The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-06-21
The Labor ProbIem-The Chinese.

III the employment OF company OF Chinese
in one OF the New England shoe shops there is
great step taken in the solution of one OF the
most perpiexing questions Of the time. Capital
and labor, although essentially necessary one
to the other, have always been at issue, and
the strife that has been between them at differ
ent times in different lands is responsible per-
haps for almost as much misery as war itself.
Capital, always endeavoring to multiply itself,
is mostly instigated by short-sighted view of
its own necessities and does not respect the
rights of labor; and labor, forced often to
revolt for the assertion Of it's rights, has thus
been taught bad habit, and revolts frequently
when its rights are not really at stake but
when often it only fancies some cause Of dis
content, or is led by the nose in the interest Of
soreheaded schemers. The aspect of the
trouble in Massachusetts, just previously to the
Introduction of the Cinnamon was this: Labor
was demanding concessions that capital posi-
lively ana peremptorily declared it could not
and would not make. The concessions
demanded related not only to the price
of labor, but to the control of the
establishment employing it, The wages de-
manded were not only greater than employers
believed they could pay, but the laborers
insisted upon debating who should be
employed and what man should hold one place
and what another. This assumption Of the
right of societies of laborers to govern in the
establishments in which they work is one that
has had disastrous effects in many countries,
and in Massachusetts it determined the extreme
experiment now in hand.
The practical effect of this experiment just
now is that capital suddenly finds itself enabled
to do without labor--that is, as the word labor
has hitherto been understood in all the coun-
tries vexed- with the labor problem. 1t is
able to operate entirely without regard to the
whole class of persons with whom hitherto it
has had to contend-whose ignorance, petulance
and passion it has had to humor, resist and
give way to-, according to the necessities of
every case. 1t finds itself suddenly in posses
sion of that wonderful creature, laborer who
can be guaranteed against membership of any
trade societies-who cannot be wheedled,
nor tempted nor even driven away from the
employment he has taken-who cannot be
argued into the notion that the wages paid
are a beggarly distance below what a
free citizen of the great republic
itself in possession of laborer as docile,
tractable and steady as a machine, yet with
Intelligence and adaptable versatility of hu-
manty. Capital has acquired this laborer in
one place; why shall it not have it in every
place where the necessity may arise? What
stands in the way? Certainly not the law.
There is no statute against a mans contract
ing to have his work done at its cheapest, nor
any commanding him to choose or respect any
particular race of men. Only the trade
unions have Hitherto stood in the way of the
complete freedom of employers, and now we
see that it is possible to turn al the devices,
and arrangements OF the trade unions to their
own confusion. 1t is hardly possible that en-
ployers will fail to use the means given them.
Not one but has been oppressedby the tyranny
of labor in one way or another, from the de-
mand for short hours to the dictation as to the
employment of persons. Workmen have gone
so far in their many conflicts with employers
that these have well nigh lost whatever con-
sideration they may have had.
Science has worked the great miracle of
furnishing such laborer as will revolutionize
all the mechanical occupations in this country.
1t is nothing to say that the Chiuaman in the
ctoto will fob fho r11o IF tho
negro; he win do great deal more. He will
free, for better occupations, the hands Of
every American now engaged in the meaner
industries. The shoemakers whose places
are taken by the Cinnamon are reported tc
have earned from three to seven dollars day
and this at a labor so little skilled that thu
| Cinnamon will know it completely in month
| Men with such ambition in regard to theil
earnings should also be ambitious to improve
their occupation; the Chinaman will permi
| them and will cheaper shoes at the same time
| At this the whole people can rejoice. W.
| have a country whose one great incessan
! demand is for labor, and opposite us, on tn
Pacific, is teeming population that cries GU
|
that is almost illimitable, and the means O
supporting population greater than was eve
| congregated in the land, and with that popu
lation already finding the way among us, the
end is evident. The wave of Asatic immi
grafton will cover the Pacific slope and deter
mine many knotty points this side of it /; ant
why not? Ignorance, prejudice, selfis
greed can give many reasons why, but ther'
are none that come from better authority. TIL
Chinese do not yield to any people on tn
earth in any of the.virtues really proper to {
people. Their vices are only the consequence
of the conditions of life in China. They ar
intelligent, industrious, frugal; they abide b.
the law always, and what is only moralit
with us is law with them. They are patient