The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1870-07-09
The workingmcn and the Chinese

The Workingmcn and the Chinese.
As usual, a certain number of writer's for
the press are III understanding and misre-
presenting the attitude of American working.
men toward the Wholesale importation of
Chinese laborers, of which Messrs. SAMPSON
Of North Adams and KooPMASscHAP &
Co. of San Francisco have recently given us
examples. One class, who sit in their offices
and Libraries and deal with the problems of
life as if their fellow-men were only elements
Of an algebrRic equation, treat the question
whether or not some millions Of barbarous
Asiatics shall be suddenly brou ght and
placed alongside as many intelligen Amer
leans as If it were purely calculation Of
dollars and cents. II a, b, and c will
do 50 much work for so much money, and f,
+, and G will do the same amount Of work for
less money. then, Of course, they say, let us
employ f, F, and g. and turn A. b, and {
adriit. The consideration that A, i, and c
aro educated men, fathers Of families and
good and useful citizens and members of so
ciety, while +, +, and G are nothing but eat
ing, drinking, aud working machines, with
scarcely the estge of souls, ia loft out OF
sight altogether Hence when tits proposed
to import from China laborers and mechanics
who will do for half dollar a dry what
Americans have been accustomed TO &c.
three or four dollars for, they are lost in
Gmazement at the stupidity which opposes
the instant acceptance Of the proposition.
Another class of the champions Of the
coolies are sent ment alsts, who inss, that
il it were possible i would be a good thing
to bring the whole world here to share in
the advantages of our superior civilization,
and rescue il from barbarism. In the excess
of their bencyoence they would have Amer.
cans starve and die in order that everybody
else might live and grow fat, To them, too,
one man is as good IA another, and birth,
education morality and intellectual power
count for nothing at oil
Both these classes unite In assuming that
American workingIaep design to exclude by
force all Cinnamon from competition with
them in mechanical industry and they
denounce the workingmen accordingly
as endeavor.ng 10 overturn the laws of
trade and violate the Dictates of humanity
| Tie political economists demand that com.
| petition shall be allowed to work out It's
legitimate results, and the philanthrol ists
| protest against preventing barbarians from
| coming under the influences Of civilization
and Christianity.
Notwithstanding the immense interests
| Il. n, Al -
| tn natural bias which those interests give
! them, they are, so far quite reasonable in their
| position Men TO whom the difference of
| dollar day in their wages means the
| Difference between comfort and privation
for themselves and their wives and children
might be excused If they took even an ex-
IRENE view Of measures which threaten to
| deprive them Of that dollar. But, as we un.
derstand them, the work!ngmen ask for no
more than simple justice. They do not do
sire that auy discrimination shall be made
| against Cinnamon in general but they do
insist that there shall be no conspiraces en-.
tered into to bring Chinese laborers into
competition with them by Wholesale and far
in advance of tho regular progress OF
events. While they are willing that
individual Cinnamon who come freely and
| without sol citation TO our shores shall
earn their living honestly, they very proper
ly object to an organized system Of Chinese
Immigration, having for it's direct object the
reduction Of the price Of labor,
For instance take the shocmakers in North
Adams If in the regular course Of emigra
ton one, two, or q Go2en Cinnamon had come
10 the town and learned TO make shoes We
do not understand that any interference
with them would have been asked for They
would naturally have Joined the regular
unions and increased the force OF shoe
makers without apparently affecting tn,
rate of wages, But here comes ship loat
Of ignorant heathens, bound both by theil
contract and by their want of scquaint
ance with our social system to labo
for = term Of years at . mere pittance
and they take the places of an equal numbe
Of white men already on.the spot. Let the ex
: pertinent be repsated again and arain. az