank O. Cnrpenter.) nounced him. After that the union prob- lOOCHOW, China, Feb. 2. (Special tbly had no further trouble. Correspondence of The Bee.) chlam B uorUlnginin'i Country. Scochow has more trades unions than any city of the United We are accustomed to look upon China States, and Us working men are ts me neu oi me mooring mu. better organized than those of Europe. I iaci. lew p.aces wnere bucu uiu u, have spent some time studying the labor rnore rights and where their unions have situation, and I find that these people can tnore weight. It Is true that hours are long give us pointers on many subjects. and wages are low. but these are conditions Soocliow is one of the labor centers of brought about by other things than the op- the Chinese empire. It Is bigger than Bos- pression of capital. As far as I can aeo ton proper, and It has ten suburban towns the officials are all afraid of the worklng- of large size where Boston has one. There man and public sentiment has as much re 6.000.000 people living within a radius weight here as at home. In building rall- of thirty miles of It, and these are huddled roads and establishing factories the unions together In a hundred cities which range In will have to be fought. Even the emperor Ita frnm m. few thousand to a hundred Is afraid of them, and LI Hung Chang. f -; ----:::' - a - . m f --s r '! A if Oo ' K3 V ' ' C d J k I. IV iff! !J h.-l 1 jad TYPICAL. SLOP CARRIER. WHOSE UNION BULLDOZED A MANDARIN. WHAT THE BARBERS' UNION CUT OUT FOR SIX DAYS. thousand, and In about one hundred thou sand villages and hamlets. The whole country Is a beehive of work. It makes all kinds of silks, satins and cot great as he was, did not dare to Oght them. A monument of the power of the boatmen's union can be seen In the river just opposite the great city of Tien Tsln. It consists of tons, as well as manufacture of Iron. wood, a number of stone piers, upon which the v.. .1... within th. i.t flv. vears railroad from the seaport and that from the great cotton and silk mills have grown up al mines were to cross Into the city. The about It. These are worked by modern boatmen wanted the business of transfer machinery, but the most of the labor Is ring passengers and freight across the still engaged In house industry and In little "veri lue ouJc" " factories employing about a dozen bands. There are more than 100,000 people making embroidery alone, and the Soochow Weav ers' guild has altogether 7,000 looms. There Is a large fur business, a fan business and the station should be on the bank of the Pelho. LI Hung Chang bad an Income which is supposed to have approximated $1,000,000 a year. These boatmen each made 60 cents or leaa per day, but combined they an enormous establishment In which the brought the great viceroy to terms. Soochow bath tubs are made. In all. it Is said that every one of the 860 trades known in China Is carried on here, and nearly every trade has Its union. They Strike on Short Notice. Slop Carriers and the Magistrates. Another Instance of the power of such unions happened shortly before I visited Nanking. That city has a population of 600,000. It is noted for Its rich men. Its The Soochow worklngmen are noted dandles and Its extravagant officials. There among the Chinese for their independence. Is a magistrate there who has an Income They will strike on short notice and on wnicn runs nign into tne tens or tnousanas slight provocation. They have already had of dollars a year, and be naturally feels bis some of the most remarkable strikes of the empire. It was here that the Oold Beaters' union bit an employer to death some years ago, and it was here that one of the mag istrates who opposed the worklngmen bad his ears bitten off. The gold beaters' case is the more re- Importance, for he stands at the top of the heap. At the very bottom of the Chinese social pile is the slop carrier. The cities here have no modern conveniences, and all the garbage, dish washings and slops of every description are carried out of each house markable in that It arose out of an order every day by men who have the special for gold leaf issued by the emperor of China. His majesty wu anxious to bave the gold leaf on short notice, and a gold leaf capitalist who bad a factory at Soo chow got leave from the authorities there to take on more apprentices than the rules of the union permitted. These rules pro vided that an employer could engage only one new apprentice at a time, but this man employed a large number, whereupon th. men struck. They gathered at the factory to the number of 123, and there waited for their employer. Before this they bad held a consultation, during which they bad as sured themselves that there was no law In China making biting to death a capital of fense. As soon as the employer came in the men fell upon him and each took a bite out of his person. Every one was required to join In the execution, and those who first bit were stationed at the door to see that very man leaving had lips and gums cov ered with blood. The employer died In a very short time. The union men who com mitted the crime were arrested and tried, but only the one who took 'ae Drat bit? was beheaded. The above was a case In which an em ployer was punished. The members who break the lulea of their unions are also severely dealt with. Fines are common, but maiming and killing are not unknown. Only a few weeks ago a man was found under a bundle of straw at the new docks cpposlte Shaaghai. His eyes bad been gouged out and laid in a basin beside him. He had been thus treated because he had broken the order of his union, which had boycotted the docks and forbidden all work upon them. An lustance Is known of a cooper who was ordered to work at lower wages than those required by bis guild. The order came from the magistrate and It could not well be disobeyed, but tMs workman cut off bis right band and came with the bleed ing stump before the magistrate and de- trade of slop carriers. These men carry the slops out through the city in great wooden buckets, each man having two buckets hung to the ends of a long pole which rests on one shoulder. They are often bare to the waist and the buckets bob up and down as they swing along through the streets. Outside of the natural courtesy shown to the burden carrier by getting out of his way every sensible one steps aside for the slop man. Not long ago one of these fellows was trotting along, grunting as he went through one of the busiest streets of Nanking, when a magistrate strutted around a corner and was Jostled by blm. One of the buckets was spilled and a part of the slop flew over the magistrate's gown of lavender satin. His excellency became very angry. He or dered the slop man to be taken to jail and