Weekly Trinity journal., 1874-08-08
YOUTH AND LABOR.

same the world over. Work suitable to
their age and strength is furnished right
at home, and the time not spent in educa-
tional pursuits, or in wholesome recrea-
ton, is employed in some kind of labor
which fits the young man or woman for
the coming battle Of life. So far, all is
well enough, but it is not every man of
family who can lead the life of a farmer,
or sit in the shadow of his own vine and
fig tree. Much OF the population Of this
State is centered in cities another por-
ton is scattered throughout the mining
region, and follows that pursuit, or others
connected with, or dependent upon it,
The children Of these people are placed
in different situation from those of
whom we have spoken their opportuni-
ties to obtain labor suited to their years
are limited in comparison with those en-
joyed by farmers sons. OF the young
men Of California growth and parentage,
it is sorrowiul truth that their present
habits and inclinations are not Of char
acter to inspire confidence in their future
fitness to assume upon themselves the du-
ties Of life and citizenship. Their evil
passions have obtained the ascendency
over their better natures the papers TEEN
with accounts Of their offences against
law and order, and people are beginning,
at last, 70 awake to the necessity Of taxi
ing some action, which will arrest the de-
velopment of those ruffianly tendencies,
which can only result in preparing the
youth Of our cities as candidates for our
jails and prisons.
Eastern parents aim to give their chill
dren both an education and trade. The
educational facilities here are all that can
be desired, but not the opportunities Of
fered for learning some useful employ
ment' Part Of this is attributable to the
Trades Unions,p which foI bid employ
! ers from taking more than limited num-
/ Der Of apprentices. This system of tyr
amy, which shuts the doors Of honest
employment to many OF the growing
/ youth, cannot fail to be attended with
one result-the formation of idle and dis
soute habits in those debarred from the
! field Of honest labor. When these habits
are once formed they are not easily over
thrown. Even if opportunities after
wards present themselves, the seeds of
idleness and vice are already sown, and
with the mind once i'm bued with the bale
ful influence, powerful effort will be re-
| quired to eradicate it. In some respects,
however, the tyannous influence of the
Trades Unions has been checked. They
were organized, without doubt, for good
purposes, but led by men of Unsuitable
greed, have oyer-reached themselves. In
their desire to secure everything for
| themselves and give as little as possible in
return, they have overshot the mark, and
it is only when it is too late they begin to
find out that capital and labor are de-
| pendent each upon the other ; that when
a contest is inauguratod botwoon then1
each must suffer. That when this con-
test is carried to the bitter extremity la
Dor must go to the wall, for labor must
have bread. Consequently, when labor
| by welding a united vote, compelled the
| passage Of an eight-hour law, which self
ish demagogues said would better the
condition Of the laborirg classes, yet
when the test came, and eight-hour la
bor sought market it found no purchas-
ers. When it comes to the proper train
ing Of youth, it is matter in which not
parents alone, but every member of CON-
munity has a vital interest. And when
any organization, on any pretext what
ever, prevents the entrance of boys or
girls upon path of life which is for their
own good and the good of community,
/ then it becomes the duty of all good cti-
zens 20 curb the power of such organiza-
tions and keep it within proper bounds.
In occupying fields of labor which le-
ultimately belong to the young of both
sexes, the Chinese nuisance is most Sc
verely felt. The avenues OF employment
which should be reserved for our own
youth, are filed by this people, whose
ingenuity enables them to readily master
the mysteries of all kinds of light en-
| ployments, while the uniform docilty
they exhibit commends them to those
who employ, and who soon learn to pre-
fer steady, Industrious Chinese to rude,
refractory boys. The practice, too, which
has obtained, of employing Chinese as
house servants to the exclusion of white
females, invites an immigration of this
people. And until public sentiment re-
jccts Chinese labor in every case where
the place can be filed by people of our
own race, this condition is bound to con-
time. All attempts at legislation against
Chinese immigration will fail so long as
we continue to employ them, but if peo-
pie can once be made to understand that
the employment of Chinese in such num-
bers is only one way of preparing the ma
terial to fill prisons in the future, it will
be great step towards convincing them
that 1t is false economy to prefer such la
Dor, merely on account of its present
cheapness. 1t will be only in some such
way as this that the solution of the Chi
nese problem will be reached.
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A TEMPERANCE lecture Of great power