Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1900-10-19
LABOR AND EMPIRE.
A Danger That Threatens us in AM
nexinE Newly Acquired
Countries.

The effect upon wages of annex
ing countries overrunning with the
cheapest kind of labor is evident
enough to anyone who will consider
the question dispassionately, but per-
haps brief account of what have
seen with my own eyes in Egypt may
serve to illustrate it. We hear great
deal of the political benefits con-
ferred by the British government
upon the Egyptians, but little or
nothing is said of the industrial re-
suits of expansion, and yet those re-
suits are the most important.
Some years ago while was living
in Egypt visited one of the cot
ton mills at Mansourah, the conner
cial center of the cotton region.
These mills are owned by English,
French and German capitalists and
operated by native labor. In the
main room of the factory the air was
so thick with cotton-dust that found
it difficult to breathe. A row of Arab
| girls of IL or 10 years of age were
standing there before series OF tubs
manipulating the raw cotton.
What are the hours of labor Of
these girls?" l asked the foreman,
who was acting as my guide.
From four O'Clock In the morning
to six o'clock at night, with an in
Permission for dinner" he answered.
"And what is the pay?"
'Twelve and half cents a day."
could hardly believe that, and the
next time met the English manager
of one of these mills 1 cross-ques-
toned him on the subject.
as it true" I asked, that you
work your girls from four until six
for 12h cents day?"
eyes," he said, rather reluctantly.
II didn't quite like it when I first
went to Mansourah, but the girls don't
seem to mind it."
"Don't mind IA hours work day 2"
I cried.
ooh, that is not ALL" he replied.
when we are busy they stay over
time from six till ten o'clock in the
evening and we pay them an extra
piastre (2A or five cents), and some
times young mothers come with the
babes at the breast and put them
down on the floor in the corner and go
to work with the rest"
And all this, mind you, in an at
mosphere which you can almost cut
with knife, so thick is it with cot
ton.
One thing has saved Egypt. and
that is the absence of coal. It costs
too much to bring it there for it to
pay to introduce factories on large
scale. But there is plenty of coal in
the Philippines. Coal can be had at
the entrance of the mines in Japan
for 10 cents ton, am informed, and
it will be as cheap in the Philippines.
With coal at this price, with girls and
boys ready to work for 121s cents a
day, what is to prevent the immediate
how of our capital to these islands
and the inauguration of competi-
ton such as we have never known
before?
Either wages will fall here to the
12ha-cent level or our factories will
be moved bodily to our new posses
sions and our working men left to
starye.
Bishop Potter, of New York, has
just been in the Philippines, and he
tells US that the Filipino takes kindly
to our factory system. Poor Filipinos!
So do mice take kindly to cheese in
a trap. The system will prove curse
to them as it has already proved to
| the girls of Mansourah and at the
same time that it will impoverish our
American wage-earners at home. It
| may be said that the natives are not
| forced to work. But this is not true
When their cupidity is not sufficient
to make them toll, means are found
to compel them. This has already
been done in the mines of South AZ
RIGA, and the British government i'm
poses taxes upon the natives there
with the avowed object of forcing
them to seekemployment in the mines
for the purpose of raising money to
pay the tax, that being the only way
open for them to earn money. The
same plan will doubtless be adopted
by our capitalists in the Philippines
If it turns out that Bishop Potter is
mistaken and that the Filipinos do
not take kindly to factory work.
| We are told that we ought to es-
tablish stable government in the
Philippines. That is precisely what
we ought not to do. 1t is the lack
of stable government which prevents
capital from going to countries where
people are willing to work for starv.
alton wages. 1t is an automatic ar.
rangement of nature that in unciv.
ilized or partly civilized countries
franchises and monopolies are not
well enough protected for capital te
risk itself If this were not SO, al
manufacturing industries would seel
at once the country OF cheapest wages
other things being equal and the
starvation of the home population
would follow. It is best for the world
that the government of such countrie!
should not be too stable, and by in
sisting upon stable government IL
the Philippines we are doing our bes'
to throttle our own interests.
1t is clearly the interest of all wage
earners to oppose Imperialism root
and branch, and if they have any
doubt on the subject, let them con
slider the cotton operatives of Egypt
Ernest H. Crosby, in the America,
Federationist.
WOULD TAX OLD SOLDIERS.