Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-03-13
FOREIGN LABOR COMPETITION.

The workingmen of France have been
long complaining of the pressure of foreign
labor upon them. Not the product of
labor in foreign parts, but of the foreigner
who comes into France to labor and work
for a wage upon which the Frenchman can
not exist and live up to the measure of the
demand for workmen under the civilization
of France.
Californians know precisely what this
argument is as applied to the competition
OF Chinese labor. It is not a question
merely of cdespnoss of labor, but Of the
quality of citizenship people will foster.
Nj. Brialvu is a representative workingman
In the Chamber of Deputies from Lyons.
He has been explaining to the Chamber
what it is of which the workmea complain.
Italians and Germans crowd the manu-.
factories and besiege the doors OF public
works departments offering to work for less
wages than the home operative can sup.
port himself and family upon, according to
the requirements of ordinary comfort as
measured by French standard. These
foreign competitors do not come to stay,
do not build homes or raise children to
France, nor invest their earnings with her,
but ship every cent they make cut of the
Republic, and contribute nothing at all to
the support of her trades and commerce.
The proposition of NJ. Brialou does not
call for this immigration to be prohibited,
but asks that law DC enacted prohibiting
the employment OF more than 10 per cent
of foreigners in the public works prosecuted
by the State or the departments or munich
pal corporations, and he would exclude
foreigners entirely from manufactures con-
Quoted by the Government. This, from no
standpoint, can be said to be an extreme
demand, and as it does not propose to
interfere in any way with private employ
ment, and relates only to public works. it
is far less radical than Chinese exclusion
from the United States.
But the thought that comes most
prominently to the front in this matter is
that which suggests the possibilities of the
demands of civilization in the future. To
what extent shall we justify people in
protecting their syatem of society from in.
vasion Can there be or shoul5 there be
any limit? Il certainly is the tendency OF
the day, and OF this fsct there can be made
no denial TO prevent the degradation of
the working classes regardless of the profit
Of the consumer OF labor products. The
indications are tina. this question Will more
and more assume the propositions Of one
of civilization only. 1t involves, however,
some of the incest distinctions. For in.
stance, is not the italian and German arti.
san justified in holding his methods of life,
his systems OF civilization equal to those
of the French artisan? Shall not the
Italian and German mechanics be justified
in Indignantly resentiug the imputation
that their economic habits are inconsistent
with an order of civilization suited to the
advancement Of the French workmon?
But so far as the abstract question Of
right to protection is concerned there can
be no doubt. A nation has the right 10
determine what will advance and what will
degrade its people, and to settle for itself
the character Of citizenship it will promote.
There is no absolute right in any State to
demand entry for its people; the right of
asylum is not an absolute one. These are all
matters Of privilege and concession. If tits
true, and France is the sole judge, that
German and Italian competition de.
grades the French workmen and re.
duces his wage to such scale
that he cannot fill the requirements OF
French citizenship and raise up to his
country the family the republic demands
of him, who shall gainsay the RICH. of
France to exclude the foreign factor of
degradation Ii the blacks of the Sou
dan, with no ambition above bit of mat.
ting, a brsech-clout and a handful of poor
food per day, were imported into this
country to take the place Of the wage
winners here, of whom our system de.
mands homes, families, children for cit.i
zsnship and all the other products Of the
elements of strength in a State, who would
undertake TO say that the nation must con-
sent to such mudsills being laid in the
substruotura of our society?
This whole matter, therefore, Of exclu
sion is one of degree, and that is in tura
matter of exclusive right of judgment and
action in the State. In short, the dec
trine of the alleged right of a foreign ele. !
mens to enter into a system with which it !