The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-09-17

! fifty days wages would buy a ton of -four. That
fact measures and explains the social, industrial,
moral and political progress of Pennsylvania.
In view of such a rule we claim the right of
government to check any forced and unnatural
importation of labor. Against such a claim the
advocate of a protective tariff cannot consistently
/ open bis mouth. If government may and should
protect a nation against pauper labor in other
lands, this surely-this immigration of pauper
labor-is the most threatening danger. 1t you
would be consistent, MIR. Protectionist, join with
us in devising e~ffectual methods to avert it. If
the free trader assails US with his objection, g has
not the laborer a right to buy his coat or -four in
the cheapest market? Has not the capitalist the
same right TO get his stock or his labor in the
cheapest markell" we answer, IS yes, under GER
tain restrictions" To purchase the products of
the earth, manufactured or otherwise, wherever
you can get them cheapest, is good good for the
seller and good for the purchaser. But this is
only true provided there is no artificial eombina-
ton, no plot of powerful men,, or classes, to food
the market of one land with the surplus of an
other. Every competition that comes in natural
currents, from Individual enterprise, is a healthy
tendency to average. Secondly, this restriction
is to be still more stringently enforced in the pur-
chase of human labor since the artificial and
forced antagonism of that deranges society, IN
dermines government, obstructs progress, brushes
individual effort, and drags the highest type of
human attainments down to the murky level of
III lOnCoG duO IQ1cc against dIl
thing which threatens such results government
has the right to defend society by appropriate
laws.
The rate of wages is said to depend on supply
and demand. The rule is sound, but so equivocal
that it is worth little. Rate of wages really de-
ponds on what the workman thinks will buy him
the necessities of life. There are men in England
whose highest idea of life is to work sixteen
hours a day, go naked, eat meat once a year,
herd, both sexes and all ages, with cattle under
one roof, and need only two hundred words to
express all their ideas. Such men will work for
enough to supply these natural wants. When
wages fell below that they steal, starve or wake
to an intellectual effort to better themselves.
Their idea of necessaries does much to fix the
rate of wages. A Yankee farmers boy must
have good clothes, schooling, ample food and
something over. These are his necessities. When
wages will not buy them he ceases to belong to
the ranks of {" supply and carves out a new
career. There is good food and high wages in
the kitchens of New York more than many
trades afford. A great demand :" there for
American girls. No sc supply :" nevertheless. We
know it is only a sentiment that prevents. But
that sentiment is rigid as iron and memorable as
fate. "Supply and demand therefore, are to
be understood with a qualification. The &c ideas 5"
OF the Z" supply are a most important element
in the calculation. What are the ideas of the
"supply?' These regulate his wages. The
Chinaman works cheap because he is a barbarian,
and seeks qualification of only the lowest, the
most inevitable wants. The American demands
more because the ages-because Homer and Plato,
Egypt and Rome, Luther and Shakespeare, Crom-
well and Washington, the printing press and the
telegraph, the ballot box and the Bible, have
made him ten times as much a man. Bring the
Chinese to us slowly, naturally, and we shall
soon lift him to the level of the same artificial
and civilized wants that we feel. Then capitalist
and laborer will be both equally helped. Fill
our industrial channels with imported millions
and you choke them ruinously. They who seek
to flood us artifcially with barbarous labor are
dragging down the American home to the level
of the houseless street herds of China. If the
workingmen have not combined to prevent this it
is time they should. When rich men ~conspire
poor men should combine.
In such cOmbinations-inevitable and indis-
pensable in the circumstances-the best minds
and hearts Of the land are with them. Only let
them be sure not to copy the tyranny which
makes their opponents weak. Their only strength
is an admitted principle-all men equal-equally
free to carve, each his own career, and entitled
to all the aid his fellows can give. Stand on
that unfinchingly. Rebuke every threat. Avoid
all violence. Appeal only to discussion and the
ballot. You outnumber the capitalists at any
rate. The ballot was given for just such crises
as these. Use it, and you oblige the press to dis
cuss your claims. Use it remorsefully, and Legis-
latures will soon find a remedy. Compel atten-
ton by fidelity to each other. Inscribe on your
ballot boxes, 1" Here We never forgive
WENDELL PHILLIPS.