Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-31
PITT BURG. WEDNESDAY. AUGUST 81 1892.
TWELVE PAGES
THE PRESIDENT SHOULD ACT.

1nere is at least one 0uISp0Ken PUBIC
man in England who is not afraid to say
what should be done about the cholera.
So much may be said of Hon. James Low
ther, who yesterday, at Ramsgate, urged
the Gladstone government to give up rec
tape and put its foot squarely down OIL
immigration until the danger from the
dreadful disease is-over
We wish that there were at Washington
public man as bold and direct on behalf
of the United States as Mr. Lowther is for
England at this crisis; and that his name
were Benjamin Harrison.
The common sense of the country, if it
could be polled tomorrow, would decide
at once that immigration should stop for
the United States until this scourge is
stamped out on the other side of the
ocean. There is much talk, official and
otherwise, about quarantine and disinfec-
tiOn. There is a great stir at some
of the ports; and the officials at Washing
ton are busy sending circulars apd mes
sages to the Consuls abroad. Yet the
pubic, if the truth must be told, has little
confidence in this parade of instructions
1t knows that if cholera comes to our
shores the chances are it will get in. With
thousands upon thousands of immigrants
from all parts of Europe allowed to land
weekly under the most transient inspec-
tion, and then to scatter in all directions
over our continent, it would be miracle
If the disease were not imported. APitts-
burger who came on La Tourdine told in
one of our city contemporaries yesterday
that the health officers at New York re-
1aXed all rules as to the cabin passengers
the moment these kicked and asked to go
ashore and that tine inspection of the steer
age passengers was transparent farce
with no pretensions whatsoever to thor
oughness. Again The DISPATCH of yes
terday morning told OF a vessel from Ham
burg steaming straightu up to the dirty docks
of Philadelphia unmolested. Yesterdays
issue of THE DISPATCH also told of
the Washington authorities speculating
whether or not the Consul at Liverpool
was yet in receipt of the circular ordering
disinfection of passengers and baggage at
foreign ports! Apparently the Washington
officials entrusted their instructions to the
old way mail in place of cabling! What
hideous trifing in great emergency.
If Mr.. Harrison IS using his eyes and
his senses generally he must know of the
imminent danger. 1t is his place to use
his power freely, fully and at once, and to
put stop entirely to the immigration
that threatens to prove a continuous
source of infection if it is allowed to go
on. The people have no confidence in
mere supervision of the infected current.
They know that much of the supervision
is apt to be humbug, neither thorough
nor effective.
1t is said that Mr.. Harrison has not
power to stop immigration. That is
pitiful plea. If it should be done he has
the power, and it is his duty to do it.
Should he exceed the limits of his
executive authority, Congress, with the
public appreciation, will promptly in
demnify him. When an enemy more ter
rible than an armed host is at the ports
of the country it is not the time for man
of capacity or decision of character to
split hairs or wait till the invader gets
lodgment
President Harrison should act. He
should act at once. Not tomorrow or
next week, when the mischief will be done
A LABOR SUGGESTION.
A contribution to the question of how
wages disputes shall be settled is made by
Hon Chauncey F. Black in the last issue OF
the Forum 1t has the distinction from
ordinary contributions on the subject in
that it proposes remedy for the present
conflicts which certainly has the merit of
originality.
Mr.. Blacks suggestion is the creation of
corporations for the purpose of furnishing
industrial labor For example, the Anal
gamated Association, or, as smaller sub
division, the laborers of Homestead, are
mentioned as forming corporation which
should contract with the manufacturers
on one hand to furnish the labor and with
the workingmen on the other to pay them
wages. This corporation could sue or be
sued: could hear and redress grievances,
and, Mr.. Black thinks, "would prosper or
not as other corporations do" This
scheme is proposed for legislation, which
suggests its similarity to the proposition of
the Socialists in their platform, that trades
unions shall receive charters from State
legislation.
The great defect in MI. Blacks PROPOSE
4ionis that it erects an intermediary be-
Awen the employers and workingmen
whlcs shall absorb portion of what the
former psy for labor. 1t will really
prosper or not according to the amount of
wages which 1t can retain in its own
hands. 1t is true 't1at this objection is
partially met by the supposition that the
corporations would be composed of work
ingmen. But, apart from the frail guar
antee of that hope in the corporate char
acter, it has the further objection that,
the internal operations of the
labor companies to be successful, it would
simply concentrate and intensity the dis
putes as to the rate of wages.
On the other hand, it has the virtue of
the ability of labor to organize
which shall employ them.
If workingmen can own stock in labor
ompaHies-which have an irresis ible |
tendency to suggest the Chinese COM
may they not own stock in
Industrial companies? If one-half the |
wages utterly lost in strikes for the past |
twenty years had been saved and capital