编者按

张鸿钧（1901-1973），字秉衡，1901年9月24日出生于直隶宛平县的一个普通农民家庭。1925年，张鸿钧先生从燕京大学社会学系毕业。1927年冬，张先生赴美国西北大学社会学系研习社会工作，后转入芝加哥大学社会行政研究院学习，以论文《英国老年恤金制度》获硕士学位。1929年，张先生学成回国，担任燕京大学社会学系教授。

1930年，燕京大学社会学系设立清河社会实验区。1931年，张鸿钧先生担任清河社会实验区的第一任主任，负责实验区的全部管理工作。1935年，张先生带领学生赴山东省汶上县进行农村社会调查。同年，被山东省政府任命为汶上县代县长。1937年燕大社会学系主持的清河试验区结束，张鸿钧正式出任燕大社会学系主任。1938年，张先生担任定番县（今贵州省惠水县）县长。由此，燕京大学师生以清河实验区、汶上县和定番县实验县为调研基地，在张先生的带领下完成了一系列重要研究课题。1944年，张先生任命为社会部社会福利司司长，主政期间致力于扩展社会福利事业，与妻子吴榆珍女士一同推动社会福利和社会工作事业的发展。

本文为张鸿钧先生1925年于燕京大学社会学系学士毕业论文的节选。作者出于对北京某私人毛毯工厂学徒与工人健康状况的关注，在该工厂指定医师Louise Morrow的协助与指导下，于1924年3月至6月完成了对该工厂的调研，并据此完成了本文的写作。作者与24名正式劳工及48名学徒进行访谈，希望弄清楚为什么工厂中存在大量男工患有沙眼、胸痛、头痛等疾病，从而制定出预防方法。此外，本文还涉及该工厂的组织管理、工人的薪资待遇、学徒的培训教育等内容，并依据实地调查所得提出了一系列相对应的意见建议。

 

A study of Y. L. Sun sanitary rug factory

张鸿钧

With the hope of finding out why so many boys of this factory have trachoma, chest-pain, headache, and some other diseases that we may work out the preventive methods, this study was undertaken under the instruction of Dr. Louise Morrow, the chairman of the Health Canter of the Peking Community Service Group, who has given practically all of the workers and apprentices of this factory a careful medical examination.

It has taken me almost four months to finish this study beginning from the 10th of March 1924 to the 23rd of June. At first the report was not so complete and further study was made for a number of days this spring with the assistance of Mr. Thos. C. Blaisdell Jr.

In this study, I have talked privately with 24 rug weavers who have been apprentices of this factory before, but now are regular workers, and 48 apprentices one by one when they could not be overheard. I have kept special records for each one of them.

Most of the materials of this study are obtained from the workers and apprentices. Though there may be figures which they tend to point a better or worse picture than really exists on the whole I believe they are accurate. Very few of the facts are secured from the manager himself, because I thought that I could get more truth from the workers and apprentices than from the manager and this is why I have spent most of my live with the workers and apprentices during my study of this factory.

There are many to whom thanks must be given for the assistance in the investigation, especially the manager of this factory, Mr. Sun Yung Lin, who has kindly permitted me to have a personal talk with every one of his workers and apprentices without any hesitation and suspicion.

The name of the factory is Y. L. Sun Sanitary Rug Factory and it is located in 4 Nai Tzu Fu Hua Yan, East City, Peking. The building of the factory is of new Chinese type with 35 chien.

This factory was established 24 years ago. At first it was owned by one person and was under the management of Mr. Y. L. Sun, the present manager, and one of his fellow-workmen. Later the owner withdrew his capital and gave the factory to the two managers, Mr. Sun and his friend. After a few years, Mr. Sun 's friend quarreled with Mr. Sun because of Mr. Sun's becoming a christian and took away his share of capital and profit and turned the factory over entirely to Mr. Sun. From That time on, Mr. Sun has been both the owner and manager. They moved to the present site only eight years ago.

At the very beginning, the real capital invested was three hundred silver taels. As to the total amount of capital at the present time, the percentage of profit per year, and the total expenditure per year, I know nothing, because the manager, Mr. Sun was very angry, when I asked him about these things. He does not like to have anyone to know anything about the financial organization of his factory.

The management of this factory is entirely in the hand of Mr. Sun Yung Lin. Mr. Sun is very arbitrary and he does not like to have anyone to share in the management. He does not allow his workers and apprentices to express themselves.

