Los Angeles herald., 1892-09-03
Every Man His Own Protection.

There lives in New York an Irishman
who sometimes goes over to his native isle,
and who learns a thing or two at each
visit Upon one of these visits he found
that one workingman in the region where
the visitor found himself was paid consid-
erable more per week than his fellows got
"Why do they pay you more than these
other men get?" he asked the laborer
Because Pm worth more" was the an
swer. "Ive been to America and learned
how to work"
Any one who knows American working
men and workingmen abroad can under
stand this. We are the nerviest, cleverest
hardest people on earth. 1t is not boast
ing to say this; it is simple truth. Not
only is this true, but it is also true that
intelligent 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 says that
when these men first come to America they
are slow and awkward, but they presently
learn how to work and develop into excel
lent workmen. This is as true of skilled
as of unskilled workmen. The Italian me-
chanic is accustomed to lighter tools than
we use in America, and he finds himself at
disadvantage until he learns the ways of
our 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 railroads all
over the world said that the cost DER mile
was no more in Illinois at s1.35 per day for
labor than in British India at nine cents
day for labor. The talk about foreign
pauper labor and the danger of it's compe-
tition is humbug. We need not fear it,
because it is pauper labor. The laborer to
10 feared is the fellow who can do bigger
days work than the American laborer, and
he has yet to be born.
In British India q man who is not more
than fairly well off will have dozen serv-
ants 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 alto
gether, amount to more than you'd pay
to three such women.
Where American workmen are paid more
than foreign workingmen it is because
they are worth more and not because of
protection. If you hire ten skilled work
ingmen 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 unskilled, unframed, ineffi-
cient 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 workingmen as
skillful and efficient as American work
ingmen? In few trades there are for
eigners who can do things that our people
cannot do, or can do but poorly, and those
v,,op ara oftaD as we'll paid ac A Ynarican
workingmen. In other trades there are
skilled foreigners whose hours are shorter
than those of workingmen in America, or
who use less labor saving machinery, and
therefore get less work done. AS rule,
however, the days labor of an American
is worth more than the days labor Of
foreigner who has not learned our ways,
and for that reason the wages of the Amer
lean are higher. The best protection of
American labor lies in the energy, skill,
intelligence and persistency of the Amer
ican laborer. every man his own protec-
tion" is good cry.