Little girls of seven years assist these women, ne seats are provided for them and they are kept standing 13 hours every day, seven days out of the week. Work in factories is no light recreational occupation, either, but th" workers are held so strictly to their jobs in some mills that they do not dare to look up from their tasks for fear of being d. "What future can there be these children, untaught, unned, scantily fed, with no time} for play and subjected to severe physical strain?" asked the speaker.
Tu cotton mills young boys under 12 work in two shifts, from 5.30 in the morning to 5.30 in the evening, with perhaps 15 minutes at noon for a hasty meal of cold rice, moistened by warm water, but with no tea. Extreme fatigue is induced by thes long hours and the little girls on night shifts feel this particularly between two and four in the morning, falling asleep on the floor near their machines, or, as often happens, falling into the machinery and being maimed for life, if not killed outright.
An inquiry conducted by the government into glass factories operating in Hongkong showed that young boys were the workers mainly employed, that they worked from 6 in the morning to 11 at night and for 17 hours of work a day for seven vs a week they received the sum per month. When remonstrate ith the employers claimed that was i proper age, inasmuch s the boys received lodging and food. Lodging proved to consist of the right to sleep on the floor near their machines and the physical condition of the lads showed how inadequate was their fare. The very fact that the government is improving conditions in Hongkong and that in certain other centres some Chinese and foreign mil] owners are running their factories on humane principles and others are willing to do so as soon as the movement shall become general is a very hopeful sign, said Mrs. Eddy. She then urged the club to take up the study of industrial conditions in China and to do everything possible as an organization and individuals to improve conditions. Mrs. Eddy realizes how peculiarly difficult are the problems of the Oriené with its surplus of labour but the thought does not appel her. "It is little more staggering than the condition which social reformers had to face in England 159 years ago," said she, 2
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.