Discipline is very strict. If any apprentice breaks a rule, he will be rewarded by a few strokes of large clubs. If a workman breaks the regulation, his wages will be lowered for a certain number of days and sometimes even dismissed. The manager divides his workers and apprentices into several large groups and each large group contains about twenty men with one at its head to rule it. Each large group is subdivided into four small groups each with a leader at the head. The leaders of the small groups are under the control of the heads of the large groups, who, in turn, are under the control of one commander-in-cheif who is in charge of the miscellaneous affairs of the whole factory.

Those who are leaders must be of good character, high ability, and good skill. Nominally the workers and the apprentices can manage their own affairs, but actually nearly every thing is decided by the manager himself without regarding the opinions of the workers. The workers and apprentices have to do as the manager orders, though they not like it. Most of the leaders are taken advantage of by him and nearly all of them are his favorites.

The manager is Mr. Sun Yung Lin. Mr. Sun is now forty-five years old and is a true Christian. He is uneducated but a very able and wise man. He was once an apprentice in a rug shoo. His native home is in Ta Hai Liu Chuang, Tsui Huang Ko Chen, Wu Ching Hsien, Ching Chao, and was very poor when Mr. Sun was during apprenticeship, but now it is rich.

Mr. Sun is very willing to improve the conditions of hie workers and is trying his very best to better the working conditions, but it is a very hard task for him, as he is uneducated and does not know how. It is said that the faithful and enthusiastic in working for the welfare of the workers now as he formerly was. He has become a little selfish and is interested in his own benefits.

Ⅳ. The Productivity.

This factory can produce about 20, 000 square feet of rugs per year and these rugs are both exported and sold within China. Its customers are mostly foreigners.

 

There are 24 rug weavers. All have been apprentices of this factory but now they are regular workers.

 

表1.Chart showing the ages of the boys at present working as weavers.

 

表2.Chart indicating the wages of the weavers per month.

 

The average of their monthly wages is $5.95 and most of them complain of their low wages.

 

表3.Chart showing where do the 24 rug weavers come from.

 

Most of the workers come from the country and have no home in Peking. They live in the factory and do not go home but once three or four years for no more than twenty days without losing their wages. If they leave for more than twenty days, the manager will not pay them until they come back. Yet there are also times when some are absent for one or two months and still get their pays, but this is due to their personal friendship with the manager who decides everything concerning this and there is no fixed regulation at all.

So far as I know, it is not only that the workers do have two or three months vacation once three years without losing their regular wages, but their managers will also pay their travelling expenses in other industries, cloth shops, shoe stores, restaurants, etc. It is also customary in these industries for the apprentices to be excused for two or three months that they may go home for marriage or any other affairs, after they have completed their apprenticeship, and it is the shop which pays all their travelling expenses. Sometimes they will get some other gifts. In this shop not only the travelling expenses of their workers and apprentices are not paid when they go home after they have worked here for three or four years, but their regular wages are discontinued during their absence, if they are absent for more than twenty days.

 

表4.Chart shwoing the marriage of the weavers.

 

Out of these 24 weavers, eight are married and the rest remain single. It is quite evident that there are very few chances for those who are married to have children, as most of them come from the country and they can not afford to have their homes moved to Peking, because of their low wages. Even though, they should like and could afford to move, but they can not move, if their parents did not want them to do so, for they may like to live with their daughters. This is the "cake of custom" in China, and they are afraid of public opinion.

 

表5.Chart showing the family occupations of these 24 weavers.

 

The occupations of the fathers of these weavers. Even though 22 out of these 24 weavers come from the country, there are only nine whose fathers are farmers, while eight are from the cook families, because out of these eight, six of them are from three families with cooking as the profession. This is just occasional and there is no special reason for it.

OTHER EMPLOYEES:

Dyers: 5--three are master workers and two are apprentices, wages range from $2.00--14.00.

Clerks:3.  

(a) Mr.Chang sueh Hai, the vice-manager of this factory, receives a monthly salary of $16.00 and he is a graduate of Hui Wen Middle School. He acts as both preacher and interpreter, and he is a very straight and kind-hearted man.

(b) Mr. Tung, an account-keeper and his wage per month is $8.00.

(c) Mr.Chang--he is the fellow-workman of the manager and he acts as a travelling salesman of this factory and his wage per month is $12.00.

Designer: l--the monthly wage of this designer, Mr. Chiao, is $3.00.

All the rug weavers have been apprentices of this factory before and the rest are introduced to this factory by friends. Some of the workers are not satisfied with the manager, because of the heavy work and low wages. Some complain of the bad food and the bad cook. There are also some who are contented with the manager because of the good discipline. In this store, no one is allowed to drink or smoke and this prevents the workers from misusing the money which they earn.

All the workers eat in the factory. It is the factory which pay the board and their food is:

(a)  Breakfast--Rice

(b)  Dinner--Corn meal bread and wheat flour congee.

