The Portland daily press., 1895-07-09

asserted is that the INDECENT classes taken
together fare as they do, practically for
the sole reason that they have no arousing
wish for any better fare; or, recurring to
the old phrase, because their standard of
life is too low
The laboring masses can, within large
limits have, in remuneration for their
TOLLS whatever they unitedly demand.
We're all hands to stand together boldly
for it,, general risesin wagesSof several
percent could, in prosperous times, be
enforced, If any employers then were
unable to go on, such would give up bus
iness,,, leaving all the producing to be
done by those who were abfer, or better
situated. If the increase in wages were
not very great it might take place with
out any addition to the cost of goods, en-
ployers saving by better machinery and
economy the extra sums paid. for labor.
If the gains in wages We're great prices
would advance,
THE WAGE E-WORKERS
being better off at the expense of the
whole consuming community.
Why do not laborers stand together thus
and secure better pay?
For the simple reason that large Sec
tion OF them-the "scabs" as they are
no high idea of what life
should be are are willing to work for al
most any wages that may keep them
from starvation. 1t is this readiness on
the part of SO many to accept dog S
life, the crumbs, the dirt, the Kennels that
Worsts labor, wholly or partly, in all it's
battles. Trade Unions endeavor to reduce
the evil, and would do so if all craftsmen
would Join and faithfully execute their
pledges;g bat they do not do SO either.
One sees from this point of view the
perfectl Justice with which our workmen
wish immigration restricted, especially
that of the Chinese. Those people have
a notoriously low standard of life as any
onemay sadly assure himself who will go
through. the Chinese quarter of San Fran
cisco. They live like rats, in cellars and
in tunnels which they have dug far out
under the streets damp dirty, unventi-
lated, making you think at every step as
you explore them of Dante's progress
through the internal regions
Yet SO deft are these people at all arts
and crafts that were they permitted to
land at pleasure American workmen on
the Pacific coast would speedily be either
driven out or forced to come down to the
degrading level of Chinese life. That,
not even our poorest Americans are will
ing to do. Far down as our lowest Amer
lC4il SbStiludru Ol 6AlSUtuC6 1S, III IS uOU
yet so low as that of the Chinese, but
there is. evidence that it is sinking, and
it is certain to sink lower and lower if it
does not rise
1 have dwelt thus at length on the idea
of standard of life, illustrating it in va
rlous ways, because when that idea is
mastered, reasoning in this branch of
sociology becomes easy, while If that cen
tral notion is not grasped all reflection
involving it is misty and unsatisfying
1t issnow time to inquire how it is that
a; high standard of life, being entertained
by q population, becomes an anti-poverty
specific.
By what means would it, if present,
rid us of our submerged tenth, and rem
der workers for. wages relatively indie
pendent? How can an idea or an ideal
effect so much? ~ .-.,
The bettered ideal of life would take
effect by eliminating that weak, parasitic
population to which reference has been
made. Could we but found powerful
sentiment, making it universal through
out the labor world, that tolerable hn-
man existence require, about so many and
about such and such of life's comforts
and that an existence with less or lower
resources is absolutely intolerable, such
conviction could not but serve as a power
full check upon parenthood among the
poorest. Striving upward themselves,
people would be unwilling TO undertake
the work of parenthood when it was
clear that offspring would be condemned
to an existence below the standard. For
Instance, how many American children
do you imagine would be born even now,
low as cur standard is, If it were certainly
known that all American children must
live or die as the Chinese do in San
Francisco or ia China?
+ Poverty, - says Stuart Mill, like
most social evils exists because men fol
low their brute instincts, but society is
possible because man is not necessarily a
brute. Civilization in every one of its as
poets is struggle against the animal in
stincts. Over some even of the strongest
of them it has shown itself capable of ac-
4quifing gsabundant control. 1t has artific-
ialized large portions of mankind to such
an extent that of many of their most nat
ural inclinations they have scarcely ves-
tige or a remembrance left If it has not
brought the Instinct Of population under
as much restraint as is needful, we must
remember that it has never seriously
tried. What efforts it has made have
mostly been in the contrary direction.
Mr.. Mill here, refers to the unfortunate
inculcation by clergymen and other NOR
al instructors of the view that technically
legitimate parenthood, however horrible
and however wide spread its results, is
still to be promoted as preventive of
social, vice. Influence Of this sort, as if le
gal parenthood could never possibly be
carried to criminal extreme, has much