Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-07-05
The Foreign Labor Question.

nave not seen q DeJUer reply TO the
general drift and spirit of the letters
which Mr.. II. p. Porter is furnishing to
the Tribune than the following communi-
cation to the Chicago Tribune from a
naturalized citizen, whose qualifications
to criticise are Vouched for by the Tribune .
Mr.. Porter, the hired witness for the
New York Tribune, appears to have no
difficulty in England in finding such evil
dence against free trade as he has been
told to get. He is a good example of that
paradox that man may lie in speaking
the literal truth. The examples of pow
erty and distress that he exhibits are no
doubt correct, but his differences and his
insinuatiOn that they are fairly represen-
tative of the condition of English work
ingmen are false.
Born and reared among the working
classes of England, my bOyhoOd was spent
IN London during the years of the free
trade agitation. | was twenty years old
when the free trade policy was adopted
and the ''prOtection" antiquity discarded
forever. | have vivid recollection of the
social and moral condition of the working
classes during the period when the ''pro-
tectiYe" system oppressed the industry of
Great Britain. After IA thirty years resi-
dence in America, returned to England
a short time ago, and could scarcely
recognize the people, so great was their
Improvement under the operation of the
enlightened system of free trade. | found
the workingmen receiving much higher
wages for less hours of labor, while the
price Ofeyery article OF food, clothing, and
other necessaries had been correspond
ingly reduced. And yet individual cases
Of poverty could be found in every town
in England if the detectives chose to
search for them.
If the Chicago IribuRe will send me
over to England with instructions to find
evidence of the wealth and comfort of the
English wOrkingman, | will guarantee to
find it; if you instruct me to find the evil
dence of their extreme poverty and degra-
dation. | agree to furnish that also. Tell
me what sort of testimony you want, and
/ Will bring it into cOurt-Of riches or
poverty, of virtue or vice, of manly indie
pendence or AFFECT servility-just tell me
what you want and you shall have it.
will earn my wages.
If the London Times will hire me to
furnish similar testimony as to the social
condition of the people in America, l can
do so, and in both cases | will tell the
literal truth: the lie will consist in the
inference that my exceptional instances
fairly represent the general condition.
Within the last three weeks l have seen
and heard more violent expressions Of
discomfort from the wOrkingmen of Chi
cdgO IMAM L ever u6dTu Ill El9lduu uuElHg
the hungry agitation of forty years ago.
Within that time, at a large meeting of
more than 800 people, l have heard the
condition of the wOrkingmen of Chicago
described by themselves as a condition of
EEWage-slavery." | heard one very intel
ligent man declare that more people had
been evicted from their homes in Chicago
on the 1st of May, for the crime of pow
erty, than had been eyicted during
EC vx~hn in
another man, a good speaker too,
say, with intense feeling, Il fought four
years to free the black slaves of the South;
/ am now ready to fight to emancipate the
white slaves of the North;' and when the
hopelessness of successful revolution was
suggested he admitted that monopoly
was so strongly intrenched that 1t could
not be OverthrOwn by open fighting in the
field. but he said, ave can use dynamite;' -
and then the whole company burst into
applause. He continued; Because the
Chicago Tribune denounces dynamite,
weak men finch from its use, but dyna-
mite is the remedy to put an end to our
slavery" and again the meeting applaud
ed. New, Mr.. Editor, if / should sell this
testimony to the London Times as fair
evidence of the condition of American
wOrkingmen, l should initiate the swift
witness, Porter; | should constitute my
self liar for money, although the facts
related would be true.
This meeting was not a secret one; it
was not held in any out-of-the-way cor
ner; it was open to everybody, and took
place on the very same street where the
Tribune is published. 1t adjourned in a
somewhat electrical condition. As L was
passing out a man whom | never saw be-
fore addressed me in a rather excited
manner: ''They never touched the true
cause of our trouble" he said, ''never
touched it at ALL" ''What is it?" / in
quired. ''The Internal tariff" he replied,
''that makes everything dear that we
buy!"
''Why didn't you tell them sop l said.
because | didn't get a chance; there
were so many of them trying to speak that
the chairman didn'trecOgnize me- This
man had worked out the solution of the
problem by the arithmetic of his house.
hold expenses, as the workingmen of Eng
land did at last. If the mechanics of
America could see the English mechanic
of 1913, and contrast him with his son of
1888, they would not be deluded another
minute by the sophistries of what is false
ly called protection"
RTDTTnT