Who Inserted the Recent Advertise ment?—Suggestion of Agitation by Bolshevik Washermen In the Mixed Court, on Tuesday Mr. P. M. Linebarger applied behalf of the Shanghai Laundry Guild for an injunction to restrain those advertising under the name of the Guild from inserting further advertisements in local papers. This action was an outcome of the advertisement of a few days ago. Defendants were not represented! in_court.
Mr. Linebarger said that, some; time ago, a number of laundry! masters were perturbed over the tendency of certain people in their} business to Bolsheyistie acts and! the general stirring up of dissent sion. The result was that he drew up articles for the Shanghai Laundry Guild. which were filed with the Registrar of the Mixed Court. No sooner had this been done than the Bolshevist. agitators retaliated by getting funds together, obviously obtained from poor laundry workers and advertised on quite a Jarge scale. He had not been successful in definitely tracing the advertisers, but he had made arrangements whereby he was assured the man who was responsible for the advertisements 1eceived the summons from the Court.
Certain paragraphs in the advertisements showed that the aim was to intimidate the laundry masters and that the rival organization desired to stir up an agitation for their own purposes and to get funds for their own use. The laundry workmen, who were mostly the old fashioned type of Chinese, many still wearing the queue, were the ones who suffered most by the Health Department's regulations and it was a great burden to them to conform with rules which they did not really understand and, i these agitators got amongst them, stirring up strife, there might be dangerous results.
The great point mide by the advertisers was that, under their regulations, the laundries would get more money from the foreigner and they were also aiming at the Health Department. It was the work of a very small group of mischief makers. Since the petition was filed, one of their representatives had made overtures to_ the Guild for ce-operation. The Guild, to avoid further friction, were prepared to let the matter drop. with simply a restraining. order against further advertisements of this type.
A laundry master, who said that he was a member and an officer of the Guild, gave evidence that he had no objection to the Health Department's regulations. The
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.