(c)  Supper--Millet congee.

They receive bread twice a week.

They have special living rooms and those rooms are also used as classrooms and dining rooms. They have no beds but sleep on the cement floor. These rooms are kept quite clean but the air is not fresh. They do not live in the working rooms.

The workers and clerks have no share in the profit but some receive a bonus from $1.50 to $25.00 at the end of the year, provided they work well.

One can only weave one square foot of a rug of 90 threads per day. They work 13 hours per day under the following daily schedule:

a. Rising 5 A.M.

b. Meal hour--Breakfast 7--Dinner  12:30--Supper 7.

c. Working hours:

Morning 5:30--7:00 work.

7:30—10:00

10:00--11:00 Chapel and study.

11:00--12:30 work

Afternoon 1:00--4:00 work

4:00--5:00 study

5:0--7:00 work

Evening  7:30--8:00 work

d.Retiing 8:30.

The designers, clerks dyers, and cook do not work such long hours, but the rest of the workers and all the apprentices do really work so long and they are very tired of it.

They train apprentices, but get no extra pay for that. Most of the workers complain very much about this, because they are paid according to the amount of work they produce. Very few of the rug weavers receive fixed wages per month with the exception of the dyers, clerks, cook, and designers. Among the rug weavers only the superintendent and the heads of the large groups receive fixed wages, as they have to look after other workers and manage the miscellaneous affairs.

Most of them know how to read and write. Some of the rug weavers have studied for four years before they come to this factory. Even those who have never studied before, now can read and write a little, as they have a little school work during their apprenticeship in this factory. Now some of the rug weavers are still continuing their school-work. They get no pay, while they do the school work, as they are paid according to the amount of work they produce every day. Most of them are very fond of study, because they believe study can help them to work and it is very convenient to know how to read and write. They will either read or write during their spare time.

 

表6.Chart showing the schooling of the 24 rug weavers.

There are altogether forty-eight apprentices among them 12 orphans. Besides these 8 more apprentices work at the Western-hills, but I have not yet gone to visit them there.

The oldest of the apprentices is 21 and the youngest is 12, and some of them began to be apprentices here as young as ten.

 

表7.Chart shwoing the ages of the apprentices and their ages of begining apprenticeship.

表8.Chart showing where they come from.

 

Most of them come from Ching Chao and Chih Li, only one from Peking, one from Ho Nan, and one from Mukden.

Ordinarily in industries employing child labor, one finds the poor city children at work. The poor Peking boys, however, are seen to have little chance to get into this industry, because they do not like to become apprentices, and in case they do want to the managers of not only the rug stores but also of all other shops here in Peking do not want them. There are many reasons why the Peking boys do not want to be apprentices in the rug shops, but now I will show the most important ones:

The boys of the well-to-do families of Peking do not want and have no idea of becoming apprentices of the rug factories, because they do not respect this industry, and they are not able to bear the hardships of heavy work, bad food, and strict discipline.

The boys of the poor families of Peking do not want to be apprentices in the rug shops because:

(a) Their families can not support them with sufficient clothing during their apprenticeship, as they are very poor.

(b) They can not wait so long before they can earn anything to support their families, as it will take three years and a festival to complete the apprenticeship while it needs no training at all to pick up coal or pull rickshaws.

The managers prefer country boys, because they are good workers and moreover they do not make so much trouble as the Peking boys do. One day I have talked with a manager of a shoe-making shop and I have asked him why he and managers of other industries do not want Peking boys to work as apprentices in their shops and he has given me the following reasons.

(a) Peking boys are too lazy.

(b) Peking boys make too much trouble, because they have homes and relatives in Peking. They will either go home to see their parents or relatives once or twice a month, or they will come to the shops to see them often. This will draw attention from working well and diligently. The Peking boys are too wise for the managers to handle, while the country boys will do whatever the managers want them to do, and dare not attempt to disobey them. Peking boys are lazy, wise, and trouble- some, while the country boys are diligent, stupid, and obedient. This is why the managers do not prefer Peking boys.

This is true not only in this industry but also so in other industries. The environment of the country boys is also a strong factor which makes them to be satisfied with their work as apprentices in the rug factories, because they have comparatively better food and clothes in Peking than in the country. Even though they may not be contented with their work, they are obliged to be so, because they can not go home so easily as the Peking boys as their homes are too far away from Peking.

 

表9.The wage scale of the apprentices.

 

According to the regulation of this factory, one is paid according to the quality and quantity of his work after he has been here for six months and the lowest wage per month is fifty cents while the highest wage is five dollars. Among those 48 apprentices there are 11 who receive no wage at all while the rest are all paid.

