The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1870-03-04
FUGITIvEs FROM LABOR.
[From the Albany Dsmocrai.1


II seems that tic Panama steamer which left
San Francisco on tie 9th inst, aaal 800 Storage
passengers, neatly al men who were returning 10
seek employment aud homes IN tho East. CHI
nese labor was the feourre thnt drove these men
from California. They wcre MI laborcrs, but the
great influx of cheap China labor had left them
nothing to do and turning their faces TO the East,
they quit California with maledctions upon her
scheap labor" and no very high opinion of Re-
publican statcmanship.
Chinese labor is said to be driving
men from California to the East. The
is absurd. Labor at the
East is much cheaper than in Califor-
mia or elsewhere on the Pacific slope
so that it is ridiculous to say that peo-
ple are going East to escape "cheap
labor" No man on tho Pacific slope /
who really wants to work need be long
out of employment.
Undoubtedly it was men of this same
class who sailed on the steamer for the |
East, as the Albany paper relates, and
If they had all gone California would
be so much the better off. A few of
the same sort could be we'll enough
spared from Oregon. California, GER
tainly, will never regret the loss of
these fugitives from labor Oregonian.
It is easy but not satisfactory to
dismiss this subject with fat contra
dictions. 1t is easy to describe large
numbers of men as 'thriftless, "un-
enterprising, ''too lazy to work. . "fu-
gitives from labor" etc.. and many
careless persons, who have uniformly
got on in the world by finding some
thing to do and doing it, may be de-
ceiyed by this impatient defamation.
What we assumed in the paragraph
quoted is true. Conditions of idleness
and want are not new In the world.
And neither are half paid labor and
half starved operatives new things
under the sun. The strikes and bread
riots of Europe are evidence of the
latter, and the precautions of the
French government to provide en-
yment for those who cannot find it
where, arc evidences of the former.
so strong IS the necessity for it,
the plan adopted in Paris of pro-
pg employment for those needing
government, is being strongly
d in San Francisco. There is the
It cannot be denied. Almost
y department of laborin the latter
swarms with Cinnamon They
all producers in the labor market,
in no sense, or at least in very
tied one, are they consumers. They
lprodnce no other business effect than
the miserable ones of cheapening and
degrading labor. The statistics show
\ what an influence they have had upon
the business of San Francisco. In
sixteen years they have earned and re-
Iceived S84, 600, 600, of this but S16,-
l000, 900 has remained In the country.
The remaining s6S, 900 900 has gone
TO China, and nothing remains in its
stead. II the $84, GOO, goo had been
paid to any other class of laborers, il
would have remained and been q pari
of the neutrality-suspicious. ofCalifornia
to-day. The matter is too plain to al.
nit of much room FOR dispute. The
,sophisms of the Oregontan are insig-
> nifcant beside the facts. For six.
teen years the Chinese dragon ha.
been sapping at the foundations
of Calfornia's prosperity, until hel
Emporium is III condition fit to bt
: described in the following language
which we take from the. Eran.iler o
jan. jan 9th.
"And SO matters went on until the crisis ha
actually arrived, and f.i.nrcs arc becoming Of cy
FRY day occurrence Wholesale merchants an,
aeirafaetarcrs every day called upon To atten,
meetings OF creditors, sad the bankruptcy is foun,
in each case to te caused by bal debts. We hay
at tie present time seven thousand industriou
citizsns-Inen who arc not Of tic nomadic popula
lion, but those sho arc actually settled do,n Il
homes. and in a large majority Of eases are sur
roanded by families-who cannot find work to do
and who are reduced to absolute want Ayerag
ing each mans wages at three dollars per day, "
and that the city is deprived Of daily circula
;ion Of twcnty-one thousand dollars from tina
source alone. This circulation would support 20
retail stores, averaging The receipts at one hundrc
dollars per day. like number of which must inc
yitably come down before trade finds It's level
and corresponding decreafe in the busines
of the merchants and manufacturers must Of cours
take place.
Owners Of real estate arc in the same nditior
Tenants viii not. for they cannot. pay rent an
the landlord finds himself in tho same canoe a
the merchant and manufacturer"
The Senate Judiciary Committee find muc
trouble n settling the Georgia case, and have n
yet arrived mt no conclusion. Considerable differ
encc Of opinion exists. but they are unanimous
however, in disapproval of Gen. Terry's course i
holding military enquiry into the eligibility O