Litchfield enquirer., 1871-06-29
8 ,mebody. but if so. it will be the employ. CT who pays and not the domestic wbo re-


 Ruin Iy Ghimsse Geap Labor is, as yet, a vanity in the mouths sofdemagogues. In fact, there is nothing of it. The two loud. est mouth disclaimers on this score in Cal ifornia, never did a hard day's labor in
 their whole lives, nor even furnished any labor to others, except in backing their
 boots or waiting on their table. One of them after succeeding in arraying labor against capital in San Francisco SO as to postpone
 for years enterprises which would have giv-
 en profitable employment to thousands and
 succeeded also in making it appear to his
 deluded admirers that the contaractor and
 proprietor. who furnished work Tor the labor
 CT, and through the wages paid him, sup
 ported himself and family for years, instead of being their friends was their natural and irrsconcilable enemy. profited on this de. fusion so as to make himself appear their very next friend, and on the strength of it opened savings bank and an insurance shop, and where should his Irish compat- riots put their money but into Mr. Mooney's Bank? and so Mir. Mooney took charge of the earnings of his country-men and wo- men. and for years received their deposits in his bank, which had granite front and had an air of stability about it. But MT. Mooney was worn down with the cares of business and his health needed change of air, so he went to watering place and thence outside the limits of California or American writs or regulations, in short he ran away; this friend of the laborer after squandering the hard earnings which his admirers had placed in his hands. The Bank will. it is hoped. pay fifty cents on the dollar to depositors: the other fifty per cent Mir. Mooney doubtless considers no more than fair compensation for his dis interested advocacy of the rights of the la. boring man and against. the ruinous in auence of Chinese Cheap Labor. The demagogism of his colleague has become so that his own friends have gone back on him.
 Is there then no danger to be apprehend- sd by the laboring classes from the intro. 1uction of Chinese Cheap Labor? My re- ply would be, there is undoubtedly, but as yet the danger is prospective The fact is hat the ten thousand Chinese who are do.
 ing part of the domestic and laundry work of California have not reduced the price of 'hese branches of indaatry below good liv. ing rates to domestics and laundry. women is proof enough that the evil has not yet reached us, but how will it be when the ;en thousand becomes, as it may become, one hundred thousand, what will be the result then? If I should answer for that portion of our community-one half or two thirds, or three fourths, as the case may 'e, who employ and pay for domestic ser. vice, or service of any kind, in factory, farm, garden or vine yard-the 'eply might be. let them come, the cheap. 'r labor is, the better for us; but for them [ am not answering, and should not thus 'wer even if I were; but, for the laboring classes themselves, would say, they have the matter entirely in their own hands: ;hey can. if they please most effectually prevent the inflow of Chinese labor into our land, they are themselves masters of the situation, and if they use their power
  we'll they will be able to retain their mas tery; no sane person, as it seems to me, will displace his industrious. capable, we'll taught, neat. obliging Bridget or Phillis for an untaught heathen Chinee, however great may be the undeveioped domestic virtues which are as yet hid under his taw- aey skin, or gleaming through his oblique optics; neither will proprietors of factories discharge their we'll trained hands for raw workmen, especially when they use an un. known and almost unattainable foreign tongue. Skilled labor and skilled indus. try must always command premium and drive the uncouth, untaught laborer to the wall, but if it should come to pass that skilled labor and industry shall begin to take airs upon itself. and arrogate an as- sert rights which do not belong to it. if the factory hand dictates to his employer from his own standpoint when . consultation for the securing of mutual interests only can be tolerated, if the domestic iu the kitchen will not be managed by the mis- tress in the parlor, but assumes herself to in short if those who pay the wa. ges cannot be permitted to direct and con- trol those whom they pay to do their work, but must themselves submit to be treated as underlings, then this new and unnat- ural phase of affairs is full of danger to the laboring classes of our land. The times to them are onainous of evil. Chinese Cheap Labor in the unimployed millions of Asia looms up like dark shadow over their prospect, nothing but then our good con- duct, can avert the threatend evil from the laboring classes. This may do it. but if they undertake to control the question of labor after their own views, haughtily ig- noring the rights and interests of the pro- prietor and employer, the law still allows the latter classes to select whomsoever they please fo do their u,rs,slr f<>s. &Aav.o A2 .~:1i