To the Editor of the "Nonri-Cuixa Darcy News"
SinjI read with great interest the report in. yesterday' ie, of the "North-China Daily News" of the sermon by the Rev, Michael Bruce regarding factory ' conditions in Shanghai, Last fall T was a member of a committee which did some in" vestigation along this same line, particularly with reference to the con ditions under which women and children work in Shanghai. We found conditions fully as appalling as Mr. Bruce has pictured, For instance, we visited a cotton mill where the alr was filled with Unt, We visited a rubber factory where the girls breathed fumes from gasoline twelve hours a day as they fitted the tops of rubbers to the soles. One may imagine what would happen in ease some one lighted a cigarette anywhere near the building. We Visited also a sith Mature in which children stood for twelve hours a ay dipping their hands in hot water which the cocoon were soaked, water so hot that their eyes were red and inflamed from the steam which came up into them all day long. And fat night another shift of children wont through the same experience for another twelve hours.
Then we visited the places where some of these girls lived. We saw tone room where eight girls slept on 1 raised platform about a foot off the floor, arranged alternately head and fect, and were told that their beds were vacated in the morning in time to be occupied by the night shift, and vice versa. One evening we stumbled a dark narrow stairway to an upstairs yom, about 12ft, x 14{t, which had been divided by bamboo and newspaper partitions into {wo rooms and a passageway. The front room was occupied as nearly as we could see by the light of the little kerosene Temp, by a family of tve, who ate, slept, and had their sanitary arrange: ments all in this small. space. The back room was occupied by the Iand~ Indy. As we turned {0 leave, one of us brushed against the lamp, it tip ped—and we saw ourselves' in the flash of a second trapped in that tiny space, Of course our committee has not seen everything by any means. But we saw enough to convince us that somethings must be done, at least by those who call themselves Christian.
As Mr. Bruce suggests, every one of us is reaponsible—not only the landowners and factory owners, but each of us who looks for a "bargain," and demands cheaper and ever cheaper goods. This fs a tremendous prob-em, and there are many lines which must converge toward a solution, but T would like to suggest two things which I believe can be done by every tone concerned over this situation.
First, og Mr, Bruce said, Inform ourselves of the facts, either by personal investigation, or by getting the facts from those who have investigated, After we have the facts, pass them on. After all, China has a equate factory laws. But they cannot be enforced unfit public opinion demands it Secondly; there are some factories and stores which treat their_employees more justly than others. There fare some factories, for instance, who do not use contract labor, and who pay higher wages, and who have medical attention at the service of their employees. Lot these factories and stores be publicized, let their goods be marked by some special Tabel, and then let the rest of us, the buying public, patronize those firms. This will be not only an encouragement to those who wish to do right, ut will be a potent check upon those who put private gain above human welfare, Mancaner 8. Hrers, (Mrs, J. B. Hipps)
Shanghai, May 5.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.