The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-06-29

| Cheap Goods Ia n New shape.
"Ah-my!" ''Ah-sing!" and "Ah-how y
are beginning to be something more than
| expressions of sentimental dependency.
"Ah-sing" and his seventy-four associate
Cinnamon are now successfully employed by
Mr. Sampson, of North Adams, Massachusetts,,
in making shoes, as an experiment against the
high wages exacted by the Crispin societies
or working shoemakers trade unions of the
State. '.Ah-how!" is this startling expert
ment of cheap Chinese labor against dear
American skilled labor to be resistedp and
"Ah-my!" where is it to stop? If the China
man, with short training, at less than half
price, can be employed as substitute for the
skilled American In making shoes, why may
not he or she be also employed in making
clothing, hats, bonnets, cotton and woollen
goods, iron in all its forms, buildings, ships,
&C., books, newspapers, and in everything,
from q chronometer to q cotton field, and from
brides outfit to the cleaning Of the kitchen?
Yea, why not in everything in which labor is
required? Why not, when the swarming hive
of China, with its four hundred millions Of
busy bees, is ready to supply us with Eve, ten
prices Of labor In every Department.
With that North Adams experiment in shoe
making this question has suddenly doomed up
into these startling proportions How is it to
be met? The trades unions Of this city,
through Mr.. Schumacher, have presented a
petition to Congress for the passage of law
protecting American labor against this threat
ened fearful competition from China, and
tomorrow evening these trades unions are to
hold "a monster anti Chinese mass meeting"
this meeting they will resolve upon combina-
tion OF strikes, when it may be deemed neces-
sary to resist any further Chinese experiments
ip any business like that of North Adams.
They may also resolve to make the importa-
ton Of Chinese labor political question, mas
much as an invitation has been forwarded to
Governor Hoffman to address the meeting, to
which invitation q favorable answer is ex-
pected.
We dare say, too, that the democrats, in
avidity upon this Chinese question as a
political issue upon which they may gain the
powerful support of the trades unions of the
country. They have carried California for the
last two years upon this Chinese question, and
why may they not carry the United States
Unfortunately, however, there is law of
Congress (republcan) against this coolie
system of Chinese importations, and
Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts,, look
ing to the windward, has already
taken ground against SIMPSONS Chinese
shoemakers. The republicans will hardly run
the risk just yet of making political issue of
this Chinese labor problem. They will hardly
venture upon challenging q political conflict
with the eight hundred thousand voters of the
trades unions, of whom perhaps at least three
hundred thousand are now republicans We
may, then, conclude that John Chinaman will
play no very important part in our coming fall
elections. He is still, in fact, revolutionary
danger in the distance, and it is only when
such danger is visible in their midst that the
American people rise to meet it.
But, supposing that the democracy, en-
nasse, rise in opposition to this threatened
experimentation of Chinese labor, how are
advocacy of free trade? The home protec-
ZIONIST, or high tariff man, says here is an
iron manufacturing establishment which gives
the employment that shelters, feeds and
clothes five hundred American families, in
consequence of the protective duty upon Bri-
fish iron. Take off this duty, and this iron
establishment, from its inability to compete
with the pauper labor of England, will have
to be closed, and those aforesaid five hundred
American families will be thrown out Of
become burden instead of source of pros
| perity to the community around them, while
| at the same time the market which the neigh
| boring farmer found for his products at the
| furnace will be transferred to England. But
| the free trader says it is my right to
get my iron in the cheapest mar
ket, and it is wrong to make me
| pay bounty to my neighbor for his iron be-
cause he cannot procure the cheap labor Of
the manufacturer in England How, then,
can this free trader object to the employment
by his neighbor of Chinese labor, which, even
with the removal of the iron duty, will enable
him to compete in our own markets with the
iron of England? Would you deny him the
projections of the tariff and at the same time
deny him the right to procure the cheapes
labor he can find? If the protection of Ameri
can industry requires the exclusion Of the
coolie, surely free trade calls for his admis
sion. If it is wrong to deny us free trade by
taxing the whole community for the suppor
of our home manufactures it is wrong to deny
these American factories free trade in thu
choice of their labor. IF you would abolish
the tariff you must admit the Chinaman, ant
| whv not