Chinese Railway Lives, 1912-1937

308 Pages·2017·55.74 MB·English

Chinese Railway Lives, 1912-1937
Stephen Lloyd Morgan
June 1995
A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of
The Australian National University.
DECLARATION
This thesis is my own original work. No part of this dissertation has been previously
included in a thesis, dissertation or report submitted to this university or any other
institution for a degree, diploma or other qualification.
Stephen Lloyd Morgan
June 1995
u
Abstract
During the first four decades of the 20th century the railways created a new type of
worker in China, the railwayman. He was employed in the use of a new and evolving
technology, and he was organised and managed in ways different to the previous
organisation of Chinese labor. This study, in looking at the experiences of railway
workers, inquires into the origin and formation of the emergent Chinese industrial
working class in the first half of the 20th century. The years up to 1937 were those
during which the working for the railways became an established occupation and the
administration was placed in the hands of a new elite of managers who were
increasingly trained specially for the tasks of running the railway system.
By inquirying into the lives of railway workers this dissertation opens a window
onto a vista of complex questions about the development of modem industry in
China and its working class. The study is focussed on those who ran the Chinese
National Railways. What was it like for former peasants and artisans to become
railwaymen in a large bureaucratic organisation that required and enforced new work
practices and discipline in a world of mechanised regularity? How did one become an
engine driver, a workshop craftsman, or a station hand? Was the experience of
Chinese railwaymen different from that of their counterparts elsewhere? What does
the experience of railwaymen tell us about the early Chinese working class? Were
they part of a new class, or did the persistence of the past, the ties of village and kin,
fragment railway workers?
In common with recent studies of Chinese labor this dissertation has used the
archival and other sources which have become available over the past decade to draw
a different picture to that which we have become acquainted through the past labor
history of China. The workers and their families are made to speak to us. In their
stories which are is told here we see the crucial role of native place and family in the
recruitment of railway workers and the segmentation of skill. Work was organised
differently on the railways. Its discipline system structured the working day,
determining career and life outcomes. Hard as this system might have been at times,
there were also big rewards: the railway worker was well off compared with other
industrial workers. They earned more than most, had steady work, and shared in a
large social wage which included education, medical and welfare benefits. In an
analysis of the long-run trend in real wages this dissertation demonstrates a sustained
rise in living standards from the late 1910s to the mid-1930s. This finding is a major
contribution to our understanding of the distributional effect of economic growth
during the interwars years of Republican China.
Ill
Table of Contents
Abstract ni
List of Tables iv
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements X
List of Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
evolution of the network and administration 8
1. Historians and the Chinese working class 19
sources and methods 19
historiography of the labor movement 25
conclusion 36
Appendix LA 37
Appendix LB 38
Appendix l.C 39
2. The Railway worker . . . 40
the size of the railway workforce . . . 42
the distribution of railway workers 53
gender and age structure of the workforce 62
conclusion 68
Appendix 69
3. Social origin and recruitment 70
provincial origin of railway workers . . . 73
role of the family and social origin in recruitment 89
conclusion 94
Appendix 96
4. Work, discipline and career 98
regimes of work 99
discipline rules 104
careers and advancement 110
IV
conclusion ... ... 114
5. Wages and incomes ... ... ... ... 115
salary and wage regimes ... ... 117
wage differentials and labor markets ... 124
sources of income and actual earnings ... 135
long-run change in nominal wages . . . 145
real wages and the standard of living ... 149
summary of findings .. . ... 163
Appendix ... ... 165
6. The quality of life . .167
health and welfare .. . ... ... 167
education and literacy . . . .. . ... 184
railway family life .. . ... . . . 205
conclusion ... ... ... 212
7. Labor organisations and strikes ... . . . ... 214
early organisations and disputes . . . ... 215
large-scale mobilisation and reaction, 1920-27 . . . 220
conflict, coercion and corporatism, 1928-37 . . . 232
conculsion ... . . . ... 239
Conclusion ... • • • • • • .. . 241
246
Appendix
257
Bibliography
293
Glossary
List of Tables
Table 1 Railway construction in China, 1881-1932 (route kilometres) 13
Table 2.1 Statistical reporting and estimates of the railway workforce in 50
China, 1912-45
Table2.2 Approximate size of the railway workforce in China, 1912- 53
1937
Table 2.3 Employes of the Chinese National Railways, 1919-1936 54
