Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1901-10-17
FULL DINNER PALS
ARE IN DANGER FROM CHINESE
COMPETITION.
Scheme Of the Tsuds for Cheap Labor.-Ths
Chinese Exclusion Act Soon Expires
Small Prospect Of lts Re.snactmsnt by Con.
sress.-Dsstructlo Of Labor Unions.

Small Prospect Of IL Re.snactment by Con.
sress.-Destfuctlo Of Labor Unions.
When the gigantic trusts were forming
it should have been evident to wage
workers that their interests as repre-
sented by the rates of wages would be
attacked sooner or later. The protested
object Of forming these huge combina-
lions of capital is to bring about the
greatest possible saving in the cost of
production. The multi.millionaires back
Of them maintain very discreet silence
as to the profit they purpose reaping
from raising prices to the consumers.
What they most insist on is that the alb
sorption of little mills and factories by
one huge concern, commonly designated
trust, will cut down the expenses of
superintendent and do away with the
loss incurred by wastful competition.
But the saving effected by this sort of
economy will be as nothing compared
with what would be brought about by
good, permanent cut in the wages of the
employees of the trusts. The trust mag
mates, recognizing this, have determined
to make a vigorous war upon trade
unions, which have made the lowering
OF wages infinitely more difficult than it
would be if the trusts had to deal with
individual wage workers. The oft-quoted
saying, "In union there is strength"
has its aptest illustration in the combi-
nations of wage workers that secure for
the individual an amount of considera-
ton which would never be accorded him
if acting alone. The would-be oppressors
of labor, recognized this, have therefore
made the unions the central point of
attack.
One, therefore, needed not to be a
prophet or the son OF prophet to have
foretold with certainty that the labor
unions would have to bear the brunt of
the assault which would be made sooner
or later by the trusts all along the line.
The stand the billion dollar steel trust
took the other day against organized la
Dor will not be the last effort to cripple
combinations of workingmen formed to
keep up the rate of wages. The truce
patched up between the Amalgamated
Association and Pierpont Morgan is
temporary cessation of hostilities, but it
is far from being permanent peace.
The enormous financial interests in
volved in the recent strike, as shown by
the falling in the value of steel trust
shares to the amount of $55, OOO, 900 in
one hour, prevented Morgan and the
other trust magnates from attempting
to fight the Amalgamated Association to
a finish. If sufficient number of skilled
workers were procurable the fight would
undoubtedly have been prolonged as, in
case of victory, the billion dollar steel
trust would be able to recoup itself for
temporary loss by the enormous savings
effected by reduction Of wages.
The problem, then, that presents itself
not to the steel trust alone, but to all
the trusts, is, how to obtain labor which
will not be under union control. There
is a law on the statute books of the
United States, which expires by limita-
ton in 1902, and which hitherto has
been stumbling block in the way of
those who would break the power of la
Dor unions by compelling them to face
species of competition that they could
not cope with. We refer to the Chinese
exclusion act. Next year that act will
cease to be operative, and unless it is
supplemented by legislation of similar
character, the bars will be let down and
Chinese will be free to come to this
country in unnumbered millions, and as
they are quick to initiate it may we'll
happen that before the twentieth century
is much older they will be found crowd
ing mills and factories as skilled laborers.
That, from the trust point of view, would
be an ideal solution Of the labor problem.
With Chinese cheap labor and with the
power OF the unions utterly broken, the
mnlti.millionaire imperialists would
have the industrial field completely to
themselves.
Do you think we speak of an impossi-
BILE condition Of things? After the ex-
perience of the last decade we should be
slow to pronounce anything impossible.
Within that period we have witnessed a
political revolution not one whit more
startling than would be the industrial
revolution we have just referred to.
Chinese labor in possession Of the mills,
factories and workshops would be IT.
ting complement OF imperialism installed
at the seat OF government. Already the
San Francisco News Letter, an organ OF
the commercial class, espouses the free
admissi OF Chinese on the ground that
they would serve as much'needed