, 1888-10-19

vac ~
Ohio and passed in 1864. The second
section of the law reads as follows:
Sec. 2. And be ii further enacted, That
| all contracts that shall be made by emf
grants to the United States in foreign
countries, in conformity to regulations that
may be established by the said commits
sioner, whereby emigrants shall pledge the
wages of their labor for a term not ex-
ceeding twelve months, to repay the ex-
penses- of their emigration, shall be held
to be valid in law, and may be enforced in
the courts of the United States. or of the
several states and territories; and such
advances, if so stipulated in the contract,
and the contract be recorded in the re-
corder's office in the county where the
emigrant shall settle, shall operate as a
lien upon any land thereafter acquired by
the emigrant, whether under the home
stead law when the title is consummated,
or on property otherwise acquired until
liquidated by the emigrant; but nothing
herein contained shall be deemed to au-
thoriZe any contract contravenlng the con-
| stitution of the United States, or creating
in any way the relation of slavery or sery-
itude.
Mr.. Sherman gave the specious reason
for the passage of the law that the war
had depleted our workshops, and had
lessened the supply in every department
of industry and mechanism"
That may to some extent have been
true az that time, bat why did the Re-
publicans hold fast to such a law for
twenty-one years, until l985-refusing to
repeal it, or modify it-even at the con-
tinued and earnest instance of that old
time war worn veteran of the grand old
party-senator and vice president-Henry
Wilson of Massachusetts, who made sew
eral Intellectual efforts to get it repealed or
modified in the senate. No answer can
be given except by the corporation and
monopoly senators, who have been SO
largely the tools Of railroads and protect
ed manufacturers since the war.
Not until February, 1885, after the
country had ousted the Republicans from
the administration, and the strong hand
and influence of O.. leland was felt, did
congress pass the a& TO prohibit the i'm
portation of labor under contract. For
twenty years after the gallant soldiers of
the Union had returned to fight as brave
ly the battles of peace, as they did those
of war, the Republican party continued
that iniquitous law, subjecting every la
borer in the land to competition with ''the
pauper contract labor of Europe and the
cheaper, more ~servlle, contract coolie
labor of Asia.
Martin A. Foran of Ohio, a Democrat,
bill which emancipated white labor in
the United States from that savage, vii
famous %seryitude, and by a happy coinci-
dence it was introduced ON that memora-
BILE anniversary, the Sth of January, the
anniversary of the battle of New Orleans.
Even Wyoming has had its fill and still
has its taste of servile coolie Chinese labor,
and felt the strong arm of the Republican
party cinching them on the back of the
miners.
Whenever and wherever you find the
Democratic party you will find it sympa-
thizing with and supporting tie cause of
labor against the tyranny of irresponsible
and despotic capital.
In the eye of the Democratic party
there Is no conflict between labor and
capital, when both are regulated and sus-
tanned by Just and fair laws. But under
the regime of the Republican party, un-
just and iniguitous determinations are
fostered for the upbuilding of monopoly,
and to the end that capital hal lave IN
limited and despotic control of labor. See
their death grip on a high war tariff
levied on all the necessaries of life, and
utensils Of labor of the wage workers, In
the interest of corporate and individual
monopolists, millionaries whose fortunes
have been built upon the simple capital of
discriminating and oppressive laws. They
say this tariff is for the benefit of the
laborer, vet they permitted not only free,
but pauper contract labor, unclean Asiatic
coolies, to come here and crowd our wage
workers out of fair and remunerative EN-
ploYment.
The doctrine of the Democrats party
has ever been that this is an asylum for
the unfortunate and oppressed of the
earth, but not a workhouse nor penal
colony for big contractors to work import
ed contract, coolie or penal labor in com
petition with free men and women who
are the sovereigns of this Republic.
With its right hand the Democratic
party has welcomed and blessed the free
brains and muscles of every nationality;
with its left hand it strangled the pro-
scriptive and poisonous serpent of Know
Nothingism, and now it is stamping out
with both feet the Republican heresy,