The Wilmingtonian., 1885-02-28
BAYARD'S IDEAS.
HIS ANTI-DEMOCRATIC Leg
ISLATION.
p Protection for the Natural Rights of
American Citizens Opposed by
Thomas +. Bayard.

JndJ illsplTos DbNAIOh DAhAhD Ill OppO-
sition to the provisions of the Labor Bill.
Here is bill introduced, specially intro
duced for the alleviatlon of the American
| workingman. The case is clearly stated
| 1t cannot be disputed that the pauper labor,
contract labor of Europe, is destroying our
| workingmen, both skilled and unskilled,
morally and physically. The alternative is
to become either slave or tramp. The
American laborer must work for $4 or 50 a
week, either that or be an outcast, pariah
in his own land Instances are all around
us. SENATOR BLAIR asserts that the labor
ing people Of Hooking Valley attribute the
disturbances and dangers there to the hiring
of pauper labor At this moment there are
500, 900 wage workers, willing to labor, out
of employment in the United States. With
their dependent women and children, not
less than 5000, 900 people 10 all, are to-day,
amid the rigors of an unusually inclement
winter, suffering for the uecessaries of life.
They need shelter They are in want of the
clothing that might be manufactured from
the surplus production of our factories now
stored in warehouses and waiting for a pur-
chaser. They are in need of the corn that is
this day being used for luel on the plains of
| Nebraska and the wheat that is being fed to
hogs in the valleys of Kansas. 1t is no ex-
| aggeratiou, in the midst of copious abund-
ance there is haggard wretchedness and
starvation.
The question properly comes in here
whether under the doctrine of the natural
rights of man we are not under obligations
as nation to protect our own citizens
against dangerous, detrimental and preju-
dcial competition forced upon us either by
their condition CT by the cupidity of those
great employers who are Indifferent to the
means they employ to swell their gains.
And the above is the citation, the rdison
dere of the Labor Bill. How does the
Hon. THos. F. BAYARD receive it He han
dies it with hypercritism, and with the most
aggravating superciliousness antagonizes at
the outset the provisions for ining or pun
ishing any shipmaster who introduces pau
pof labor TO this country MR. BAYARD. in
the most plaintive tones, cries OUT, "What
is to be tie fate of the master subjected to a
: fine of $500 and all imprisonment of six
months for each foreigner, when any man or
any number of men who may be shipped by
the hundreds on his vessel can come in and
sustain the charge by oatE? He is at the
mercy of such witnesses"
When informed by SENATOR BLAIR that
those provisions were lar less severe than
: the penalties already on the Statute book,
imposed upon shipmasters introducing Chi
nese, where the penalty is conviction of a
; misdemeanor, fine of $500 aud an impris-
onment for one year, whether the labOrei
| Institutes the prosecution OF not
Yet the Hon. THos. f, BAYARD conceived
u no mercy, no consideration for his starving
D fellow-citizens at home, but wastes hi
J. ''bowels of compassion" upon the traffick
e ing slave-trading shipnaster. The Hon
&c T. F. RAYARD continues, in relation to tn
l. Labor Bill, "When l SEQ these attempt
II made (these imperfect attempts for th
le amelioration of the workingman) they pro
I. woke rather a feeling of sorrow than othel
emotion" He characterizes the Labo
Bills provisions as impracticable, incapabl
of execution, wholly uu-American in thei
h. general drift and purpose MIR. BAYAR
O. proceeds to express his general want of fait
n in the Bill and his opposition to il.
he SENATOR BLAIR stated that the Bill is d
O. rected against v hat is really crime again,
he the people of this country 1t is designe
ed to prevent the combination of capital for IL
nd purpose of introducing into the America
civilization, in direct collision and comp
~ titiun with the ordinary American produce
,as foreigner who cannot naturally get her
IA who is brought here by a combination
ng capital for the sole purpose Of reducing Il
pc natural and ordinary compensation wh
,at the American laborer is to receive for
lie toll.
ow SENATOR BAYAHD sympthizes with
son chief agent iu the transaction of this sla'
'o'' contract business, for the shipmaster
captain is really IA more formidable agt
for the introduction Of pauper labor III
tile capitalist whL hires him. The Lal
nan Bill aims at him deadly blow if lie kno
{ Of he is violating the law. II pre-supposes,
OF does every other criminal statute, that
s"e must have guilty knowledge.
oma SENATOR BiSARD would have extent
row to him all the courtesies and amenities
lsly tho law, but would impose upon the victi
of his traficking all the tedious trcso
- aud expensive legal processes necessary
at conviction.
moor Tho New YORK Times contained tue c
rain
mon OF letter addressed to SENATOR EDMuS
Il be by ex- Mayor r. V. Powderly, of Scran
49, 49,, Pa, upon the petition of 100000 work