The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1873-06-21

of flour by the Chinese, for they do not
usg II as long as rice can I've had for eight
cents "a pound, although -four can be had
for less than half that rate. Nearly all the
| Chnamen make is from white people and
nearly all they spend is among themselves
/ The result Of this condition Of affairs is to
lessen the earnings Of the white laborers
Yet white laborers have proved that If cap
Itallsts give them the chance, their work
in the end will lie as cheap as that Of the
MongoliAns. This has been proved by
Col Peter Donahue. who built a railroad
IN Sonoma county with white labor II is
a. well built as any in the State, and its
owner IS well satisfied with ITS cost.
Low WAGES AID HIGH TAXATION.
When, from any cause, low wages be
come the future prospect of workIngmen,
high taxation will he the consequence
When laborers cannot obtain sufficient "a
support their families, the almshouse and
other syhlms more the legitimate results
of greed in society than the offspring Of
charity loom up 70 appall the hearts Of
the wurklngmen at the dismal prospects
that such places may be the homes Of their
declining days. When society reflects upon
the small share II allots to its wealth pro
ducrrS, thus fostering the misery and crime
by which many # ITS members suffer. 1t
vii soon learn the best means by which
the evils may be avoided II is to pay a
fair day wages for a fair days work Then
the ustentatIuus asylums abounu.-.g in the
land would lie less needed than they are at
present, and the toihng classes who do so
much more to assist the poor than they are
4 IL
burden Of taxation imposed for the relief
NJ pauperisul and the punishment Of vice
With labor properly compensated, whether
It he by cooperation or by participation
IN profits, on some graduated scale, every
trade could become a brotherhood, with
means adequate to support its sick and
disabled members. Adapting the agencies
through which such material assistance
might he extended is a problem not be-
yoni the ability Of modern civilization to
provide.
rHE OPPOSING ACTION OF THE MECHANICS.
A few years ago the immigration Of Chi
namen received check 1t was owing to
the monster meetings held IN this city bv
our mechanics The Chinese companies
became aware that the popular feeling Was
against encouraging their immigration and
from the immense number participating IN
those proceedings II looked AS If action IN
dependent of party predictions would ar
rest the evil against which our people COM
planned. But that time has passed Con-
gress has taken no action upon the matter
the mail steamers draw their subsidies /;
new lines are now entering into cumpetl-
ton, and before long shall receive i'm
mense numbers. stimulated to seek Cali
tOrnla by the low price IF passage The
arguments made use " by our working
classes III the discussions to which | refer
as to the duties ~ socIety t. its wealth
producers have found response from
minds whose thoughts are not clouded by
the pursuit of gam through sordld specu-
launns. The calm authority of religion
has declared that society Is menaced by the
grasplng avarice If the age I tterances
ike these have been made by Archbishop
Purcell, IF Ohio, and by Henry Ward
Bcecher VI New York
The idea that capital may reduce wages
70 such terms AS t. p2uperiZs labor has re
ceIved a rebuke during the present year
also ia quarters where IT was least expect
ed II came from the Press -t the enhght
ened journals Of Old England and it pro
claimed that capital shall pause ia its et
forts y reduce the wages II labor. or else
social war might follow. On that occasion
the leading journal Of the world, the Lon
don Times, told the aristocracy that they
should not mtrHuce the Chinese laborers
TIL compete with Britons Such declara-
tons have not been made by the great
journals Ut the United States Fears ii
offending the moneyed classes have ohecked
their utterauces
FNGtA<b', ENAMPIF
These declarations were made at a time
when the people Of England we've exasper-
ated at the high price Of coal The miners
refused to work because their masters
wanted to reduce the wages ten per cent
In the meantime the pruprletors raised the
price Of coal over one hundred per cent.
and the general public blamed, at first. the
miners FIR not working at the reduced
rates Seventy thousand men were thrown
cut If employment, and hundreds Of Fam
HES were reduced to the verge Of starva-
tiun. The owners reaped immense for
tunes; and, elated with their victory. some
w them proposed to import the debased
and hard working Chlnaman to take the
place # the Welshman Public opinion
protested against such an outrage, and
when the capitalists were deprived of that
probable resource they soon gave in. The
miners work in pits, from 1000 to 300
feet below sea level So exhaustive is their
labor. owing to the want Of ventilation
ana intense heat. that the men can only
work for few hours at time, and no
amount Of wages would pay them for pro
longed toil-it would be selling their life
blood for scanty pittance to make the at
tempt