The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-04-29
LEGISLATION AND LABOR IN CALIFORNIA.

&c. w.
LEGISLATION AND LABOR IN CALIFORNIA.
Judging from several acts of the present
Legislature of California the People of that
State must have greatly degenerated since the
adoption of their Constitution; or they have
been over-reached by conspiracy of dema-
gogues and politicians, fresh from the older
States. The noble principles of the Consti-
tuition and the wise provisions by which they
were reduced to a practical form, won high
praise for its frauers, both in this country and
in Europe. But We find the present Lcgisla-
ture, under the control of an unprincipled COM
blnation of demagogues, deliberately violating
some of its most sacred guarantees, and plotting
its overthrow
That such body should disregard popular
rights trample upon the claims of Labor, min
lister to the exactons Of Capital, seek to remedy
present Inconvenience and secure temporary
and local interests, at the expense of the morals
and permanent welfare of the State, is not sur
prising. We have already referred to a bill
which it has had under consideration for some
time, for the enforcement of contracts for SER
vice, designed ostensbly to supply the lack of
labor in the new State. By our last mails we
learn that amidst violent opposition it has at
length passed the House. 1t is consoling to
learn that great doubts are expressed of its
passage through the Senate According to
one of our late papers, this bill proposes to en-
force all contracts which may be hereafter
made by any citizen or citizens of the United
States, resident in California, with the people
known as Chinese or Coolies, OF with the ma
tives of any of the islands of the Pacific ocean,
to perform any description of work or labor
within the limits of the State The parties
are at liberty to negotiate and conclude these
contracts on their own terms, and they are au-
thorzed to continue them in force for term
not exceeding five years. In case of failure
of the party contracting to perform the labor,
and upon proof of his refusal to perform the
same he is to be imprisoned in the State Peni-
tertiary until the expiration of the term for
which the contract was made, or until he is
willing to return to labor and fulfil his con-
tract
Another section provides that no contract
shall be made for less amount than fifty dol
lars per annum
This measure repugnant to humanity, to
every principle of political economy, to Democ-
racy, and to the permanent interests of the
State, is urged, we regret to see, by the Demo-
cratic State Journal, which claims to be the
organ of the Democratic party Of California.
The Coolies are q most corrupt, degraded,
ignorant race, and the aborers generally, sought
to be introduced, are a feeble, tame-spirited
class of people, besides being atheistical or pa
gan. 1t is easy to see how the character of the
population would be deprecated by such an in
fusion-how the highest interests of the State
would be sacrificed for the sake of replenshing
the granaries of few overgrown landholders
who have monopolized more of Gods earth
than they have any right to- or have any pros
pect Of cultivating.
And the poor laborers themselves would suffer.
No safeguard is provided against oppression or
imposition. What does the ignorant, british
Coolie know of the cost Of living, the price of
labor, the value of money in California; Fifty
dollars a year in his own country is to him a
large sum of money, but in California a full
grown man could not with the most rigid
economy, live on that amount for two months
Deceived by cunning, hard. listed Yankee, he
binds himself to labor, a. his employer may
dictate, for five years, at the rate of $50 per
annum, and when he arrives in his new home
finds able-bodicd laborers about him getting
four or FIVE times high0 wages. He must sub.
NIT to the imposition, toll like slave, with jus,
enough to keep soul and body together, and a,
the end of five years is nothing but degraded
| ignorant pauper. Meantime, while he has
been wearing his life away in this miserable
hard service, his Christian taskmaster has beer
coming wealth out of his blood and sweat.
The American laborer would be sufferer
in common with his foreign brother. Wages
Of mechanics and laborers are high, becaust
the abundance Of gold reduces its value as
circulating medium and because labor in the
mines is more remunerative than on the farm
or in the workshop. The landholders complain
that they cannot cultivate their lands, because
wages are 10 exorbitsnt a. TO make competition
impossible with the older States, as it regards
the products of the SOIL and articles of handi
craft Very well-they can go to work and
produce enough for their own consumption, and
wait till the high price of labor shall work III
natural, inevitable result-the voluntary imm
grafton of labores. II they are not satisfied with
this, but are in haste to grow rich, let them in
vest their capital in mining or commerce, Better
far better, to leave the relations Of capital and
labor to regulate themselves, than make the
latter the slave of the former. But such is the