Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-12-26

and all that, but the white workers must
reform the ways of such as cucumber
the class. The employing class will rot
tolerate their vices. 1t viii have that
labor upon which it can rely. When Chi
nese labor ceases to come to us, its place
will be supplied by an industrious, sober,
respectful and saving class. There are
plenty of such workers in the world, and
California's demand for them will bring
them here. The competition then will be
between elements equal as to race and civ
ilization, and the soberest, most industrious
and frugal will win the places ready for
them, and along with them the confidence
and trust of the employers. Until then,
and while the displacement goes on,
the employer class will suffer. There
is no Disgusting this fact. These
men, meet them where you may,
will one and all reply to your
inquiry, Yes, | want white man in
stead of Chinaman to do the labor
have to give. But / want a reliable white
worker. | want one who will stay with
me, take an interest in my mandatory, or
farm, or the work ! have in hand; one
that will not turn up drunk in the very
hour of all others / need Him most. !
want one who will come to his task fresher
on Monday morning, than he left it Sat
urday night. | want one, in short, can
trust" We use the usual form of reply
and employ as nearly as is possible the
language hourly used by the employer
class. Proofs are before us of recent in
stances where the white laborer, given
the place of the Chinaman, has, by intoxi-
cation, disappointed the employers and
caused them heavy loss. Other proofs are
cited of work given to the artisan, who
has farmed it out to the Mongolian
OF course these are examples of
human meanness and selfishness and
vice. They are to be expected in the
transition that is going on. They should
not and must not justify the retention of
the Chinese labor element Better the
free white man with deceit, and
the maltreatment of workers by
employers. than the elimination of white
labor and the total substitution for it of
the degrading and REPRESENTATIVE Chi
nese element. 1t is question Of civiliza-
tions and Of homes. AS a recent writer
has said, it is not question of making
America an asylum for the people of the
| world but a matter OF maintaining re-
/ public, and teaching the world the posi-
bilities of free people and of American
civilization. And SO it is the duty
of the white workers to inaugurate re-
form among themselves. 1t is their duty
to purify their class, and rid it of that
which now curses it. 1t is their duty to
deserve and to refuse to be burdened with
the consequences of the vices of portion
of their kind. If the Chinaman is to 90,
it will be when the assurance that we can
give employers something better. Until
employers feel that assurance, the anti
Chinese movement will move slowly.
There is a lack here now of laborers, in
special roles, who are competent. 1t will
take time to supply the demand. In the
one line of cooking skill alone it must be
accepted that we can only by degrees sup
ply the places of the Chinese So, too, in
certain classes of hard labor, trial proves
that our white laborers that are not yet
equal to the tasks Cinnamon have been dis
charging. Many laborers at command in
California are not accustomed to such
tasks. Yet at the East the same kind of
work is performed almost wholly by eau
casian laborers. The present incompe-
tency of so much of our available laboring
force-and which should not justify the
hasty judgment that the Cinnamon cannot
be supplanted-is largely due to the fact
that the Chinese have so crowded the
workers out that largely the competent
have departed, invitation is not extended
to Eastern competency to come in, and
such workers as we have are debarred the
opportunity of qualifying themselves, while
at the same time a large portion of them,
by contact with Mongolian laborers, have
been led to accept the false and dangerous
sentiment that labor is degrading. The
anti-Chinese agitation must continue; the
displacement of Chinese labor must go on !;
but let us not proceed so rapidly, and to
such extremes, that revulsion of feeling
will ensue, and the opponents of the move
ment be afforded the pretext of an oppor-
tunity for saying that the Chinaman is,
after all, necessity to us. Plenty of COM
petent white workers will develop, but not
in day.