Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1892-08-23
EVERY MAN HIS OWN PROTECTION.

There lives IN Now York an Irishmap
who sometimes goes over to his native isle,
and who learns a thing or two at each
visit. Upon ono OF these visits bo found
that ONO worklngmAn 10 the region where
the visitor found hinself was paid consid-
erable moro per week than his fellows got
"Why do they pay you moro than these
other men get" ho asked the laborer.
because I'm worth more" was the an
swer. "Pve been to America and learned
bow To work"
Any ono who knows American working
men and workingmep abroad can under
stand this. We are the Derviest, clcvcrest,
hardest people on earth IL ia not boast,
Ing TO say this; 1t Ia simple truth Not
only is this true, but IL is also true that
intelligent foreigners coming TO America
soon catch our ways and learn how to Dc
almost the work Of two days in one. A
man who has studied the Italians says that
when these men first como to America they
are slow and awkward, but they presently
learn how TO work and develop into excel
lent workmen. This is as truo OF skilled
as OF unskilled workmen. The Italian mo-
chanic is accustomed TO lighter tools than
we use In America, and he finds himself at
disadvantage until be learns the ways OF
our people. but II he has the stuff In him
he gets 70 doing an American instead ot
an Italian days work
a contractor who had built railroads all
over the world said that tho cost per mile
was no moro In Illinois at 81. IS 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 " humbuS. We need not fear il,
because IL Is pauper labor. The laborer TO
be feared Is the fellow who can do bigger
days work than tho American laborer, and
he has yet to be born
In British India n man who Is not more
than fairly well off will have a 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, aud their wages. taken alto
gether, amount to more than you'd pay
to three such women.
Where American worhmen are paid moro
than foreign workingmen 1t is because
they arc 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-flve dollars day. II you hire three
times rs many unskilled, unframed, inofIl-
Client men at one-third the wages, you'll
pay the same amount In the aggregate and
get no moro work done.
But are there no foreign workingmen as
skillful and efficient as American work
ingnenf In q few trades there arc for
eigners who can do things that our people
cannot do, or can do but boosly, and those
men are often as we'll paid IA American
workingmen. In other trades there are
skilled foreigners whose hours arc 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
u worth more than tho days labor of q
foreigner who has not learned our ways,
and for that reason the wages OF the Amer
lean arc higher. The best protection Of
American labor lies In the energy, skill.
intelligencc and persistency Of the Amer
lean laborer Every man his own protec-
tion" is good cry.