The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1885-02-12
NON ALPHABETICALLY AND IMPORT
ED LABOR.

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For years the system of apprenticeship
has been going out Of fashion. Trades
unions years ago adopted an anti
apprentice rule, 80 az TO prevent the
overlooking Of the labor market. Ex'
perlence. however, has demonstrated
that the plan Is an utter failure. Men
will pick up trades, and then cheap
akilled labor from Europe has come In
abundantly. The New York Herald I'M
der the caption Of "The D%ecadencs Of
Trade" prints q letter from Philadel'
phia which should DO instructive 10
those trades ~unioniats who Insist on
maintaining this anti-apprent.ce regu-
lation. Even In lts opening paragraph
II Ia suggestive Of q great but unpleas'
ant truth: "There was a Time" II says.
mot long ago, when II was thought a
wise thing, both In theory and practice,
for every boy TO learn a trade. II Ia no
longer 80. In every political cam
paign much 10 said about the protec-
ton of American wol kmen, but inyesti-
cation shows that the average employer
Ia willing 10 get workers az cheaply
az possible, and 10 resort to the 'pauper
labor market OF Europe when he
sees an opportunity to undersell his
competitors" To prove that proposition,
the writer makes a part Of his letter
the textof an agreement between o lead
ing manufacturing firm and an Import
cd English mechanic, the latter agree
Ing upon his arrival to work for about
one-half the wages paid TO an American
artisan. To that 10 added the experience
Of Martin jackson, a journeyman gold
beaten who said:
l was a jOurneyman before the war,
and In 1850 received $3.50 for beating
four packs eighty books, Now, after
twenty. four years additional experience
am receiving only 90 2b per beating,
though the protective duty has been In
creased TO 81 30. How has protection
benefited mep The apprentices Of TO.
day, who are allowed only TO do the fist
rough beating of the thick plates, which
are afterward finished by the expert
jOurneyman, are not learning the trade,
They will not become American mechan-
ics In any true sense. No, the introduc'
ton OF pauper w0rkmen will reduce
the skill 10 q level with the blacksmith's
helper.
Europe can supply any requirement
az TO labor, and employers, as q rule,
want cheap workmen, who can AL the
bill.
Trades unions prohibited q home sup
ply by their anti'approntice regulation;
necessarily II came from abroad, and
when the tide began TO flow II flowed
In such a deep, broad, and steady
stream Of emigration as 10 overcrowd
the market. The result Ia lower wages,
growing discomfort between employed
and employers, the multiplication OF
strikes" and "lockouts," and the
gradual lowering OF the tone OF work.
ingmen. Says the Philadelphia Tele-
graph, commenting on the disclosures
Of the Herald correspondent:
Thus II appears the American me.
chaDic, who was 30 Independent, manly
and self.respectlng, IL being ground out
OF existence between the upper and
lower millstones. He adopted o cast.
iron rule banishing his own sons from
the shop, prohibiting them learning his
trade, aud has found the "pauper work.
men" OF the Old World showing him
from his bench and reducing his wages,
without doubt the trades unions
were Induced TO adopt the anti.
apprentice rule because many employ
era abused tho system by taking too
many apprentices into their shops; but
when II was seen that the rule created |
a worse evil than that II was meant TO
correct, II should have been abandoned,
No doubt II would have been, II the
unions had not largely passed
under tho control Of foreigners.
Congress has been called on 10 70.
importation OF foreign labOrers,
and o bill for this purpose passed the
House last session, but the Senate has
not acted upon II. A revival Of the ap-
prentice system might prove beneficial.
Labor has been largely imported into
ihe IInited Statea under contraeta made