Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-08-22
THE LABOR PROBLEM.
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THU STATE
TO SOLVE 1T.
Important Address by the State
Board of Trade to Farmers
and Fruit-Growers.
lsrregAL DISPATCHES TO. TEE RrooaD-uN1os.,

street. Vive President f. w. Byington, of
Santa Rosa, presided.
The following address to affiliating
Boards of Trades, Improvement Associa-
tons and the citizens of the State gener-
ally, was offered by w. H. Mills and
adopted:
The experiment of supplying labor for
the VINEYARDS and orchards by inducing
the unemployed yo9th of the State 10 en-
gage their services, is progressing with
much encouraging success. The undertak-
ing promises to result in the highest good
to the youths employed as we'll as to the
industry in which they find employment
1t promises, in a large measure. salts
factory solution of the labor problem for
the prosecution of many of our leading in
duslries. 1t is promoting habits of thrift
and industry among our own people, and
disseminating knowledge of horticulture
and agriculture, and encouraging a taste
for these pursuits. 1t is in the nature of
valuable reinforcement of our industrial
population and an enlargement of the pro-
ductive capacity of our people. In this I'M
dertaking our young countrymen have en-
tered into competition with the Chinese,
contesting with them the right of an
American youth to earn his bread by
honest industry We believe that by
your encouragement they will be
successful in this contest, and we
most earnestly solicit this encouragement
at your hands. The result of the expert
ment now in progress is attended with
most serious consequences to the future of
this coast. The great commonwealth of
this Union were built up without the aid
of Chinese or slave labor. Their greatness
was achieved by the free labor of homo
geneous people In such system of labor
the enterprising proprietor class is con-
stanlly re-enforced from the ranks of the
employed, as intelligence, industry and
skill has deserved and enforced promotion.
For over a third of a century in California
the wages bill paid by the leading indus
tries of our State has tended TO impoverish
rather than enrich our commonwealth.
The knowledge, the skill, the thrift, the
diligence and all the attributes of produc-
tive capacity have been lost to our people
by the employment of foreign and serVile
labor The skill and energy acquired by
the accomplishment OF any great work is
always worth more TO a commonwealth
than the work accom- plished, by reason of
augmenting the productive capacity of a
people. Hence, in the employment of our
own people, we will not only perform the
labor demanded, but will accumulate
wealth of industrial capacity.
The great leading obstacle to the en-
ployment of our young countrymen in
horticultural and agricultural industries is
found in the character of the accommoda-
tons for board and lodging. In the contest
in which they have engaged it is certainly
desirable that the competition should be
made on the plane of intelligence, skill
and sobriety. Upon such plane we have
no msgivings as to the result, but if pen
urv of food and squalor of lodgings, and
general uncleanliness and impoverishment
of lite are to become factors in the contest,
then we fear that the industries OF the
country will reject the labor of our young
countrymen as not available because not
sufficiently brutalized.
Should the existing contest result in a
verdict against our young countrymen, and
the industries of the country reject their
services as unavailable, then asystem of
servile labor will indeed have been estab-
lished. In such a system there is a we'll
defined place for the capitalist on the one
hand and a semi-slave labor on the other,
but no well defined place for worthy COM
mon life. Great commonwealth are built
upon the common life and the common
employments of men. 1t is from the
ranks of labor that the best en-
ergy, enterprise and intelligence is re-
cruited for the higher planes of human
activity. 1t is useless for us to seek re-
enforcement of our industrial population
from the Eastern States and from foreign
countries while very large number of the
youths of our own State remain unem-
ployed. If the industries of California re-
ject as useless the services of the youths of
our own State, they will likewise reject the
services of our fellow countrymen from
other States. We are constantly being told
that Chinese labor is cheaper and more
available because the Chinese board them
selves, sleep under sheds or in straw-stacks,
live on rice as a single article of diet and
require no attention from the vineyardiSt
or The orchardist.
. In addressing you as practical men, we
are absolved from entering upon any ex-
tended argument as to the justification of
this position. One thing, however, should
be obvious, and that is, if the experiment
of employing the labor of our own people
fails, because they have acquired habits of
cleanliness and civilized sense of decency
in life, the competition offered by the Chi
nese will affect all industries alike, and all
labor will suffer degradation cOniormable
to its competition. We appeal sgain TO the
example of the great Commonwealth of
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other
great States of this Union, in vlndication
OF the value of the free labor of homo
geneous people.
1--WE can send cooks with the boys where
a large number are employed by single
proprietor, if moderately comfortable apart
ment are erected, in which plain and de-
cent living may be had. If this cannot be
done, then tents, with clean straw for floors,
may be furnished. The clemency of our
climate invites tent life, and makes it quite
as comfol table as indoor dwelling. We
most earnestly desire to avoid all the polit-
ical and social controversies to which the
Chinese question gives rise, but it is the
mission of our organization to promote the
growth of this commonwealth, and in full
fillment of that mission, we cannot be indf.
ferent to the high value of a prosperous, in
telhgent and industrious labor class, from
the ranks of which an enterprising pro-
prietor class alone can be recruited We
are inviting the OVERLOOKING population of
the older settlements of our country. Our
invitation will prove vain unless
there is q legitimate demand for their
services after they come to US. and such
demand cannot exist as long as we have
a large number of unemployed white
laborers in our own State. The system of
labor which loses the wages bill paid each
year by the payment of wages to a class
which cannot enter the relation of proprie-
tor ana protector FL enterprises, Is q clear
I loss to the commonwealth. In the en-
ployment of our young countrymen we
accumulate the wealth the labor produces,
and save to the commonwealth the wages
paid to them. The employment of the
Chinese, and the payment of wages
to them is, IL our judgment. a process of
impoyerishment. The apparent cheapness
of such labor is deceptive. In reality it is
most costly, and cur people will commit
most fatal economic error in not recogniz-
ing these truths. We are not presenting
these matters as contributions to current
political discussion. We find them in line
with the sober duties which confront us in
our associated effort to enlarge all elements
of community life, and promote the growth
of our commonwealth. If the attempt we,
are making to supply the agricultural and
horticultural industries with the labor of
our own oounsymen, and to thus supple
ment the deficiencies of the labor market
and aid in the solution of the problem
which confronis every Industry. is ill-ad-
vised and mistaken, we would be most
pleased to have the error pointed out so
clearly as to justify US in ,desisting from
further effort in this direction. If, how
ever, il IS not mistaken and erroneous; If
our desire to End empioymentSor the unem-
ployed of our own race and nationality is
not in perfect cGnsonance with the effort TO
induce others of our nationality 60 become
:. 1t IL