 

表10.Chart showing the No. of orphans and apprentices.

 

The length of apprenticeship is 4 years for the regular apprentices and 8 years for the orphans. The reason the apprenticeship of the orphans is so much longer than that of the regular apprentices is simple, because the manager wants to utilize the misfortunes of the orphans and prevents them from leaving the factory so early on the one hand and enable him to pay apprentices on the other. It means a disadvantage to the manager, if his apprentices leave the factory and find another job outside right after apprenticeship, because their wages are not as high as the master workers, but they can work as much and well as they do.

Though the newly admitted apprentices want no pay, they can not work until one or two years. This is why most of the managers prefer to employ, just for two or three years, those who have completed their apprenticeship. After that, they will turn them out as they will ask for high wages. This caused many of the trained workers to pull rickshaws or do some other works which need no skill. They have to clean the yards and rooms and help the cook in the kitchen for several months when they first come here, but after that time, they do it no more but learn how to weave rugs. The things which they do are servant work, weaving rugs, wool-knitting and judging, following design, Bible study, reading, writing, arithmetic, and music.

They live in the factory and continue to live here for nearly four years before they can go home. During their apprenticeship, they can not go home if nothing of great importance happens to their family members, as deaths of parents. During these four years, they practically have no connection with their families and in turn their families have very little effect on them. This is so practically in all industries in China and it has become so hardened a custom that it will take years and years to change it so as to make the family to have any influence upon the boys. Even though we know that this kind of apprenticeship deprives boys of the chances of enjoying their family life during their youth, the most important institution to educate the boys, we can not do away with it now, because of the age of the tradition.

While they live in the factory, they sleep in dining and classrooms and these rooms are not so clean and the air is not at all fresh, because there are fifteen or twenty of them living in one large room with the windows all closed. They have no beds but sleep on the floors.

Their food and that of the workers is just the same and their clothes are good. The clothes of the regular apprentices are provided by themselves, but those of the orphans are provided by the factory when they first come here but they have to pay for them as soon as they receive wages. Nominally it is the factory that pays for the clothing for the orphans, but really the orphans have to pay. Those who are dismissed during their apprenticeship, because of the breaking of the factory regulations, have to pay ten cents a day for the food from the first day they came here to the day they are dismissed. Those who do not work have to pay ten cents a day for the food, even though they are sick. This regulation is sometime enforced and there are also times when the manager excuses them from paying provided he is happy at that time or the sick is a good worker.

Their daily schedule and the number of working hours - same as those of the workers. Most of the apprentices are not so happy, because they work too long hours and are tired after long monotonous work.

The apprentices have to find work for themselves after their apprenticeship. The manager hates to see his apprentices leave the factory right after their apprenticeship, so he does not like to find work for them.

 

 表11.Chart showing the occupation of the fathers of the apprentices.

 

Out of these 24 boys, only very few of them are from families which can not support themselves, and the rest of the families can support themselves and some have a surplus every year. It is surprising that no one is contented with their family conditions and they are all hoping to improve and become wealthy.

Most of the boys say that they are quite contented with the manager but very few can tell why they are contented with him, as they have very little judging power. A very few of them are discontented with the manager and the reasons are that the wages are too low, discipline is too strict, working hours are too long.

 

 表12.The schooling of the apprentices before they came to factory.

 

Every day they have two hours school work and their lessons are Chinese readers, Bible, music, mathematics, moral lectures, and Chu Yin Tzu Mu. They do not have special teachers but the clerks and the leaders who know have to read and write best, act as the teachers. The Department of Boys in the Y.M.C.A. has helped very much in starting the school work for the boys here.

Now the school work in this factory is not so successful as before, because they have no special teachers and the manager pays too much attention to fame but very little to reality. Though the school work here is not so successful and complete, it helps the apprentices very much, because it enables them to know a little about reading and writing.

Almost all of these boys and the other 24 rug weavers want to open rug factories for themselves in the future and try to make money to support their families at the present, the chief hope of their parents in them. Very few of them want to remain here after they complete their apprenticeship.

Out of these forty-eight apprentices, only two of them are married. One of the two is now only 14 years old while the other is 19.

VII. Welfare Features

1. Medical Care.

At first, when one was sick, he went to the P.U.M.C. for treatment out of his own pay, but now they have a doctor, trained in foreign medicine, who come here once a week and receives a rikshaw fee of four dollars each time. The factory pays the medical expenses and the doctor's salary.

 

表13.Chart showing the conditions of the workers and the apprentices of this factory in health.

