, 1881-03-20
AMERICAN APPRENr1CEs AGAIN,

~-~O~- o~AAAN
sore-headed Democracy,
| M..-s..@.@..s@%MZ=
AMERICAN APPREN f1CEB AGAIN.
i. Yesterday THE TRIBUNE commented OF
the 'unSbrtunate and deplorable policy adopt
ed by the trades unions Of excluding appren
tlces from the workshops Of nearly all
trades. One effect of this is to contine the
privilege of working at all mechanical occu,
pations to persons of foreign birth who
have learned their trades in Europe or eau.
ada. This results in sort Of Know
Nothlngism, whereby Americans are practi-
cally excluded from knowledge of mechan-
fcal trades, and the country is dependent for
mechanical OF skilled labor upon enigrants
from foreign countries.
In course of time these foreign-born me-
| chanics have sons of their own, who are in
like manner excluded from the workshop,
and, in common with all the American youth,
are condemned to be unskiiled laborers, or
are driven into non-productiye employments,
or 20 to swell the army of ldlers, street.
lounEers, loafers, hoodluIns, and criminals
who fill the saloons, and streets, and disrep-
utable establishments of all large cities.
This vast population Of young men from Is
~ ~ 3CAAoS 4AOA NA4EA 444V %A!ulI]Al E4Ao9 10
| recruited, are those VINO are denied and pro-
hibited from learning trades BY the arbitrary
rules Of the trades.unfons, which are, in
turn, made up chiefly of persons Of foreign
birth, and who have learned their trades i'll
fQTeign lands.
| The inventive skill of the Americans is
| largely devoted to 1abor-savng machinery.
The country is reduced to foreign imnligra-
tion for Its supply OF skilled labor, the
| American youths being excluded rigidly
! from Any instruction In mechanical arts.
The result, therefore. is 4 constant struggle
between the improvements Of labor-saying
machinery and the close corporations or urbl
trary monopoly of the trades-unlons.
Ono Of these industries, is the trade or
craft OF cotton-splnnlng. This body Of men
absolutely determine, who Of their; number
and how many of them shall be employed
at any cotton-nil1 in the United States.
They are mainly Englishmen, and are the
authors Of all the labor disturbances and
strikes IN tho cotton-factories Of New En-
gland. When they strike they practically
suspend all other operations III the mills.
They permit no apprentices, and the supplyis
wholly recruited from England. against this
tyranny and despOtism there is n6nppeal.
We know the Communistic theory Of ILL.,
dustry denounce5 lab0r-saying inventions as
something at war with human happiness and
human rights, They and the trades-unlons
adopt the same theory and policy Of limiting
aud prescribing the number OF other men
who shall learn any trade or be allowed to
work at it. They seek to maintain monop-
0ty of aAph frat1a nu3 ~ fhfc pntfnx- IL f}t1a
the fact that in this country thereare so many
young men who have no trade and are
wholly untitled for any productive occupn-
tion. 1dleness carries i'll its train al the
vices; 1dlcness is the fruitful producer of
intelnperance; idleness, to q large extent,
compulsorily educates men in crime, aud it
is one of the most striking as well as.the most
repulsive consequences Of this Socialisttc-
trades-union exclusion of apprentices that /
the only way for m Amcrican-b0rn youth 7
to learn mechanical trade is to learn that !
trade as criminal In the State Prison.
The theory that limitation of the number |
Of skilled mechanics is the only way in which |
skilled workmen can maintain wages i'll this |
country is clearly fallacious, because that |
limitation is abortiye. Numbers Of trades
AtAA3S ApQ4N44t4%Go lA4s8ACOJ C>Ll%A-
Ing American boys-their own sous among
thenl-fron learning useful trades, when I'LL
the ports Of the country are wide open to the
mechanics of all Europe, vino flock hither In
such numbers that the unemployed surplus
can at any time, aid always do, beat down
the wages whenever there is a stru ggle OIL
that point.
IT, on the contrary, the trales-unions were
open to all American boys. where ap-
prentices could serve long enough to become
skilled workmcr, Intelligent and educated
mechanics, there would be more men
in each trade, but there would be a
larger percentage of sklllful men in each
trade, and these skillfuI men could command
higher and better wages, because their labor
would be worth more than is now paid to the-
exclusively foreign workmen, whose union
laws establish horizontal wages,-the SAME
to the skillful as to the ignorant and incon-
petenr.