Mr. Fryer went on to speak of the influence on the workers of the renaissance Movement now sweeping over China, the leaders of which regard Marxism with favour and are openly championing the communist cause. He pictured the fervent student reformer as_ self-appointed leader of the credulous multitude in the industrial revolution now proceeding side by side with the social revolution. Thus far, he continued, the new industrial system has started with all the traditional mistakes aggravated by the greater ignorance and poverty of the workers. (1) Wealth is becoming concentrated in a tew hands and the masses are left as poor as before but with the added handicap of not owning their own tools. (2) A working day of 14 to 16 hours or more made worse by the necessity of long trips between home and factory, is the rule. (3) China's time-honoured family breaks down, when the whole family are in the factory for day or night shifts, and the development of a more rational home life is impossible. (4) Grave risks and accidents come with the use of high-powered machinery and of certain dangerous processes of manufacture. (5) The health of women is seriously impaired both by night work and by the economic necessity of working up to, and too soon after, childbirth. (6) The child labour problem, with its heavy toll on the min and bodies of China's future citizens, is at its worst here; thousands of children from six years of age upward are employed on both day and night shifts of from 12 to 16 hours. The fact that their tiny wage lowers the whole wage scale is lost sight of in the vicious circle. (7) The conflict between labour and capital has not as yet developed in any very acute form, but there are many signs that labour is beginning to be restless and to seek organizations. Unless the obvious mistakes are avoided it is likely to adopt some of the more reckless methods of the labour movements of the West, but with infinitely more serious results due to ignorance. (8) The religious beliefs of the people that have for
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.