The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-12-03
SHUT OUT CHINESE
And Continue Protection of the Amer
lcan Laborer.

With the sole exception of the farm
ing interest, no one matter is of Such
vital moment to our whole people as the
welfare of the wage-wOrkerS. If the
farmer and the wage-worker are we'll
off, it is absolutely certain that all 9TH
ers will be well off too. 1t is therefore
a matter for hearty congratulation that
on the whole wages are higher today in
the United States than ever before in
our history, and far higher than in any
other country. The standard of living
is also higher than ever before Every
effort of legislator and administrator
should be bent to secure the perman-
ency of this condition of things and its
improvement wherever possible Not
only must our labor be protected by the
tariff. but it should also be protected
so far as it is possible from the presence
in this country of any laborers brought
over by contract, or of those who, com
ing freely, yet represent standard of
living SO depressed that they can un-
dersell our men in the labor market and
drag them to lower level 1 regard it
as necessary, with this end in view, to
ing Chinese 1aborS and to strengthen it
wherever necessary in order to make its
enforcement entirely effective
AWAY WITH CONVICT COMPETE
The national government should de-
mand the highest quality of service
from it's employees; and in return it
should be a good employer. If possible
legislation should be passed, in connec-
ton with the interstate commerce law,
which will render effective the efforts
of different states to do away with the
competition of convict contract labor
in the open labor market So far as
practicable under the conditions of gov
eminent work, provision should be
made to render the enforcement of the
eight-hour law easy and certain. In all
industries carried on directly or indi-
rectly for the United States govern
ment women and children should be
protected from excessive hours of labor,
from night work, and from work under
unsanitary conditions. The government
should provide in it's contracts that all
work should be done under fair con-
ditions, and in addition to setting a
high standard should uphold 1t by pro-
per inspection, extending if necessary
to the SubcOntractOrS. The government
should forbid all night work for women
and children, as we'll as excessive over
time For the District of Columbia
good factory law should be passed; and,
as a powerful indirect aid to such laws,
provision should be made to turn the
inhabited alleys, the existence of which
is reproach to our capital city, into
minor streets. where the inhabitants
can live under conditions favorable to
health and morals.
American wage-w workers work with
their heads as well as their hands
Moreover, they take a keen pride in
what they are doing; so that, independ-
ent of the reward, they wish to turn
out a perfect Job. This is the great
secret of. our success in competition
with the labor of foreign countries.
THE MOST VITAL PROBLEM.
The most vital problem with which
this country, and for that matter the
whole civilized world, has to deal, is
the problem which has for one side the
betterment of social conditions moral
and physical, in large cities, and for
another side the effort to deal with that
tangle of far-reaching questions which
we group together when we speak of
labor" The chief factor in the sue
cess of each man-wage-wor farm
er, and capitalist alike-must ever be
the sum total of his own individual
qualities and abilities. Second only to
this comes the power of acting in COM
bination or association with others.
Very great good has been and will be
accomplished by asso~ atoms or unions
of wage-workers, when managed with
forethought, and when they combine in
sistence upon their own rights with
law-abiding respect for the rights of
others. The display of these qualities in
such bodies is a duty to the nation no
less than to the associations them
selves. Finally, there must also in