Who's Who in China (3rd edition)/Mu Hsiang-yueh

Mr. H. Y. Moh

穆湘玥字藕初

(Mu Hsiang-yueh)

Mr. H. Y. Moh was born at Shanghai in 1877. Between 1891 and 1898 he worked in the cotton store owned by his father. Mr. Moh attended school from 1898 to 1900. From 1900 to 1905 he served as a clerk in the Shanghai Maritime Customs. In 1906 he became supervisor as well as English instructor at the Loong Meng Normal School Shanghai. Early in 1907, he was sent by the directors of the Kiangsu Railway Company to investigate the railway police system in Northern and Central China. In the same year, he was made Chief of the Police Department of the company. This position he held till the end of 1908. In 1909, Mr. Moh sailed for the United States and entered the University of Wisconsin, where he stayed till 1911. Then he transferred his studies to the University of Illinois, where he completed his course in agriculture and took the degree of B. S. in 1911. During the summer of 1911 he took a special course on soap making in Armour Institute, Chicago; thence he went to the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, College Station, Texas, where he studied cotton planting and manufacturing. The degree of M. S. was awarded him by the college in 1914. Immediately following his return to China in 1914 Mr. Moh conducted a campaign for the establishment of a cotton mill. Assisted by his brother, Mr. Moh Su-chai, a well-known cotton expert, Mr. Moh succeeded in raising $200,000 and put his mill into operation in June 1915. In 1914, Mr. Moh inaugurated a cotton experiment station named after him, where American seeds were acclimated and freely distributed among the farmers. Mr. Moh's station was the first one that introduced American varieties with satisfactory results. To encourage the farmers to plant American seed, he established at his own expense in 1918 on Lay Road, Shanghai, a cotton ginnery with American saw gins. Recognizing his technical knowledge and managing ability, a group of wealthy Chinese in 1916 asked Mr. Moh to organize for them another huge cotton mill, the Huo Sang Cotton Mill. It had a captalization of one million two hundred thousand taels, but since it started operation in June 1918 the paid-up capital has increased to two million taels. This mill 'being in the interior is able to render very effective service to the public. Mr. Moh wrote in 1914 a book entitled Simple Remarks on Cotton Improvement over 30,000 copies of which have been distributed throughout China. He also translated Dr. F. W. Taylor's, The Principles of Scientific Management in 1915, and Mrs. W. A. Graham Clark's, Cotton Goods in Japan, in 1916. In the autumn of 1919 Mr. Moh represented China in the Pacific Commercial Conference held at Honolulu. In October 1923 he was Chief Chinese Delegate to the Pan-Pacific Conference held at the same place. In 1920 Mr. Moh organized the Chinese Industrial Bank and the Chinese Cotton Goods Exchange, of which he is president. He has served as President of China and the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, honorary Advisor on Industry, Director of the General Chamber of Commerce of Shanghai, the Vocational School of China, chairman of the Cotton Extension and Improvement Committee of the Chinese Cotton Mill Owners' Association, President of the American Returned Students' Club, and Advisor to the Shanghai Municipal Council.