Table 2.4 Distribution of employment by departments, 1919-1936 5
Table 2.5 Employment by type on the CNR, 1919, 1924 and 193 57
Table 2.6 Employment in railway workshops and locomotive sheds, 59
1912-36
Table A2.1 Employment on the Chinese National Railways by department, 69
1912, 1924,1932 and 1936
Table 3.1 Origin of BLR workers by departments 74
Table 3.2 Workers place of origin at the Sifang Works, Qingdao, 1934-35 76
Table 3.3 Locomotive works departments (selected place of origin), 1934 78
Table 3.4 Summary of employment applicant and guarantor relationship 90
Table A3.1 Place of origin of the manual grades on the Chinese National 95
Railways, 1934
Table A3.2 Analysis of the native place of origin of workers at the Sifang 96
Railway Works, Qingdao, 1934-35
Table 4.1 Disciplinary rules of the Beijing-Hankou Railway, 1923 106
Table 4.2. Rewards and punishments on Chinese National Railways, 1934 108
Table 5.1 Salary scale of staf on the Chinese National Railways, 1930 19
Table 5.2 Salary grades of artisans and workers at the Puzhen Works, 122
c. 1930
Table 5.3 Distribition of wage levels of manual grade workers on the 126
Chinese National Railways, 1934
Table 5.4 Analysis of the real wages of selected north China railway 151
workers, 1905-1936
Table 5.5 Comparison of real wages for north China workers, 1920-35 160
Table 5.6 Consumption availability level 161
VI
Table A5.1 Wage and price data for the calculation of the real wages of 165
workers on the Beiping-Liaoning Railway, 1910-37, and
selected other workers
Table 6.1 Reported incidences of epidemic diseases, 193-34 170
Table 6.2 Sumary of cause of death by disease type 171
Table 6.3 Causes of death on the Qingdao-Jinan Railway, 1931-35 173
Table 6.4 Sumary of railway leave requests, 1934 174
Table 6.5 Education levels of the manual grades on the Chinese National 186
Railways, 1934
Table 6.6 Educational levels of manual grades on selected railways, 1934 187
Table 6.7 Schol enrolments for railway children, 193 and 1934 197
Table 6.8 Education levels of the Qingdao-Jinan Railway workers, 1934 201
Table 6.9 Change in the education levels of workers on the Nanjing- 203
Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway between 1935 and 1947
Table 6.10 Mariage age on the railways and in rural Hebei, c. 1930 207
Table 6.1 Age diference betwen railway spouses, c. 1930 208
Table 6.12 Household size at the Puzhen Works, c. 1930 209
Table 7.1 Major railway strikes from August 192 to February 1923 27
Table A Sumary of disputes and industrial actions up to 1937 246
Table B Summary of selected labor legislation promulgated 1928-35 256
List of Figures
18
Figure 1 Map of China
Figure 2.1 Age of the manual grades on the Chinese National Railways, 64
1934
66
Figure 2.2 Age structure — Beijing-Hankou line, 1925 (%)
66
Figure 2.3 Age structure — Beiping-Hankou line, 1934 (%)
67
Figure 2.4 Age structure — Beijing-Fengtian line, 1925 (%)
67
Figure 2.5 Age structure — Beiping-Liaoning line, 1934 (%)
vn
Figure 3.1 Provincial origin of the manual grades of the Chinese National 73
Railways, 1934 (%)
Figure 3.2 Origin of workers on the Tianjin-Pukou Railway, 1934 74
Figure 3.3 Origin of workers on the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway, 75
1934
Figure 3.4 Origin of workers on the Guangzhou-Hankou (North) Railway, 75
1934
Figure 3.5 Year employment began for the manual grades of the Chinese 84
National Railways, 1934
Figure 3.6 BHR: year employment began by department 86
Figure 3.7 TPR: year employment began by department 86
Figure 3.8 BLR: year employment began by department 86
Figure 3.9 NSHR: year employment began by department 86
Figure 3.10 QJR: year employment began by department 87
Figure 5.1 Highest and lowest daily wage rates for manual grades of the 125
Chinese National Railways, 1933 (C$)
Figure 5.2 Wages of locomotives drivers, 193 128
Figure 5.3 Wage range for firemen, 193 128
Figure 5.4 Wage range of engine cleaners, 193 129
Figure 5.5 Comparison of wage differentials for locomotive drivers, 129
firemen and engine cleaners, 1933
Figure 5.6 Wages of railway carpenters, 193 131
Figure 5.7 Wages of railway blacksmiths, 193 131
Figure 5.8 Wage range for railway fiters, 193 131
Figure 5.9 Wage range for railway workshop laborers, 193 131
Figure 5.10 Nominal average wages on the Beiping-Liaoning Railway, 146
1910-1937
Figure 5.1 Skil ratios on the Beiping-Liaoning Railway, 1910-1937 147
Figure 5.12 Purchasing power of selected north China railway workers, 150
1905-36
Figure 5.13 Purchasing power of Beiping-Liaoning Railway workers by 153
skill classification, 1910-37
Vlll
Figure 5.14 Real wage index for Beiping-Liaoning Railway workers by 154
skill classification, 1910-37
Figure 5.15 Real wage index of Beiping-Liaoning Railway workes and 155
Kailuan Coal Mine workers, 1910-37
Figure 5.16 Change in index of real wages for workers of the Beiping- 156
Liaoning Railway and Kailuan Coal Mine
Figure 5.17 Index series for railway wages and prices in Guangdong, 1912- 157
26
Figure 5.18 Real wage trends for Beiping-Liaoning Railway and Kailuan 158
Coal Mine, 1920-35
Figure 5.19 Real wage trends for Beiping-Liaoning Railway and Kailuan 158
Coal Mine, 1920-37
Figure 6.1 Distribution among departments by level of education, 1934 186
IX