The workingman's advocate., 1875-03-06
WHITE VS.. CoLoRED LABOR.

The action Of the mine-owners through y
out the country in employing colored lab
or to crush their white employees into sub
mission, is one fraught with the greatest
danger to their own best interests. We
never have and never propose 10 advocate
a resort to violence moralis;s, however,
may talk themselves hoarse, and all the
papers in the land may hurl their denun-
Citations at the tyranny Of trades unions,
but Of one fact these penny wise and-pound-
foolish philosophers may rest assured,
and that is, s,-workingmen will not stand
idly by and see their wives and families
want bread, while their places are filled
by class Of men who are employed for
the time being-as tools to reduce their
wages TO starvation rates, and the sooner
it is recognized the better for all con-
oerned. 1t is very well to say : "I II these
men don't choose to accept our offer, they
can go elsewhere, or leave the country all
we ask is the privilege of doing with our
own as we please" That was the old
Duke of Newcsstle's reply when accused
Of threatening eviction to such Of his ten
ants as refused to vote for his representa-
tive, q reply, too, which made his name a
byeword and reproaoh throughout Great
Britain.
These miners don't intend to leave the
country. They propose to stay where they
are, and make an honest livelihood in the
land Of their birth or the land of their
adoption, as the case may be. 1t must be
remembered, also, that the coal lands of IL
linois and Indiana, although but recently
discovered, are already controlled by mon
opolists; that their products, like air,
earth, and water, are the gift of God to
man, placed there to minister to his health,
comfort, and happiness. In their creation
they had no lot or part their title to
them is questionable, to say the least
their possession in the hands Of corporate
monopolies is inimical to the interests of
society and the State and yet they have
the effrontery to talk about their property,
and their right to dictate to men whose
services are required to develop them, as
unblushingly as though they had title
directly from the Creator himself. They
may call this language demagoguism. ag-
grarianism, communism call it what
they please but it is demagoguism that is
entertained by nineteen out of twenty of
those who earn their bread by the sweat
Of their faces.
We have been led into these remarks by
the statement that two of the shafts of the
jackson Coal Company, near Brazil, Iudi
ana, have recently been fred by incendi-
aries, the threat having been made the day
before by the proprietors that unless the
miners Internationally accepted their terms
their places would be immediately filed
by colored laborers Now this section of
has been notorious for some time
past as the rendezvous Of colored men who
move from place to place-wherever diff
6culty occurs,-always ready TO accept
terms NO matter how humiliating or un-
just. 1t ispOssible that the white miners,
goaded to desperation, finding all efforts at
unsuccessful that might
alone is recognized a. right, in the heat of
passion, have resortsd to means a. unjus-
ti6able a. those employed by the bosses,
which their better judgment will condemn,
though no direct proof of guilt has 50 far
been produced.
BE this as it may, employers must learn
that labor has rights which capital cannot
afford to ignore. Trade unionists must
realize that they cannot afford TO array the
labor Of the cOlorsd race against their own,
and the eolOrsd workmsn must recognize