The report of the S.M.C. Industrial Section, for the quarter ending September 30, published in today's Municipal Gazette is important testimony to the vitality of Shanghai, for it shows that during the period under review there has been a recovery in industry of all types in the Western District of the International Settlement and in the Western Outside Roads area. Increases are to be noted in the silk reeling industry, in which there is a noticeable return of filatures, which for some years past showed a tendency to leave Shanghai, enamelware and glassware factories, tanneries, paper-mills, briquette factories, while in the textile industry five large spinning and weaving plants are either planned or in operation. Some of these are substituting for those formerly in the Eastern district whose operations have ceased. Witn all the adverse conditions under which Shanghai is suffering at present, with a hin-treland much poorer now than it was when the Sino-Japanese hostilities broke out fifteen months ago, it seems amazing at first glance that there should be this anxiety to invest more money and get business going. Yet there must be much idle money in Shanghai at such a time as this and the general situafion appears to justify the conclusion that, if Shanghai were permitted to get back to normality, economic rehabilitation would proceed at a wholly satisfactory rate. The report notes that plants in the Eastern District are reopening, and some 581 applications for power connection in that area have been received during the period under review, and it is clear that with the removal of existing restrictions, and the return of that district to something approaching the normal, considerable employment would become available for those Chinese who have been thrown out of work. It is regrettable that the existing anomalous state of affairs should be allowed to continue, in view of the very patent anxiety of the community to get back to work.
The work of the Industrial Section with regard to new plants will be followed with considerable interest, The task of improving working conditions has been progressing with a slowness inevitable when the peculiarities of Shanghai are remembered, but with the erection of new plants it has been possible to introduce reforms, which in establishments already existing would be by no means easy. This is particularly the case with regard to the silk filatures, where the number of children in the workrooms has been reduced, and those still remaining permitted to work under better conditions than formerly. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that circumstances necessitate the adoption of the dormitory system for factory workers in these areas. That is undoubtedly due to the shortage of housing accommodation, and may be expected in the course of time to rectify itself. Whether that proves to be the case or not, the dormitory system needs to be watched with a particularly jealous eye, for it gives the employer a control over his staff which cannot be regarded with any degree of complacency. Similar systems have proved objectionable in other parts of the world, and if in Shanghai it is likely to reduce the worker to a position akin to helotry as has occurred elsewhere, its extension should be sternly opposed. That the authorities will encounter difficulty in doing so goes almost without saying, but where new establishments have to be erected the remedy appears to be in their hands by refusing to pass plans for dormie tory buildings. That might to some extent delay the progress of present developments, but it is clear that once the dormitory system is allowed to get a hold it will be difficult to dislodge it. It is most certainly undesirable that a system should develop which tends to deprive the worker of that freedom which should be his during the hours he is not at work.
The appearance of a table showing the cost of living index for Shanghai workers is to be welcomed. This journal has frequently been asked for such information, but without the machinery necessary for the proper investigation has been unable to supply it. The present figures should prove useful to branches in Shanghai which seek to convey a true picture of the situation to head offices situated elsewhere. The figures will doubtless come as somewhat of a surprise to the foreigner who must undoubtedly have formed the impression that the cost of foodstuffs has increased considerably more than the ratio for June of last year, 97.82,—the base of 100 dating from 1926—and that of 126.71 for September of this year. Leaving aside imported foodstuffs, and dealing only with those produced in China, foreigners will more: readily believe that the price has almost doubled. Their market books will surely tell them that. It would indeed: be an interesting study if some authority could investigate the increases in the cost of living which the foreigner has been called upon to meet. Obviously the enquiry is attended by considerable difficulty, but if such infor-motion could be provided local taipans might find it easier to put the positions of their staffs before head offices with considerably more conviction than seems to be possible at the moment. "With the purchasing power of the dollar' practically forty per cent. lower this year than it was in 1926, and probably the decrease is even greater when foreign purchases of imported goods have to be taken into consideration, the foreigner paid in Chinese currency is very much worse off now than he was twelve years ago. For the small salaried man' the position is becoming tragic, with, so far as can be seen at the moment, very little chance of early betterment.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.