The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1889-02-23
The Root of the Evil.
Baltimore News.


What is the use Of unskilled labor kicking
while 500, 900 and mere immigrants are pour
ing into the country annually? What can
street car drivers expect in New York when
shiploads of people are daily pouring in TO
take their places? How can American work
ingmen expect to receive two dollars day
for ten hours of labor when there are millions
rushing here who can afford to work for
dollar a day of twelve or fifteen hours and
who would be glad to have the job on such
terms? What is the use of legislating to stop
peniteutiary competition of 500 prisoners
when SOC, 900 paupers outside are Compel
ing and ready to compete with them at any
price?
Until the workingmen of this country stop
this food their condition will not be bettered.
Indeed, they are getting worse and worse on
every day, week and month. And still the
tide flows on. Labor is ike everything else;
it is certain to be regulated in value by de-
mand and supply. If there is glut IN the
market it will be cheap and when there is
scarcity it will be high. Whatever man has
to sell is regulated in value by this memorable
law. If it is food or clothing or what not, 1t
will be cheap when the market is stocked and
high when the market is bare. So will labor.
In lands where labor is scarce the commonest
kind brings readily FIVE and six dollars day
and does not require a labor organization 70
exact it. As long as America was sparsely
inhabited and there was much to be done
and comparatively few hands to do 1t; when
the blessings of free institutions were not so
well published in Europe and steerage passage
not so quick and cheap; in fact when there
was not very large annual access to the pop
ulation through immigration there were no
strikes, riots, or organizations. Mechanics
j.. L. nd
and well on what they received. Now with
the aid Of organization; with the prisons and
reformatories idle; with apprentices driven
of: with every device utilized to create de-
mand for labor and extort price for 1t, the
working classes are in a constant state OF Ter
ment and anxiety, if not actual insurreetion
Why is this? Is the cause not plainly be-
fore MS? The nation cannot furnish remune-
ratiye employment for all its population and
the natural increase Of that population, with
an artificial increase of million per anuum
added. No country can do this, no matter
how rapid its development. The hundreds OF
thousands who come here are not children.
They are mostly adults, with nothing but their
muscles to get them bread. They must go to
work as soon as they come or steal, beg or
starve. They are strangers in a strange land
and have no time to haggle over prices or
choose occupations. They must go to work
and that at once So they take any job they
can get at any price offered until they can es-
tablish themselves.
This constant and uuceasing influx displaces
the unskilled who are already here and en-
ables the newcomers to secure foothold.
When that is obtained the more skillful and
shrewd find advancement by their industry
and crowd into the ranks Of the better class OF
artisans But the dull and stupid herd, the
mass or majority of those bestislized by the
economies Of the old world, 6nd their pl0d-
ding level in the ranks of unskilled laber,
whose resources they weaken and dilute by
their numbers
The immigrant soon finds his level in our
cosmopolitan population. The few skilled,
educated and good soon succeed. The dull
plod along; the depraved and lazy and tsrhu.
lent End eongenial associations; the Invalid
and incapacitated settle az once upon the
charity of the public and the shoulders Of the
taxpayers. Here is the source OF sll our Ia
Dor troubles. So long as the doors are vide
open the flock will rush through and strikes
viii emphasize the desperation Of American
toilers.