The Labor enquirer., 1884-03-22
How 1t is Paralizing the San
Francisco Profit Making
Class. .
Chinese Slave Labor Proves to
be a Viper to Those Who
Employ 1t. Is
The Red Flag Will Soon Peep
Out From Among, the +
BourgeoiSe. !
san Franeiseo Truth.

San Francisco Truth. = ~ 81
On last Monday battle began, in this
city, between the Chinese cigarmakers
and their white employers. Something
over 5000 Chinese were paid off and
locked out on Monday morning and they
are to be kept out. Since the restriction
act was passed there have been so few
Chinese arrive in the country that work
has been steady for all who are here,
and in some cases a scarcity of labor
The Chinese knew that their services
were in demand. They formed trades
union and assumed to dictate to theil
employers The latter grew tired Of
this and in turn formed an association
which embraced about thirty of the
leading cigar manufactures of the city
This association has ordered the lock-
out.
From the amusing interviews with the
employers, published in the daily press
l make these extracts:
The San Francisco Employers Associ-
alton is based upon precisely the same
basis as the one in New York, which has
formed for protection against the work
ingmen, who are nearly all Germans and
Socialists, and who, guided by two or
three radical SoCialistic leaders, kept the
New York manufacturers in continual
hot water.
Mr.. Lewis, who is one of the visiting
committee, states that all the factories in
the ASSOCIATION have been large buyers
of outside and cheaper cigars, in that
way being the chief support of the
strictly Chinese factories. These cigars
have been used for shipment into the
southern states, where brisk trade has
sprung up since the opening of the
Southern Pacific railroad. 1t was neces
sary to take the cheap brands for this
business in order to compete with the
New York arket. When the lockout
is inaugurated no more of these will be
purchased, and a committee will wait
upon the dealers in leaf-toboCco, and
request them to sell no leaf to the
Chinese during the progress Of the strug
gle, which, owing to these measures, is
expected to be brief. There is no skilled
white labor here, and none can be OBJ
tained outside of New York, where it is
all concentrated.
Mr.. Lewis said that if the employers
resolved to employ no more Cinnamon,
and imported labor from New York (and
enough could not be obtained there to
90 around here, just as soon as the new
corners found they had nothing to fear
and the manufacturers had made heavy
contracts ahead, the men would strike
and leave them in the lurch. The plan
of getting white labor from New York
had been tried in Chicago, and proved a
dismal failure, owing to the men strlkz
ing when they saw they had the proprle-
tors at a disadvantage. The Chinese
were necessary here, but the profits OF
the business were not so large, owing to
New York competition. that the mem
bers of the association proposed to sub
nit to unreasonable exactions on the
part Of their employees. Mr.. Lewis de-
clared that he would GO out of business
first,
The Chinese themselves say this: 1--WE
are told that $500 American cigarmakers
are engaged to come here in two or three
weeks from New York. Let them come
and work for dollar a day to support
their families; but We will not work any
more for dollar a day. Since the
Americans have made a law not allowing
any more Cinnamon to come to the
United States, and as every branch of
industry is now being developed on a
wider basis than before, we, therefore,
must reap our share of the profits, hit or
miss. either wav. Be of good cheer our
American brother craftsmen; we Chinese
are increasing our wages. Are you not?
Well, we'll. 1t may be that our employ
ers think that we are not aware OF their
situation in getting men across the CONT
nent. 1t would cost them S25OOOV TO
bring $500 men from New York, with
out families, and then when they arrived
would they work for 81 day and sup
port family2 Certainly not. So it is
better for them to say as little as possible
about that, forit only tends to the degra,
dation Of the cigarmakers of New YORK.
How incomprehensible all this is tc
the casual reader; how clear it is to the
thinker, the Socialist! The squrmings
of the Bourgeois under the thumb screws
of their own system-that of competl
tion-ought to and doubtless will pro-
woke much amusement and possibly
little qualification besides, among the
wageworkers when they see the real
point at issue. That point is:
That the Chin ese employing class are
buslly engaged just now in cutting the
throats of the American bourgeois and
that being more skilled in the chicanery
of competition, they stand tirst-clas:
chance in driving the American'"out O.
business" or in other words into the
wage-working class.
The Chinese question is hard one tc
handle and no one but a Socialist has
ever handled it with intelligence. Thai
question must be thoroughly understood
before any one can have ANYTHING like
clear idea of the underlying causes Of
such situations as the one now developed
before our eyes.
Ihave not the space to deal with the
Chinese question here as it should be
dealt with. can only say in a aprefatory
way now that the Chinese working class
in America, simply are the actual slaves
of six great Commercial Chinese Com
panies. These companies bring them
here. find work for them, support them