The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1900-12-15
PROF. ROSS FORCED TO RESIGN.

PROF. ROSS FORCED TO RESIGN.
The wel-known political economist
aroused the anger of Mrs. Stanford by
his able arguments against coolie labor
and corporate greed. His speech at
Metropolitan Temple, published in Or
ganlZed Labor, the cardinal sin that
caused the powers behind the throne to
demand the young scientists head.
Will the people let the infamy pass, or
will they arise in mighty indignation
and protest against the outrage on a
noble scholar who espOused their cause?
If the great university has become a
Chinese kindergarten we say let the
voice Of our citizens who voted for the
Stanford amendment be heard once
more-Organzed Labor.
The following is the gist Of Prof.
Ross offensive CD speech:
Several factors have cOnspired in
enabling the people of America to fix
and hold a living above the bare means
of subsistence and to transmit this
standard to limited number of Off
spring. a century Of free expansion
over fertile land has allowed them to
form a habit Of comfort and plenty
which it is now their business to stereo
type into a national custom. Schools,
books, culture, personal ambitions have
multiplied the imperous wants of the
American and made his standard of liv-
ing high and varied.
But what American labor objects
to is exposure to competition with a
him, but he can underlive him. He can
not produce more, but he can consume
less. The Oriental can elbow the AM
erican to one side in the common &C.
equations because he has fewer wants.
TO let this go on, to let the American
be driven by cOolie competition, to
check the American birth-rate in order
that the Japanese brth-rate shall not
be checked, to let an opportunity for
one American boy be occupied by three
Orientals SO that the American will
not add that boy to his family, is to
reverse the current of progress, to COM
init race suicide. Everything we call
progress has helped to develop man,
who can produce much and consume
much; it has abhorred the cheap man.
/ 1t has favored and fOstered not. the
man Of crude palate, of tough stomach,
of low organization, of few. wants and
5Of little intelligence and energey, but
the superior man. Starting with the
Oriental people of Egypt and Babylon
la, civilization has in three thousand
years swept around the globe, insist
ing on better, finer and brainier men as
it went, and now by the waters of the
Pacific it is face to face with peoples
like the Chinese and Hindus and the
Japanese, who are nearest to reproduce
, ing the economic conditions who reck-
ed the cradle Of civilization.
"Shall we allow the process of uplift-
7 Ing the common man to be defeated
by this conformation? Shall we suffer
the work already done to be nulified
Shall we look idly upon this inverted
competition of the cheap man and the
!. high grade man, and allow the survival
I of the unfittest to proceed unchecked?
"A policy of restriction on immigra-
ton is not, under such circumstances,
unfair, or predatory or blameworthy
"This country keeps up tariff bar
rier which keeps out European goods
and compels the American consumer
the laboring man. often-to pay more
for his commodities; and this policy is
professedly maintained to protect Am
erican labor. Yet how strange, how in
consistent is this profession with our
attitude toward immigrants. We keep
( out the pauper made goods, but let in
the pauper. We keep up the price OF
American Workingmens labor. We
shield labor from the indirect, muffled
competition Of the coolie by means OF
his product, but not from the fierce
direct competition of the coolie in per.
son. Can this be said to be genuine
Z protection Of American labor?
& Social and political opportunity ha:
accustomed parents to cherish hopes
for their children and inspired them tt
equip few children we'll rather thar
y rear a large family in squalor
& "WhateVer the benign Influences +,
which we owe this tradition of comfor
q it is precious thing and jealously t.
\ be guarded at moment when our fire,
I land is gone, when the tide that has TO-
4 century been flowing across this vir
gin continent has reached the sea, an,
turned back upon ITSELF and when it i
g@ evident that our opportunities are n
s longer unlimited. Now that the west
- IS gone, now that the prairie schoone
has vanished, now that we are u
1 againt physical barriers, and our natu
raj growth must abide and increase tn
s. density Of our population in places al
ready occupied, the American standar
VIA OF comfort is for the first time put t
IN the real test. We shall soon see if OF,
people will cease to multiply, whe
d they can only multiply downward w
4 Shall soon see if Americans will refrai
from marrying until they have reache
II a certain standard, and will then hav
"a no more children than they can rea
in decency and comfort.
s% AT this critical moment when it
.@ to be settled in America is to have VIVA
3- no nation has ever had, namely. a com
mon laboring class permanently earn
s$ ing more than a bare subsistence.
Hs@ our hope to be blasted, our endeavor
as6&s frustrated, and the mass Of commo