Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-09-17

anoe and throws the whole force into dis
arrangement. It was found to be impos-
sible to organize perfectly reliable force
of 500 white operatives. The entire oper-
ations require skilled manipulation.
After force has been trained it must re-
main intact. Unframed hands cannot
take the places Of trained absentees with
out disturbing the well-balanced produc-
tive capacity of the separate operations.
When a force is thus organized, trained
and balanced it must be maintained
over period of years. It was found that
large portion of the whole force en-
ployed would remain only long enough to
| obtain sufficient money for definite pur-
poses. As for example to renew ward
robe; to take trip East; to 60 to the
latest mining locality, etc. The constant
going of those who had acquired skill, and
the consequent coming Of the unframed,
greatly reduce the average productive
capacity of the works. Chinese labor pos.
sesses the capacity of being massed and
welded with facility in compact, well
organized forces. It is worse than useless
to quarrel with actual facts, and
worse than absurd to attempt to
combat inherent forces. The com.
petition with American iute factories
Is not from Chinese at Oakland, but from
Hinduos and Chinese at Calcutta and on
the Hoosley river. Even in India, Chinese
labor has been found far more profitable in
the jute factories than that of the native
Hindoos. Gradually Chinese labor is
crowding the Hindoos out of the more
skilled operations of manufacturing fabrics
from jute fibers. The eight hundred
Chinese operatives employed at Oakland
are not in any sense supplanting white Ia
Dor, because the profit arising from that
class of manufacture viii not pay white
labor the rate it must have to maintain its
grade of civilization. Our contemporary
statement carries on its face its own ex-
PLANTATION. 1t says: 1.-THE employment
"of eight hundred white men would sup
sport population of over three thousand"
Then the support of that population must
be charged to the labor bill OF the fac.
tory, and experiment has shown that the
,oo,c;, of ,1ro6A xy;II MT SusEa;r, that
charge. As between employing eight hun
bred Chinese in Oakland and the employ
ment of the same number in Calcutta,
there is no practical difference SO far as
their labor has bearing upon the indus
tries OF this country. American manufact-
ures in iute are protected by an import
duty of 80 per cent on the value of manu-
featured jute fabrics. This is the sole
protection, for since the iute fiber comes
from India, the freight does not constitute
an element of disadvantage to the jute fac
tories in Calcutta. That is to say, the
farmers in California pay over one-third
more for the sacks they use in order
that a single corporation in Oakland
may give employment to 500 Chinese oper-
atives. The annual consumptioasof sacks
aggregates 80, 600, 900, which cost the grain
growers 81, 700, 000; in this 1915, coo rep.
resents the advanced price due to the
existence of the tariff. Thus nearly ST.
000, coo per annum is taken from the wheat
growers of California to protect single
jute factory in Oakland and two or three
on the Atlantic seaboard, As already
shown, it is an employment from which
American labor can derive no benefit.
Nothing but the most superficial reasoning
and the most hopeless confusion of ideas
will see any advantage in maintaining this
tariff But even with the protection
afforded by this tariff it is doubtful
if American manufactures from jute,
even with Chinese labor, will be able
to contend with East Indian competition.
This Oakland company importuned the
State Prison Directors to take it's entire
plant of machinery off its hands, Sacks
have been imported for less than seven
cents, and the growth of manufactures in
this line in India, with Hindoo aud
cheaper Chinese labor than we have ever
known in California, affords certain
guarantee of gradual and steady decline
in the cost of sacks. The abolition of the
tariff duty on iute fabrics would save to
the grain. growers of California about
$1,000, coo per annum, and if by that gain
the 500 Chinese now employed at Oakland
in the manufacture of sacks should find
it to their advantage to transfer the field of
their operations to Calcutta, nothing would
be lost to the aggregate refinement or civil
II ,finn Of that cifyr