The union Democrat., 1869-08-21

continuted importation 10 our snoreS, VIII
not appear improbable TO those who know,
that already, in the cities of California, sew
eral trades which formerly supported num-
bers of white lsborers of both sexes, are at
this moment almost exclusively IN their
hands.
The motive usually assigned for the intro
duction of Chinese is the alleged necessity
for "cheap labor" though whether Interior
political objects do not lurk behind this cry,
We will not now stop to inquire.
CHEAP LABOR
Assuming the motive to be as stated, we
shall endeavor TO show that this demand ior
cheap labor is at war with the rights OF our
own people, repugnant TO our principles OF
political equality, and in conflict with the
fundamental maxims of political economy;
In every country wages are regulated by
natural laws, which, In their operation are
dependent on the circumstances of the peo-
pie. Undoubtedly there have been times
with US, as with all other countries possess
ing large unsettled territories, when the sup
ply of labor fell short of the demands OF cap.
ltal. This is one of the necessities OF our con-
dition. But such occasions do not, If let
alone, last long, and i'll short time the bal
ance between capital and labor is restored by
the natural increase Of population, and
through legitimate emigration.
The phrases high wages" and slow wages"
are merely relative. There is no absolute
standard, but the price of labor should in all
cases be left to be regulated by the general
| condition of the country. As an Illustration
OF our meaning wages at this moment IN our
| Eastern cities are nomlnally high. Yet
when We take into consideration the high
rates Of living, Of exorbitant rents, and the de-
preciation of the currency,s 1--WE see at once that
| instead Of being high, wages In those cities
are actually low, since the laborer is able to
lay by little or nothing for the future. Fair
and Just wages are, what whether seeming
ly high or low in each particular case, the
capitalist can afford, without injury to him.
self, to pay his employees.
But labor has rights. All products are the
joint offspring of capital and labor, and as the
capitalist is entitled to receive his capital in
! its changed form, so the laborer is just as
much entitled to receive the full value of the
labor he has contributed.
1t is not difficult to point out in detail the
! rights of the American laborer.
And first, he is entitled to support for
himself; not such a support as keeps body
and soul together in the feeble Aslatic, but
such as he has been accustomed to in this
| land of plenty, and it has hitherto been our
boast that our mechanics and other laborers,
lived as well as any other class. Then he
may marry and rear family. He is surely
expected to do SO, for it, taking certain sta
| tistics as our guide, our laDoring classes
cease to rear families, our race on this con-
tinent will soon become extinct. He Is entl-
tied to support for his wife and family,
and also to d roof to shelter them. He is en-
Il ed to the means OF educating his children
and 50 rearing them that they may aspire TO
the highest positions in the Republic. Here
tofore some OF the brightest names in our
history have commenced life rs labOrers. Re
duce wages to the merely living rate and all
this must end. The life of the white laborer
will then become one long struggle with ad
yersity and want He will have no time to
improve his mind by reading, or expand it
by reflection, and his children will grow up
untaught, because from the time they can
lisp their parents names, till age shall rem
der them helpless, they will be compelled by
the hard necessities of their condition to la
Dor for bread. Our whole laboring popula-
ton will then become the victims of destitu
ton and fall even below the level of the same
classes in England where nearly one-third
of the people receive parish add and other
thickly peopled countries of Europe, where
labor is the mere slave of capital.
But the American laborer is not only enti-
tied to support for himself and family, and
roof to protect them; he is entitled to some
thing more. He ought to be able to lay up
something for the future and to look forward
to the time, when age shallshave rendered
him helpless, he can sit down in the quiet of
his own home, surrounded by the means of
passing cheerful aud cOntented old age.
Such are the dues of white labor, as mat
ter of right. To them the American laborer
is absolutely entitled, and he who deprives
him OF them commits as grave an otfense
against justice as he who purloiHs from the
capitalist his money.
But they are also his dues as a matter of
gratitude. No country in the world owes so
deep debt of gratitude to its laboring class
a. % 10 fhaso oloSSoc in
debted for some of the greatest minds which
have appeared for our enlightenment and
guidance. They have furnished the soldiers
and sailors who have been our protection in
time of war. To them we must look too for
future protection. 1t cannot be necessary to
enumerate the evidences of material progress
the railroads, canals, cities and towns
which we owe to American labor. We have
but to look about us to perceive them.
Are We, let us ask to repay this great debt by
introducing in vast and unlimited numbers,
corrupt and depraved race, who will de-
grade labor and by their competition deprive
our countrymen of the means of support?
This question now pressing for an answer
can still fortunately, be answered by our
white laborers themselves, for they still have
the power of the ballot, though how long
they may retain it, no one can'ell.
We have said nothing about the obliga-
ton of every government, to cherish and en-
courage, by all fair meaus, the labor of its
own people. That such an obligation results
from the very constitution and nature of So
ciety is most evident so evident indeed, that
we are content with the simple statement of
the fact; though We may remark here that
the cry of ''cheap labor comes with q pc
culiarly bad grace from the party which has
saddled us with the most oppressive tariff
ever enacted in our country under the pre-
teoce of protecting American labor.
MATERIAL PROGRESS.
We are constantly reminded by its advo-
Gates that Asiatic labor will add great mo-
mentum to our material progress. If by
material progress" they mean that gradual
and healthy development of our resources,
which keeps pace with our increasing popu
lation, which ditfuses prosperity to all classes
alike, snd specially burdens none and which
thus tends to realize the philosophic truth of
the greatest good to the greatest number"
no one-and We last of sll-will deny that its
promotion should be one of the highest aims
of society.
In this sense, the material progress" of
our own country has hitherto been great be-
yond all precedent
If ON the other hand, they mean by it the
mere accumulation and Capitalization of
wealth in the hands of the proteges of uni ust
and discriminating laws: if, in short they
mean the system, SO long III vogue III mon-
srchicsl Europe, the necessary tendency of
which is to exalt the few at the expense of
the many-to make the rich, richer, and the
poor, still lpOorer-then We, as Americans, pro
test against such progress and we regard Its
achievements, whether they consist of works
of public utility or monuments of personal
pride and vanity, as, like the Pyramids of
Egypt so many evidences of the slavery and
misery of the people who erected them. This
kind of material progress Asiatic labor can
and does promote; the first it not only fails
to promote, but actually retardS.
We should always remember, too, that
there are other kinds of progress political
progress, educational progress, moral and
religious progress equally or even more
conducive to the dignity, honor and true
we'll being of our country than the develop
ment of its material resources. While aim
ing ST the one, We should not lose sight of