Page:James Hudson Maurer - The Far East (1912).pdf/57

 etc., and since these articles cannot be transported profitably on pack mules, as opium was, railroads will be built, and while the evolution of capitalism may be slow in India, it is sure to develop.

If India was as well prepared as China is for the new order, then capitalism would now be marching into India also.

The people of the mill or several mills, if the mills are nearly located together, occupy a village, which is made up of huts made of mud, bricks, and palm leaves woven into sheets and tacked onto bamboo poles. All are thatched with a long tough grass used throughout India for covering huts and bungalows, and which makes a tight, cool, and durable roof. The floor is made of clay tamped down hard, which makes a very good floor. On this floor is spread in places matting made of bamboo grass. On this matting many of the natives throw down a cotton blanket, or possibly a thin mattress, for beds. Some have a rude bed made of four posts sixteen inches high with crossheads and side pieces pinned together and then cris-crossed with bed cords. There may be a few rude benches, but little or no other furniture is to be seen in the hut. The natives eat on the floor, squatted around a pot or pan containing the food. The men and boys eat first and the women and girls afterwards, taking what is left. The mode of life is thoroughly primitive. No knives, spoons or forks are used in eating, the fingers answering all purposes. Each Indian is ambitious to own a brass jug or pot, and these brasses are handed down as heirlooms and are held as almost sacred in possessions. They are kept bright by scouring them with mud and water. After a meal the brasses that have been used in any way are taken out in the street, where the women or men, as the case may be, squat on the ground and rub them with the dust and water.

China, just at this time, is the most fertile spot on earth for the exploiting class to feed upon, with its millions of cheap workers and its boundless natural resources. The American and European wage slaves will before very long in their struggle for an existence be compelled to compete with the toilers of the Far East.

A glimpse at the wages paid the Asiatics, will explain how very low their standard of living must be.

Wages of newspaper men in China: Compositors are paid by the month. They each receive from two