The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-12-02
EDITORIAL COLUMN
Negro and the Labor Problem.

lno only queSllOnS which can appeal to
the American people are those touch
ing the pocket book. That this is not
true has been proven by the recent war
with Spain. The REVIEW is interested
in the cause OF equal rights to all
American citizens, not on account of
the financial side, but for the cause of
justice and humanity. In order how
ever to refute the charge that the sup
preston of the laboring vote of the
South is local one and one in which
we can have but little interest save
from a sentimental point of view, we
wish to call attention to the COM
mercial and industrial phase of this
great problem.
1t is conceded by all men that the
more education and refinement people
have, the more avenues there are open
to their legitimate ambition; the higher
! is their scale of living, the more they
demand for their services, and the more
they are in position to receive. With
education and enlightenment come a
widening of the tastes, and what are
luXuries to the ignorant are necessities
to the educated 1t has been the fond
boast of America that it's working people
are better housed. better clothed, better
fed and more enlightened than are the
working men of any other nation on
earth. 1t is one of the problems OF our
government to maintain this high
standard.
Not many years ago the people OF the
Pacific states complained bitterly be-
cause of the large Chinese immigration.
1t was claimed. with truth, that the
Chinese did not live on the same scale
as did the American, that they we're
accustomed to do without hundreds OF
things which are considered necessities
in every American home and that there
for they could work for less and live for
less than would decently support an
American family. The cry of the
western states was needed and the
Chinese were excluded from our coun-
try.
For the same reason many labor
organizations are opposed to the an
nexation of much of our newly acquired
territory, as they claim that they can
not compete with the ignorant natives
and at the same time live as an Ameri-
can citizen should.
All this time we are allowing to grow
up in our own country a system equally
as bad. We are allowing the people OF
the South to debase and degrade theil
working classes. We are allowing them
to keep their working people in ignor.
ance and to deny to them those avenues
|of legitimate ambition which widen the
sensibilities, raise the scale of living.
and the scale of wages. The evil eff.
fects of this system have already been
felt by the working people of the North
A few years ago there was great
Transformation among those connected
with the cotton industries of New Eng.
land. 1t was found that by the use OF
Improved machinery, the employment
of a few skilled white mechanics and
cheap negro labor, cotton fabrics
could be manufactured more cheaply in
the South than in the North. This
caused many northern factories to close
and in others sweeping reductions in
wages were made. Recently in Illinois
we have seen another example, when
the coal miners of Virden refused to &C.
Icept reduced scale of wages, the
operators simply went to the southern
mines and imported cheap negro labor.
A colored man writing to the Leader
gives the opposition of the miners OF
| Virden to these negroes as an example
Of race hatred in the North. We be-
lieve that the antipathy of these miners
would have been much more aroused
had the imported cheap laborers been
white instead OF black. These are but
1.-TWO striking examples of an evil which
is making itself manifest throughout
our entire industrial system.
| What is the remedy? Can we find q
cure in allowing the working men Of
the South with whom we are coming
daily into closer competition, to be still
further degraded and debased? Will
we be able to remedy the evil by taking
from these working people the last
court of appeal and OF protection, the
ballot? Can we raise them to the
standard of American citizenship, Cal
we place them upon the same plane Of
competition, by making them mere
bru,es, with only the wants of a brutei
Ii we educate these people, if we
offer them the same splendid opportuni
ties that are offered to the other you'll
of the land, Will they not soon demand
a better mode of living? Will they not