told blm he would punish him severely. The next day there was no slop carried out of Nanking, for the slop men had struck; they refused to lift a bucket or permit any one else to do so. It was the same the next day, and In a short time the conditions were far worse than they would be in Boston or St. Louis if all the sewers were plugged and the garbage men prevented from work ing. The city stank so that even the Chinese could stand it no longer. They rose en masse and the magistrate bad to give In. Similar strikes have recently occurred at Shanghai from the contractors increasing the weight of the buckets in which the slops are carried. How Barbers Bulldosed Officials. The Barbers' union Is one of the strong est In China. In our country many shave themselves, but this Is almost Impossible here, where shaving consist not only in taking the hair from the face, but from the whole of the bead, except the spot on the crown where the pig tall sprouts out. The barbers go about from place to place, car rying their tools with them. During the summer the most of the work Is done In the open air, the barber usually carrying his stool along with blm. The trade Is considered a menial one, and for a long time, according to custom, no barber's son was admitted to the literary examinations through which alone offices are obtained. The barbers' unions demanded that this be changed. They were refused In many places, but they carried their ap peal higher and higher, with the threat of striking, until they at last got what they wanted. Had they struck they could easily have brought the province and empire to time. The barbers' unions regulate wages In different districts. In the Nlngpo district they charge $1 a week, and in certain other places they also regulate the prices of shaving. The Wenchow Barbers' union re cently passed a law forbidding their mem bers to shampoo their customers, and they bave also an absolute rule that no barber shall clean ears during the last six days of the year. A part of every ordinary shave in China is the cleaning and scraping the ears. The barber has special tools for the purpose, and the operation takes time. At the last of the year all barbers are busy, for then everybody must be shaved, and the time saved through the omission of the ear cleaning adds considerably to the profits. They Smashed the Machines. The laboring men are much excited as to the foreign Invasion. They fear that the Introduction of modern machinery will de crease work, and the officials are afraid of an uprising on this account. The work men have already destroyed much modern machinery. A Chinese from America started a shoe factory not long ago. He Imported some of our labor-saving tools, but the cobblers broke In and smashed them. They reduced the shoe-sewing machine to scrap Iron. The Shoemakers' union denounced the employer, and he had to quit business. Some of the modern silk mills of Canton were slmlllarly treated years ago, as were also cotton mills In different parts of the empire. Nevertheless, the Chinese quickly learn how to bandle the most complicated mod ern machinery. They can do anything, and i IN THB GOVERNMENT WORK SHOPS NEAR SHANGHAI. In the government workshops at Shanghai they bave made steel rails and locomotives rs well as all sorts of cannon and rifles. Wheelbarrow Inlon. In opening up railroads our capitalists will have the opposition of the Cartmen's union, the Boatmen's union and the Wheel barrow union. It seems strange to speak of a wheelbarrow union, but there are thou sands of such organizations here, covering all parts of the country. The wheelbarrows are the drays of the cities and they are to a large extent the freight cars of the coun try. They are used to carry passengers as well as freight, and the unions will oppose the Introduction of electric cars on the claim that they will Injure their business. There are in Shanghai alone almost 6,000 passenger and cargo wheelbarrows, each of which pays a license of 600 cash, or 76 cents a month. The license until within a short time was 400 cash, or 60 cents a month, and the raising of it has now brought about a big strike on the part of the Wheelbarrow union. The officials claim that the wheelbarrow men can easily pay this amount, as they make about $15 a month in silver, or $7 in gold, and that this Is ample to keep themselves and their fam ilies. A similar strike took place somo years ago, when the license fee was raised from 25 to 60 cents a month. Servants' Unions. Among the curious unlous are those cf the men servants who work for foreigners. I do not know that their rules extend to Chinese, but they are very rigid as to Eng lish, Germans and Americans. These serv ants take the place of the hired girls of our country. The members of their unions have regular meetings, in which they discuss their masters and mistresses and report upon them. If you dismiss a servant the union may boycott you, and it may be a year before you can get another. A lady friend of mine, a missionary, recently caught ber boy stealing and discharged him. She employed others, only to find them leaving after a few days on some plea or other. The director of the Pacific Mail Steamship line bad a Chinese boy who abused his little son. He discharged the boy and could not get another for a long time. One of the foreigners of Shanghai recently took a Wenchow man into his house as a servant. The Shanghai union objected and forty of its members broke Into the house and took out the Wenchow man and thrashed him. The director's wife sent out her rtksha cooley to bring the po lice, but the union rcen set upon him and broke his arm. In these union meetings whenever a serv ant takes a new place he asks for a report on the master and mistress, and the other servants who have been employed there rise and give him a full statement as to his cr her habits, whether he or she Is pleasant to live with, whether he or she drinks and whether there Is a fair chance for cumsbaw or commissions. Every servant, of course, expects to make his percentage on all that comes Into the bouse In the way of market ing, and I might also say to make as much more as be can. Oar Minister as a Jam Eater. As a result of this principle the foreign ers must watch their accounts very care fully to prevent overcharging. I know of one English bachelor whose servant brought him In a bill the other day charging blm for three pounds of beef every day for a month. This was too much beef for one man and the bachelor gagged. Consul Gen eral Goodnow was charged with twenty cans of Jam during a recent two weeks' visit of Colonel Conger, our minister at Pekln. Now, the consul general and his wife are both light jam eaters and Colonel (Continued on Eighth Page.)