 

They do not have special rooms for the sick. It is not only that the sick do not have any special food, but they have to pay 10 cents for their food to the manager as they do not work and according to the regulation of this factory, those who do not work have to pay for their food.

The factory will pay for the funeral expenses and the transporting fees, if the sick dies, though there is no fixed regulation.

2. Sanitation.

The houses are comparatively, cleaner than most of the houses of other rug shops in Peking.

The air in the working rooms is quite fresh but that in the dining rooms, class-rooms is not so fresh, because they do not like to have the windows open in cold seasons.

They have a special path room and it is also used as the sleeping room for the dyers. According to the regulation of this factory, one has to bathe once a week, but this regulation is not enforced especially in winter, because of the cold room and the lack of hot water.

3. Recreational system.

They have one hour's military drill once a week and this is required of all in the factory, except the clerks, designers, and dyers. Every Sunday they have games for about two hours: ball-playing, shot-put, rope-jumping, and boxing, and they have leaders in these games. There are workers and apprentices who are very fond of Chinese boxing and they will practice that when they have spare time.

They have very little spare time and their working hours are too long -- thirteen hours a day, including the school hours. Some read and write, some play and many rest, as they get very much tired after thirteen hours of monotonous work.

Every day, they have a moral lecture given by the manager, vice-manager, or the leaders of the various groups. They go to the church to worship God every Sunday as they have no work on Sunday. As to their attitude towards christianity, all of them say that they have true faith in God and there is only one who doubts. I think most of them pretend to be christians because of "face" and regulation and there are very few who really believe in God. They will worship idols as soon as they go home. The dyers, clerks, and designers have neither school work nor Bible study.

1. Sundays.

2. Festivals.

a. The 5th of the 5th Moon.

b. Mid-autumn Festival.

c. Chinese New Year.

1. Those who are sick should have light work, special food, and rest if necessary.

2. Those who are weak should have light work.

3. Both the sick and weak should be paid as usual, though they have light work. This may prevent them from overwork when they are not in good health.

4. Those who are sick, especially those who have trachoma and consumption, should live separately from tie normal persons.

5. The workers and apprentices should wash their hands and ace before they eat.

6. The workers and apprentice should bathe at least once a week.

7. Workers and apprentices should have their clothes washed once a week.

8. Those who have consumption should be sent to the Western Hill: for absolute rest it necessary.

9. A medical examination is quite necessary before one is admitted to the factory.

10. Those who are dismissed during their apprenticeship should not be asked to pay for the board, as they have already worked for the manager when they were in factory.

11. The working hours should be shortened from 13 hours a day to 10 hours that the workers and the apprentices may have some spare time to rest and play.

12. They should not work immediately after meals as they do now.

13. The sick should not be asked to pay for the food.

14. The worker and apprentices should have thirty minutes rest at noon during the summer.

15. The length of the apprenticeship of the orphans should be also four years as there is no special reason for the manager to make the length of apprenticeship of the orphans so long as eight years.

16. Wages should be increased, because there are eleven who receive no wage at all, fourteen who get only fifty cents per month., and twelve who receive one dollar per month.

17. They should have one special teacher who knows how to teach in their school.

18. Church attendance and religious exercises should not be compulsory.

19. Sunday-trips outside of the city should be adopted.

20. The physician should come to the factory at least twice a week.

21. The houses should be kept clean and fresh in air.

22. They should have beds and rooms for two or three men if possible.

23. The workers should get extra pay for training apprentices.

24. The manager should not be so arbitrary and the workers should have some voice in the management on their own affairs.

25. Both the workers and apprentices should have one month's vacation once a year that they may go home to see their parents and other family members.

In comparison with the other rug factories large and small, of Peking, this factory ranks among one of the best rug factories here in Peking, because:

1. It is the only shop that pays the apprentices.

2. It is the only shop that gives medical care and some proper recreation.

3. It is one of the 7 shops that works only six days a week.

4. It has special rooms for eating, sleeping, and working.

5. It tries to improve the working conditions, as it pays very much attention to sanitation of the whole factory and the health of all the workers.

6. It gives two hours a day to the worker and apprentices for the school work arranged by the factory.

7. It provides moral teaching.

文字编辑：林上、薛嘉棋、喻铃茜、陈伊涵

编者按：陈鸣

推送编辑：谷诗洁、王朗宁

审核：凌鹏

节选文字整理自北京大学图书馆所藏张鸿钧所作论文《A study of Y. L. Sun sanitary rug factory》。为方便阅读，在尊重历史文献原貌的基础上，对文章段落进行了充分划分，对部分单词拼写错误进行了修正；所有的修改不损害原意、不改变原文风格、不破坏时代通行表达习惯。