New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-03-04
THE DIGNITY OF LABOR.

Mayor Kalloch made an address recently to the
workingmen in San Francisco, and in the course
of bis long and exciting Earangue--a great part
of which seemed intended TO intlame popular an
imosity against the Supervisors because they
had failed to find or make work for the UNI
employed-he warned "Capital that trouble
would come if 1t did not encourage and ele-
"vate labor abandon the idea OF merely
&" getting the cheapest labor" and, above AL,
drive ont the cheap Chinese who " degrade
"and humilate" the white working classes.
California is the only part of the United States
which is not prosperous. Elsewhere men find
work enough at fair wages, and those who are
not employed are as a rule idle through their
own fault. But in San Francisco there seems
to be genuine distress, and laborers and arti-
sans out OF work are marching about the
streets or besieging the public authorities with
clamors for relief. Yet labor OF all kinds Is
paid in California at extravagant rates. The
Sand Lots agitators declare that man who
accepts work at less than two dollars day Is
not fit TO live. The Chinese have thrust
themselves into all manner of industries md
domestic employments, only because they are
content with reasonable wages and willing 10
render faithful service. IL Is not true that
they are driving out white labor because they
work for pttance which would not sup
port white man. They earn fair incomes.
But tho white nottingham in San Francisco
has been demoralized by years of high prices
and luxury, and he feels degraded when
he is told that he must come down to the
standards which prevail at the East The
business connections Of different sections of
the country are now so close that no great in
Qualities in the rates of labor can be main
tanned and 1t is idle to imagine that the ex-
pulsion of Cinnamon will enable mechanics
and others in California to earn twice as much
as persons in the same employments can earn
IL New-YOrk.
The men who went about from factory to
factory the other day in San Francisco, de-
handing the dismissal Of the Chinese,
might have learned the futility of their
proceedings from the experience of a
single afternoon. The demOnac tryant, Capt.
tai, as it presented itself to them on that oc-
cason, seems to have been embodied in the
persons of few small manufacturers, large
proportion of whom probably realized from
their business a smaller income than some of
their hands. Various answers were made to
the complaining workmen; but the general
drift of sentiment among the employers indi-
Gated that they would gladly give the prefer
ence to white men, except for the fact that
white men refused 20 work at wages which
any manufacturer can pay. If it had not been
for Chinese cheap labor the industries of Cal
iforna would have been Frustrated long ago
by outside competition. "Twice," said the
proprietor of one establishment, ave dis
charged our Chinese and took on white
"men; but the white hands got drunk and
"could not be depended upon, and we found
at impossible to compete with Eastern man
"ufactories" The labor which the Sand Lots
orators call degrading supplies them with
many of their daily needs The committee Of
the Board of Health which condemned China
town as a nuisance mentioned as one of the
infamies revealed by a visit to that quarter
that in a crowded tenement the moon-eyed
"lepers" were discovered III the act Of manu-
featuring overalls and cheap shirts for the
workingmen of San Francisco. They outraged
civilization moreover by making vermiceli,
confectionery and cigars and it now appears
that at the close Of the tour of inspection the
committee proceeded to regale themselves mt
Chinese restaurant. Denis Kearney himself
is said to have kept Chinese cook until the
absurdity of the situation became unbearable.