The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1884-03-13
THE SWISS LAB0RER.
Starving on Sixty Cents a Day---A
Knotty Problem.
Special Correspondence National Tribune.

Special Correspondence National Tribune.
ZURICH, February /.
A few days ago kind old German lady
came TO tell Us the sad story of one Of the poor
families whom she visits as a member OF the
associated charities of this town OF model in
stitutions The member who brings the fam
lily under charitable supervision is !. little
child, who must shortly die Of water upon the
brain. Apart from this one affection, the po-
| sition of the family is that Of thousands of
other Swiss families. The father is day Ia
borer on the railroad; the mother is vigor-
Gus woman, good wife, mother, and house
keeper, and there are three well children, un-
der ten years of age, besides the ailiDg baby.
Both parents are sober, and the father haSreg-
uar work, at three francs (sixty cents a day.
As said before, the member who brings the
family under charitable supervision is the sick
| baby. But for him, it would not occur to the
parents to publish the fact that, day after day
and year after year, they aud the well children
are hungry. Their position does not differ
enough from that Of the people about them to
make it worth while to mention the fact Good
| Frau Bloest is gathering a little sum of money
| to make the babys illness little more endura-
| BILE for the poor mother, and, perhaps, to feed
| the hungry children. But she Knows, and the
parents know, that help of that kind is bit
ter substitute for adequate pay.
The problem of this family has been haunt
! ing me. Somewhere somehow, there must be
a solution for it. The temperance palliative
does not APPLY, for both parents are sober
The organized-charit palliative does not APP
ply, for. both parents are vigorous and the
| father has steady work. The postal-savings
! bank palliative does not apply, for they have
nothing 10 save.
HOPELESS SUGGESTION.
The only suggestion which Frau Bloest could
rake was that the law ought to forbid labor
ers 10 marry until they can guarantee suitable
| maintenance for wife and children. But at
! sixty cents day, where can q man do that?
/ think no American would make that sugges-
ton ! think no American would dare deny
mans right TO have home and wife and child
yes, chldren-if he be able and willing to
| work. 1t would be hard to defend, in Amer
lea, a law that forbade the workman the salts
faction of the nobIest needs of his manhood
| provided he be willing and able to work for
himself and his own. If the policy of our Gov
ernment during the past twenty years means
anything, it means this-that the American
workman is man whose manhood must be
secured: whose conditions of life must be made
and kept such that home and wife and child
may be possible for him, if he can and will
work, with no dread of hunger That is the
sole ground on which the tariff can be defend
cd; but it is amply sufficient ground for put
! ting the American workman out of reach Of
competition with the labor of land wherein
able-bodied railroad lab0rers earn sixty cents q
day. But even in Switzerland, such law
viii never be made. Bitter as is the lot of the
Swiss laborer, he has at least the ballot, and he
viii never permit the passage of law which
would condemn him to forego comforts and re-
sponsiblities to which his manhood entities
him. Nevertheless, necessity does, in great
| measure, compel that which the law dare not
prescribe, and marriages are fewer in SWitzer-
land in proportion to the population than in
any other country in the civilized world. But
ii would be difficult to find more conclusive
proof of the futility of the theory of Nautilus
than Switzerland Offers to-day; for, though the
increase of native population is minmized, and
emigration is enormously large, in proper
ton to the native population, the inmigra-
ton OF cheap ltallen and German labor
is such that the wages of the native able
bodied railread laborers arc forced down TO
sixty cents a day. And even if this iInIni-
grafton were stopped-if the native emigration
continued as at present and the native increase
of population continued stationary as at pres
ent-the railroad iaborers position would be in
now;se improved; for on the day on which his
wages began TO rise an American steam paddy,
taking the place Of his ill-Inade short-haudled
shovel, would leave him worse off than to day.
Certainly overcrowding is the bane of the
Swiss laborer, but overcrowding which comes
of the chaotic condition Of our labor, not the
oyercrowding which comes of every able
bodied mans having home Of his own and
working for it.
THE REMEDY OF EMIGRATION.
Nevertheless, at first sight, for specific cases
of hardship emigration is the first remedy
which suggests itself TO any one who knows
the vast Western prairies that are waiting to be
made into homes of prosperous families. But
the railroad laborers family in question is not
such case For this family it is difficult to
conceive OF anything more cruel than emigra-
ton. Without capital, without friends in
America with three little chiidren-the baby
would die on the way--what would their first
year in America be? 1t is young, single men
and women for whom emigration is blessing;
or peasants whose children are well grown,
who can sell a well-managed farm, and with
this little capital begin new life in our great
West. But for man with no money and three
little children, clearly the route TO fortune
does not lie through Castle Garden. Moreover
II half the laborlng population of Switzerland
: went, III one year, TO America, there are
enough still poorer Germans pouring into
Switzerland 10 bring the population speedily
back TO its present density. | do not believe
that emigration is good economy for any Euro
pean country to-day; for the vigorous go, and
the families such as this of ours remain At
best, emigration is but palliative, and doubt
full enc.
What remains? There is always the faYorite
American solution-edncate the children: put
them on better plane than that on which
their parents are; give them power to stndy
their own position and TO devise remedies for
it give them, meanwhile, technical training
as positive means of money-getting; and
above ALL keep them out of the factories Very
well; for fifty years past Zurich has been fol-
lowing this advice more and more completely
Zurich schools are the best in the world and
Zurich children go to them to the end of the four
{ teenth year. Compulsory education and the most
stringent factory acts in the world keep the
t children of Zurich on the royal road to learning
IN manner which puts every State in America
TO shame Technical education of the best is
furnished by the Commonwealth. There is no
child labor IN Canton Zurich to-day, if string
ent legislation and perfect administration mean
anything. All this tells in certain way The
working population of Zurich is clean, ORDERLY
, well-instructed more or less able to think,
marvelonsly laborions but perpetually on the
. borders of pauperism, If not actually hungry
One good result, however, is coming out of
1 the general education of the Swiss working
man. 1t is making him able TO think and to
study his case for himself 1t is growing
harder every year to satisfy him with promises
of joys in heaven or to silence him with the
teachings of Nautilus. The German govern
mental reply to his questions--the prison.
police surveillance and exiIe-have no terrors
for him; for Switzerland is a truly representa-
tive democracy. Therefore the Swiss work
man reads, talks, holds meetings, discusses
measures and votes upon them; most impor-
| tant OF all--he thinks.