The compradore and contractor is particularly pernicious in that ho stands like a wall between tho} employer and the labourer. They can never understand ench other. They never talk to each other. They don't know each other. The compradore and contractor is often the most snivelling type of in. dividual whose influence is parti ularly pernicious in foreign firms, because by always agreeing with is foreign employer, he keeps him misinformed. Where there is direct contact, there is naturally a greater possibility of friendly relations. We cannot expect too much of sanity' and probity on the part of the workers considering - the state of the country, their low standard of intelligence,' their lack of factory experience over long periods, their being constantly subject to political agitation for reasons altogether extraneous to working conditions, A sympathetic, understanding, just employer finds a way of realizing and overcoming these difficulties, The compradore and contractor never can understand anything but his share of the profits of. an enterprise which he does not own, in which he may have only temporary interest and to which his heirs may. never succeed. I am not thinking of any individual; it is the system which is wrong.
'The Students' Part The public, who are weary labour and political troubles, often blaine the labour unions for employing students instead of Inbourers as union officials. An antipathy toward the student has grown up: during the past two years among both Chinese and foreigners, so that his mere appearance on the scene creates the impression that the Bolsheviks are coming, in spite of fact that there are the the general situation, but if then employer is never in the wrong, as. he never is in the model industries mentioned, labour will soon protect the beneficent employer as. labour abroad protects him. It is a matter! of time, patience and education, The Compradore for Trouble The strongest irritant in the labour situation is, in my opinion, not the Communist agitator but the compradore and the contractor. I could cite an instance where a pro-evident fund was misunderstood by the workers as having some hidden trickery in it, because a compradore was in the mill. The fact that the contractor arf his sub-contractors shave off part of the labourer's income ig unfair and will one day become the principal labour issue in Shanghai. Furthermore, the contractor wants his workers to pro-since as much as possible at the smallest possible expense. He prefers cheap labour because there is 4 profit in it for him. He wants long hours because there is a prof, in it for him. He assumes no social responsibility toward the labourer. (ale does nothing and cares nothing: about. social conditions.
Before the modern industrial system came into effect at the nite" students than there!
The explanation of the student] type in the Inbour movement rests upon the fact that a leader should ba able to read and write and deliver a speech, that he must be Dresentable and' must be character to call upon "great men" and to enter into negoti is not to be expected that labourers fresh from the farm can produce such types. They have got to recruit them from the student roups. Labour for many years in China will be led by this type, that by men who have never worked in a shop. There is no alternative until labour becomes educated, Which is impossible in a country where there is no system of compulsory education, Treating With Labour Several methods are suggested }for treating with labour. In some instances, the factories prefer to treat with the old Number Ones, wh} {Stil have some influence. ' Ore' suggestion has gone forth thas employers shcu'd organize labour unions, so that their agents in the union can keep out subversive propaganda. This scheme has been tried and has failed everywhere. found out. In western countries, it hes been found most' advantageous for - powerful. and responsible labour union to deal with a powerful! [and inclusive employers' association. Responsible labour leaders: have deen known to join employers in fighting unauthorized strikes. The American Federation of Labour is} conserving force in industry.
On the other hand, suppression by police power turns the union into an organization fighting: only for Political purposes, which is interested not sq much' in fighting principle of trade unionism. It is Labour's cause' as in fighting for the
unbelievable and beyond all labour history and experience that once] fiabour unions have come into existence, they can "be- permanently' suppressed. It is most unfortunate that. in Shanghai the General] Labour: Union is definitely allied to the Communist Party and is political in character, but there are labour unions opposed to Communism and a Federation of Labour is in existence which is. fighting for supremacy in the field of labour, unionism with the General Labour Union. The latter- has nioney; the former is poor. But the workers want protection and not polities and few serious strikes organized for! political purposes in which the principal losers are the workers will do more to end the day of the General Labour Union than all forms of police suppression.
Some employers of labour prefer to wait until the Chinese Government has passed a labour code before they treat with any labour unions. They may have to wait for many years to come. The Chinese Government is engaged in other directions and "even if the lawyers of Peking were to write the most progressive code imagin. able, the enforcement would depend upon local officials at a time when the authority of the enacting government is questioned. in many Parts of the country.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.