portion to its membership. This delegates' meeting is held once a year; but a smaller number of permanent delegates meet every month. The Executive Committee has 25 members, who elect a Standing Committee (or Executive Bureau) of seven, for conduct of the business. Each one of the Standing Committee is in charge of a Department (Secretarial, Finance, Propaganda, Women's Department, etc.).
In the Executive Committee of each Branch, there must be at least one woman and one youth; this is to guarantee that proper attention shall be given to the special problems of women and children. The voting power was stated to be: men 45%, women 32%, children 23%, in the union as a whole; but here, as elsewhere in the world, the men predominate in the leadership more than in the general numbers.
The Union has a Picket Corps of 500 workers, trained under control of the General Union. All but 60 of these work regularly in the mills, and are only called for special service. The other 60 are on permanent duty, the personnel being changed every three months, and the workers being paid by the factory to which they belong. Support of this picket body is one of the obligations of the employers contained in the contract with the Union. Ten of the pickets are armed with rifles.
Another interesting provision of the Union contract with the employers, is the provision of an Educational Fund, to which the employers pay $4,000 per month, for the benefit of the textile workers. This money goes into the general educational scheme of the Hupeh Provincial General Trade Union.
The general condition of the industry is slack, and there is much unemployment. This is due to civil war conditions, interruption of transport, etc. Conditions of labor are bad, but rather above the average of even industrial workers in China, and considerably better than artisans. Hours of labor are 12 per day. In most of the mills there is no lunch time off. Pay is mostly by piece-work. Wages run from 30 to 50 cents per day, depending upon the volume of work available, being now about 30 cents.
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