Ships Forced to Unload and Load Through-Cargo by Powerful Bolshe: yik Organization By Avenep Batsox The Upper Yangtze Navigation Conference Labourer's Livelihood Maintenance Commission is the posing mame -of the organization Which controls things commercial. political and social in Ichang. And {in practice the organization is every bit as formidable as its name.
It is organized on such strict lines ind it maintains such a hold over its members as to make it the closest knit body of workers which this writer has ever come in contact. It is unionism brought to its highest pitch' and the most amazing truth about it is that it is found here in the interior of China away from the larger centres of workers and the supposed hotbeds of Bolshevik in-
It is a body of which any Trotsky could feel proud and it is the Jembodiment of a communists' dream of absolutism brought to cart Such a hold does it have over busi ness and life in Ichang as to cause tone foreign resident to remark: "The organization is Bolshevism in s highest form, When they tell you that Communism has been riven out of China ask them to come to Ichang and see it in apers tion. There is more Bolshevism in China to-day than in And one who has seen the system fat close hand must agree that there is more than a grain of truth in such a sweeping statement.
'The reason this organization has such a hold over affairs on the Upper Yangtze can best be found in 'alist of the bodies which it embraces, They are: Shipping Hongs, Shipping Hong Clerks, Shi ping Companies' Clerks, Stevedores, Cargo Boat Companies, Cargo Boat Coolies, Landing Coolies, "Pilots, Pilot's Apprentices, Packing Shops, Machine Shops, and such a variety: of smaller organizations as to include virtually every man working in Ichang. The sampan-men on the river are not too few in number to be included nor are the beggars who their livelihood by picking up cigarette stubs along the mud paths that are the streets of the city. Everyone is included and everyone contributes in proportion to the general funds.
It should not be thought that this Junion centres its attacks against the: foreigners alone. It does not. It includes. also the wealthy Chinese, But the fact fs, that Tehang has been featured so often and looted so frefavently that the wealthy native ther moves out or hides his money, fand the upshot is that there are not tem residents. there. she would be] Pointed out by a crowd of people as [At the same time it is a fact there that the cargo. coolie of yesterday may take advantage of the constant:
thifting.politieal. or commercial scene to emerge a taipan to-morrow, land where such fs the ease the finan: ial skyrocket. sees. to. it that ys" in the good graces of the union of which he was once minor member.
With all these units bound together in one general body, and with, their acknowledged feeling against foreigners being what it i happens that. where. one foreign shipper is chgaged in an argument with, say, the pilots for instance, he Finds the cargo boat coolies will not oad his ships, the special "squad which lands cods from the junk to the shore will have nothing to do with him and the stevedores let him Severely alone, The result is that if hho falls out with any one of the various, bodies which makeup the union, he is out with all, His ships re forced to tie up and itis a ques-fon of either being forced to give to their wishes.
and leave the port, or acquiestiny It is a fact that to every union member who owns more than the on the Bund and Any morning one can ate Al) boat come off from" a down ceiver ship. "eis loaded. with goods say eases marked for Chungking. The Jcargo boats land it, i i taken over.
"another crowds passes. throug" tio. or three hands and. is fimalige, jearried up the steep banks to the. godown where it is taken in at-angeres Bloor and set down. Inmediatelya checked by. a. dull eyed -young. man. who is more conversant wit,:-;° ins and outs of unionism then is tha. best informed member of the Stceas (Car Workers Union of Shanghai, 'A moment later the ease i pickelex: up by another set of cooles, carat down the yanks toa spot 60 Cod another door of the. god
way from where it was unloadal fviginally, and replaced on a sao pan, Then its taken out to the slug. from which it just came and Wf towed away by still another crowd the 2 drive the. forcigaag of the many parasites who are doing,
from the rive Needless to aay seary stop many in this intfiento process, 1 done. at' the expense of" the. big with' these denunde ho cold Should a shipper refuro to comply.
get his Tehang freight. off he could find m coolie to water his hip ud he could not find a lowly vanman to bring him ashore for frail in case he wanted one. ould stay out in the viver and forfar as the "Coolles Union" eareds If this situation can be paralleled Janywhere in the world, T would Tika to know where it is, The thing almost beyond belief until one seem it in operation, The two exceptions to the loading are in cases whore:—t, A ship is. making its maiden voyage Then it can carry a cargo. to Chungking, and, 2, Where a ship hasan. accident the gorges which makes it necess~ tary to return to Shanghai for rom pairs, when it can take a full carga direct from Chungking to Shanghat, In all other casco the ships comi
and have their cargoes tr or, down must stop at ebony
indignities forced on" the forcige is the crowning glory of aw) shippers by the Upper Yangtze Navigation Conference; Labourer't Livelihood Maintenance Commission, and right lustily does every member ree to-it that ite rules are lived up At the same time the union has ater ranches "which comb the native scene to find any peg on Which they can hang an additional charge to: wring money from thew Some time ago they decided that certain sons of wealthy parents were patronising the sing song hoy im the native quarter too frequently, fand on these they passed heavy, axes which had to be met under threat of closing. Tu addition they Jeut down the hours the establishe ments could stay open and aff dancing: places were closed save and, the ownership of which could not b§, traced by this writer beyond the foot that if was owned "By a big m You get a coolie to carry river ter up for your house boy act part of his earnings go to the genet" jai fund; you call a coolie to cuk down a tree in your yard and pact Jof the cost finds its way into tha. Union treasury, Your wife gets cute lof the foreign quarter of the city: at tiffin time and the children throw mud at her while the military, the police and the better dressed Chineao. stand by and laugh. You go to her Jaid and you are set upon by every Chinese Within a dozen blocks. has happened more than once ie recent: months. clothes to his back, there are five ther, members "who have. nothing! ineyond what they cara at the end of Thence along the river the organization is usually referred: to las "The Coolies." irae et on Sig, is these gentlemen who have brought shipping to such a state Ichang that, with but two ex: ceptions, every ship coming through to. Chungking. from below, Hankow must stop there and have its entire Jeargo brought ashore by one crowd jand immediately taken up and re-Noailed by another.
Moscow could learn a lot from ha \Coolies Union of Ichang and the ons Say to become popular. with a fore jeiga resident is to remind. him that IChina repudiated Bolshevism in 102%,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.