Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1873-05-10
A'ashin9ton Standard.
Our A~Nea
OLYMPIA. SATURDAY MORNING. HAT 10, 1878.
ONE CAUSE OF HARD TINES.

ONE CAUSE OF HARD TINES.
The cry Of hard times goes up all owe,
the coast. In city as we'll as village
money is scarce and all branches o.
business are in languishing condition
Why is it? This is the question thai
everybody is trying to solve. The mos1
reasonable explanation is found in the
influx Of the Chinese to the Coast, who
are performing the labor and receiving
the money that if set aAoat would re.
lieve in a great measure the universal
stasnation of business. Aweek or two
ago we referred to the alarming increase
of Chinese immigration each month,
and those figures, more recent state.
ments show, are far below the actual
number. They speedily find their way
into all the available fields of industry
open to the common laborer, and not
unfrequently usurp the place of skilled
labor. An instance of these baneful ef-
fects was lately afforded by the expert
ence of a wholesale boot and shoe firm
in San Francisco, who employed large
force of Cinnamon, taught them the
trade in all its details, and for short
time were enabled to make an enor-
nous profit on their goods and still un-
dersell their more scrupulous neigh
bors. But the plan, promising such a
golden harvest, was wrong in principle
and was attended by the inevitable re-
suit which follows departure from the
rational laws controlling demand and
supply. Many of these Cinnamon soon
left their employers and commenced
business for themselves. They instruct
ed their countrymen in the use of the
pegging-awl and wax-end. Naturally
ingenious and initiative, they soon mas
tered the trade, and are now absolutely
wrestling from the employers the very
advantages they expected to derive from
cheap labor. They constitute the most
formidable rivals of their former patrons
and the whole industrial interest en-
gagged in the boot and shoe trade.
Cinnamon are employed upon all the
public works of any magnitude to the
exclusion of just SO many white labor
ers. The work upon the railroad ex-
tension, in this immediate vicinity, is
being done almost exclusively by Chi.
namen, when if white men were en-
ployed, at reasonable wages, business
would revive and the faces of our citi-
zens soon wear less anxious cast. I'M
migration would be encouraged by the
best and most practical means, prom
Use of employment at remunerative
wages, and many who would come to
work would conclude to stay.
We have no hope of reform, or bet
ter condition of affairs, in the near flu.
ture. Relief must be found in legisla-
ton. The laws are made, interpreted
and executed by the people, and the
sovereign remedy is in the ballot. The
process is slow but sure. Each State
and Territory has power to levy and
collect taxes, and there is no reason
why Cinnamon should not be made to
understand that low wages will not buy
rice and still the clamors of the tax
collector besides. The doctrine that
taxation must be uniform presumes an
equality of those subject to them. II
white men can live on rice, they may
equal the Chinaman in competition.
If he cannot, there is no reason why
the laws adapted to civilization should
apply to the heather, and protect them
while they undermine and destroy the
entire system of free labor.
We are pleased to observe that the
California papers now speak boldly and
unequivocally upon this important ques-
ton. Their utterances find on echo in
thousands of breasts schooled to ad.
versity, over whom the dark cloud Of
poverty constantly lowers. At the pro.
per time they will make their powe,
felt in the selection of legislators who
will give expression to the popular will
by legal enactnents that will guarantee
to labor an adequate reward.
COMMON ScHooLs.-During our visi
to the district schools on Mound Pra
RE, few days ago, we were very ia
vorably impressed with the great interes
that parents and others annear tn tax.