“That in the selection of work, preference be given to such work as will help the locality permanently, and as tends to prevent the recurrence of famine conditions, and that each piece be complete in itself.”
This program was closely adhered to from first to last. District subcommittees of representative foreign and native residents, appointed in various sections of the famine region, had immediate charge of the relief works and distribution, and under the district committees were superintendents who had personal direction of the working forces. So much for the machinery. Now for the accomplishment.
In May, 1912, the number of famine sufferers in the employ of the relief committee was 110,000. As but one member was employed from a family, it is estimated that this work supported about 550,000 persons. The character of the work undertaken and its extent are indicated by the following figures from the report:
| Dykes built or repaired | 129 | miles |
| Canals built or repaired | 63 | miles |
| Ditches built or repaired | 1,124 | miles |
| Roads repaired | 163 | miles |
| Cubic yards of earth moved | 10,155,000 | |
It was estimated that the average amount of work performed daily by a famine sufferer was about two-thirds the average day’s work of a coolie under normal conditions. In Hankow 2,000 women from the famine district were employed for months in making garments, of which 64,000 were made and distributed. Much space is given in the report to a description of the actual methods of conducting the work on dykes, canals, etc. A single extract must suffice here:
“Now come with me to the works. First in number and importance are the dirt pushers (I translate the Chinese term), who dig the earth from rectangular pits and push it on their wheelbarrows to the new dykes. They number 3,400 and work in groups of about ten men each and are paid by the job in this way. As soon as a pit reaches a depth of four or five feet it is measured by the foreigner in charge and the head man of the ten is given a ticket which is really an order on the office for the value in grain of the work done. Measuring these pits takes almost all of one foreigner’s time, and as two-thirds of the workmen are dirt pushers, the foreigner has in his direct control that fraction of the whole. The dirt pushers receive 450 cash per fang of 100 cubic feet. In this and the following statement it should be remembered that it takes about 2,500 cash to make a gold dollar.
CHINESE ENGAGED IN BUILDING DYKES FOR THE PREVENTION OF FLOODS IN THE FAMINE DISTRICTS.
