Aug. 12.
ATTENTION is being called by advertisement in the local press to one important feature of the increased cost of living to Chinese owing to the present high price of vice. It is at the instance of the Shanghai, Ningpo Shaohsing Builders' Guild, the effect' of it being that whereas building contractors have at prexent to pay their journeyman ten cents ard apprentices five cents 'a day more to enable them to meet living costs, the people with whom they have contracted should amend their contracts and make additional payments. Por certain classes of work the suggestion is that during the months when the price of rice remains at its present high level, additional three per cent. should be added to the original contract price for the work done in. that period, while for other classes of work inter eases of four! and five percent, are suggested. Tu announcing "this state of. affairs the Builders' Guild point! out that their action in: increasimg. the wages of' their workers has probably averted a strike which would have paralysed the building construction trade, is diMoult to say whether this is putting the case too strongly or not, for it must be remembered that conditions have changed here very much within the past] few years. Five or six year ago: when there was a considerable amount of building activity]
Shanghai labour was very searce, but to-day it is plentiful, and we can imagine very keen competition for employment. such a case workers are apt to! think twice before leaving employment, no matter how hard may be the conditions.
We cannot enter here into the unfortunate position of labouring classes when faced with the prospect of their wages being brought to starvation point. As in previous years it has largely been brought about through deliberate manipulation of the markets, and the officials, who should Have taken measures to stop such doings, have shown their usual ineptitude. Tneidentally we ave informed that any amount of cheap Saigon rice is in godowns: here, but does not find favour with' the skilled class of workers. These working classes have the sympathy of all foreigners, and it is satisfactory to see that their employers—the members of the Builders' Guild—have come to their assistance. The position with which we are concerned: is that of the latter the men who have contracted to perform certain work at a particular price. and who now wish th secure a higher price for it; Is their attitude a re sonable one?" Legally they have no standing, and while the suggested increase comes as a request, it could not be enforced) as a right. The position is analogous to a contract which does not contain a strike clause, for in the event of a strike the contractor is held' responsible for whatever delay may occur. When we come to increases in the cost of living and material, it is only in circumstances such as prevailed in a country like! Great Britain during the war that) these matters enter into the calculations of the parties concerned. The position at that time in England. was that the cost both of living and materials was subject to such enormous rises that it was: necessary to stipulate for alterations to meet these events, Under such conditions, of course, mo accurate estimating could be possible, but at the present time! we are far from that abnormal situation, and if the building and construction trade is to remain Progressive and prosperous, we must know with accuracy who stand as regards A sentence in the announcement made by the Builders' Guild suggests that in one particular they have been distinctly sighted. Their manifesto! accepting contracts the building contractors, of course, could not have foreseen this difficalty (i erensed cost of living) and, accord: ingly, could not have provided for meeting this emergency.
Surely, however, this is by no, means the first summer in which heavy rises have taken place in ice and when Free Rice Bureaux have had to be established for the poorer classes, and far-seeing men would have taken this possibility into their - calculations. They must be held to have accepted such a risk in exactly the same way as they would accept whatever benefit would accrue to them were the cost of living to go down and with it the scale of wages they had to pay. One never hears of an offer in such a case to make a reduction on the contract price. The fact of the matter is that a contractor: is paid to take such risks as the cost of labour going: against him, and if it became a habit for his contract to be in-' creased whenever such occurred, there would ultimately be chaos in the industry. While in th case bf minor contractors, whose financial resources are' small, there will often be an adjustment to help them out of a difficulty, t 'a matter entirely outside the scope of the general admission of such a concession as a principle. Apart altogether from the difficulty reaching some of the principals in the building contracts now being carried out in Shanghai, many of whom are at a considerable distance, and without whose consent no change can be made, it is certain that it will be for the best interests of the industry. here that there should be no general acceptation of the suggestion at issue. To do otherwise would ultimately strike at the inviolability of all contracts.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.