The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-14

that vast hordes of people should
come here from abroad, under prearranged
labor contracts, to take the places of Amer
lean workingmen. It was under such condi
tons that the multiplied thousands of China
men were brought to America, and it was
because of that feature attending their pres
ence that just resentment rose against them,
which developed, under local conditions and
under the manipulation Of ignorant dema-
gogues, into blind and unreasoning prejudice
and passion. The tenable argument is against
all Assisted" emigration and precontracted
labor, whether it be of colonies of Poles, or
Hollanders, or Scandinavians, or Chinese.
America is open to the oppressed of the world,
but, as Mr.. Reed well said, it is to those who
feel their oppression, and who desire an open
field for their effort with more room and free
air. There are no troubles springing from the
abandoned the old world and seeks to make
home for himself and family in the new.
With these no intelligent native born work
ingman has any semblance of quarrel. The
troubles come from aggregated quantities of
ignorant foreigners who do not know why
they are here, and vino do not care to better
their conditions or to create new and better
circumstances about themselves, but who are
working under contracts made for them by
,bo Ill lob
to grasping corporations and sordid manu-
facturers. This may seem to be cheap labor
for time, but it is really the dearest and
most expensive, as has been demonstrated
over and again. The air of America is not in
harmony with peonage in any form, and it
cannot be engrafted upon our labor system.
With true-hearted, intelligent and we'll
meaning labor the best though and the nor
NAL conditions of the country are in harmony
It may be said that the stars in their courses
fight for such labor Certain it is that all phys
ical, intellectual and moral conditions work
together for the good of that kind of labor
Of course there are exceptions, and very
heartless exceptions; yet these exceptions but
prove the rule, as is illustrated by the bust
ness and industrial careers of so many men
who started from nothing and with nothing,
but who have achieved the highest distinction
and the greatest success. Such careers are
still open, and are still being pursued; while
it is evident to all candid observers that the
general condition of the working classes is
steadily being improved and elevated in this
country. There have been laws, and are laws,
and will continue to be laws that may and
will work i'll. This is practically inevitable,
because of the fallible conditions of human
society and government; but it was never
truer than now that enlightened and flexible
public sen timent desires and seeks to correct
these injustices as promptly and as certainly
as possible. Most assuredly there never
was more tolerant and pliable public senti-
ment toward the rights of labor than now,
and to the further development and wise
strengthening of this sentiment nothing will
COulrlDUte LOFo CudIl LQ0 Woll-mean1ng ana
conservative utterances and expressions of
representative labor bodies. The best and
most experienced thought of the Nation is to-
day, as never before, enlisted in the consider
alton of social and economic topics. They
form the staples of debate in every legislative
chamber, and they are being considered by
all publicists and by intelligent and thought
full men everywhere. America is the paradise
of the workingman, said noted philosophical
Englishman, after a tour and study of the
country. Every honest workingman, who
will inform himself of the labor conditions of
the world, must echo the sentiment and that
it is so is due, on the one hand, to the exist
ence of a powerful and increasing public SEN
timent demanding the largest justice to labor,
and on the other, to the fact that the Ameri-
can workingman himself, under normal con-
ditions, is prince and sovereign.
THE peremptory and autocratic dismissal of