Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-23


ployed citizens of California, by turning
them out OF their present employment.
That thev VIII be competitors for labor. so
long as they are among US, is unavoidable
unless we are foolish and wicked enough to
make them tramps and paupers by deny
ing them the right TO earn an honest liy-
ing. 1t is admitted that they are industri-
Gus and commandments which would be
pralseworthy virtues in any of our citizens,
but which are alleged against them as al
most objectionable. 1t is also well known
that they are not governed in their demand
for wages, as Americans are, by what they
think they ought to earn, but by what they
can get. Are white laborers liable 10 get
more work when Cinnamon are offering to
work for fifty cents per day, than when
they are working for 81 per day? Notwith-
standing the apparently popular clamor
that the Chinese must be driven out be-
cause white men and women are suffering
Tor the want of work, | will venture the
opinion that as a general thing neither the
white men nor white women of California
want the situations now occupied by the
Chinese. What possible benefit can unem-
pioyed men or women of California derive
from having few hundred, or few thou
sand, Eastern people brought here, to take
the places of as many Chinamen-cigar-
makers. or shoemakers, or OF any other oc-
cupation-who are turned adrift to COM
pete jor the little labor, the scantiness of
which Is the great cause of complaint
There may be a few Chinese employed at
one dollar per day in work which some
white men would like at two dollars per
day, but the larger portion of the Chinese
are doing work which white men and
women OF California are unfit for, and do
not desire. Perhaps the employer can
afford to pay one dollar per day to have the
work performed and cannot afford to paw
two dollars per day. Although many
things influence the price of labor, ability
to pay is an arbitrary limit. Much work
can be done at enc dollar per day which
cannot be done It two dollars per day, for
arbitrary reasons. But suppose the en-
good deal to ask more than another will
do the work for? and is it not asking a
good deal to require competent servant
to be discharged and an Incompetent one
taken in his place? If white men and
women want the work, and are competent.
they have in their favor difference of Ian
guage, prejudice and race an;iDathy. Do
they also want compulsion? Americans
are very jealous Of any infringement of
their personal rights, and | opine will not
long submit to such dictation as who they
shall or shall not employ. They NAV
humor it for little time, thinking it will
soon blow over; or from fear of having
their buildings burned, or Of being boycott
ted, or of the diSrleasure of their neigh
bors-for no good citizen wants the dis
pleasure of his neighbors, even if unjust
but if persisted in, and there are organiza-
tons to enforce such tyranny, there will be
organizations to resist ii, and from my
knowledge of the American people |
will venture the opinion that, to say
nothing of the Eastern States. those
people i'll California who would at
tempt to enforce such dictation would be
but very small minority of the popula-
ton. Such a state of society is not desir-
able, and | hope never to see much fsuch
Old-World clannishness here. We have
faults enough in our own society with
out importing more. My sympathies are
with the laboring classes, and particularly
with those out of employment. | can COM
prehend how desperate a man with a
family may become, when, after hunting
for weeks and months, he finds no work.
| can see how readily he grasps at any
thing which promises relief; and how he
may even consent to do, what he knows in
his own heart is wrong, to others, with the
hope that it will benefit his loved ones.
But | firmly believe that no good can be
accomplished by ignoring the personal
rights of the humblest, or denying anv
human being the right to earn an honest
living by honest labor wherever he or she
can find it. When l look back and see the
results of the attempts of the working
men of California to better their condi-
ton, it appears 10 ME that they neither
comprehend the causes OF their situation
nor adopt remedies which can do them any
mn ,nr,t
few Chinese we have among us are not lin
comparison) as a spoonful of water to
bucket full. In the port of New York
alone from two to three hundred
thousand laborers have been landed
every year, for an unstated time
past, most of whom have very little
money, and seek employment from others
who have not sufficient for, saw, tenth
part of the applicants. There must in
evitably be suffering where there are ten
laborers who want the work which is only
sufficient for one.
If they would settle down on land as farm
ers they would be blessing to the coun-
try instead of curse. Probably most of
them could not get land for want of means
if they would, and too many would not if
they could Those who are willing should
be helped. Our colonization societies are
doing good in a small way, but Govern
ment aid Is needed, in my opinion. Labor
ing men want high wages, and assert that
they cannot live in California without. To
me it is perfectly plain that it is only those
who are engaged i'll enterprises which re-
turn large profits, who either will or can
pay big wages and yet the moment the
projectors of such enterprises are believed
to be getting rich, cry of L" grasping mo.
nopoiy' is raised. They must be crushed
or the country is ruined" Working
men OF California, what benefit have
you derived from a policy which
forced a railroad company-ane of
the few, which have paid higher wsees for
labor than we have any record of ever hav-
ing been paid for the same kind of work.
on any such scale of magnitude, in any ace
OF the world first, to reduce the cornpen-
sation of employees, and then TO discharge
from six to ten thousand to compete for the
already too scant employment? 1t takes
large sums of money to carry on such en-
terprises. which can only be obtained by
borrowing; and it makes material differ
ence whether bonds offered as security are
worth seventy cents on the dollar or only
thirty cents. Don't let an envious tear that
somebody will accumulate more properly
than he ought to own, blind you TO your
own Interests. Suppose one man has ac-
quItu TWO DllliOTeu InllIIUHS, II IL consists
in railroads; thousand of individuals have
been employed in their construction, and
thousands are required to operate them !:
and when he dies he cannot take them
with him. they still remain, to give en-
ployment toth"usands more and whether
the ownership or control of such roads is
vested in q thousand men, ten men, or one
man, does not trouble me- and whether it
makes any material difference to the en-
ployes, | leave to the common sense of
every interested individual. To 90 back to
the Chinese subject. That the Chinese
have been vilified. misrepresented and
mistreated by many, in manner which
should shame a people who call them
selves civilized, are well known facts.
That they have faults and vices, and that
some among them commit crimes the
same as among other peoples true Their
faults and vices should, in Justice, be
treated the same as such faults and vices in
others; and their crimes should be land |
believe arel punished in the same manner
as though committed by Others But when
their faults and vices and crimes are alleged
as sufficient reason for declaring the whole
race nuisance, it seems to me a horrible
outrage and | wonder how anybody's
ideas OF justice can have become so dis
torted. AS individuals we all commit
errors as communities in cities and town
ships we commit errors; as communities
in counties we commit errors as commu