The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1892-09-10

There lives in New York an Irish
man who sometimes goes over to his
native isle, and who learns thing
or two at each visit. Upon one Of
these visits he found that one work
ingman in the region where the visi-
tor found himself was paid consider
able more per week than his fellows
got. "Why do they pay you more
than these other men get?' be asked
the laborer. because I'm worth
more was the answer. "rve been
to America and learned how to work"
Any one who knows American
workingmen and workingmen abroad
can understand this. We are the
nerviest, cleverest, hardest people on
earth. 1t is not Boosting to say this;
it is simple truth. Not only is this
true, but it is also true that intelli-
gent foreigners coming to America
soon catch our ways and learn how
to do almost the work of two days in
one. A man who has studied the
Italians saws that when these men
first come to America they are slow
and awkward, but they presently
learn how to work and develop into
excellent workmen. This is as true
of skilled as of unskilled workmen.
The Italian mechanic is accustomed
TO lighter tools than we use in Amer
lea, and he finds himself at disad-
Vantage until he learns the ways of
Vur people, but if he has the stuff in
him he gets to doing an American
instead of an Italian days work.
A contractor who had built rail
roads all over the world said that
the cost per mile was no more in H.
linois at $l.35 per day for labor than
in British India at nine cents day
for labor, The talk about foreign
panper labor and the danger of it's
competition is humbug. We need
not fear it, because it is pauper la
Dor. The laborer to be feared is the
fellow who can do bigger days
work than the American laborcr, and
he has yet to be born.
In British India man who is not
more than fairly well off will have a
dozen servants in his house, each at
ridiculously low wages, but they will
not do the work of two wide awake
women with American training, and
their wages, taken altogether, amount
10 more than you'd pay to three such
women.
Where American workman are
paid more than foreign workingmen
it is because they are worth more
and not because of protection. f
you bire ten skilled workingmen Of
American birth or training to do
piece of work and pay them $3.50
per day, the cost of doing that work
will be thirty-five dollars day. If
you hire three times as many I'M
skilled, unframed, inefficient men at
one-third the wages, you'll pay the
same amount in the aggregate and
get no more work done.
But are there no foreign working
men as skillful and efficient as Amer
lean workingmen? In few trades
there are foreigners who can do things
that our people cannot do, or can do
but poorly, and those men are often
as well paid as American working
men. In other trades there are skill
ed foreigners whose hours are short
err than those of workingnmen in
America, or who use less labor say
ing machinery, and therefore get less
work done. AS a rule, however, the
days labor of an American is worth
more than the days labor of for
eigner who has not learned our ways,
and for that reason the wages of the
American are higher. The best pro-
lection of American labor lies in the
energy, skill, intelligence and persis-
tency of the American laborer, sEv-
cry man his own protection" is
good cry.