Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-08-20
Everv Man His Own Protcctiop


There lives in New York an Irishman
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 workingman in the region where
the visitor found himself was paid consid-
cradle more per week than his fellows got.
''Why do they pay you more than these
other men get?" he asked the laborcr
because I'm worth more" was the an
swer. I've been to America and learned
how to work.
Any one who knows American working
men and workingmcn abroad can under
stand this. We are the nervicst, 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 workmcn. This is as true of skilled
as of llnSkilled work men. The Italian me-
Chanic is accustomed to lighter tools than
we use i'll 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.
y contractor who had built railroads all
over the would said that the cost per mile
was no more in Illinois at 81 IS per day for
labor than in British India at nine cents a
day for labor. The talk about foreign
paupcr labor and the danger of its compe-
tition is n humbug. We need not fear it,
because it is paupcr labor. The laborer to
| he feared is the fellow who can do a bigger
| days work than the American laborer, and
| he has yet to be born.
In British India a man who is not more
| than fairly we'll Off will have n 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
| gethcr, amount to more than you'd pay
| to three such women.
| Where American work men are paid more
| than foreign workingmen it is because
| they are worth more and not because of
| protection. II 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 unskillcd. unframed, inefIi-
| cient men at onc.third the wages, you'll
pay the same amount i'll the aggregate and
| get no more work done.
But arc there no foreign work ingmen as
| skillful and efficient as American work
ingmen2 In few trades there are for
eigners who can do things that our people
canpot do. or can do but poorly, and those
men are often we'll paid as American
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 a rule,
however, the days labor of an American
is worth more than the days labor of a
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
lean laborer. Every man his own proteo-
ton" is a good cry.