United labor bulletin., 1909-10-29

to- the great body of American working |
men, and a great menace to the best in
terest of our entire people. 1t has been !
said that the japanese laborer does the
work that the American laborer will not
do. Yet such is not the case. The bright
Japanese has entered the lists against
workmen in almost every line of labor
There are tailors and there are printers,
there are engineers and machinists;
there are miners, clerks, shoemakers,
BARRIERS, jewellers, office boys. hotel and
restaurant keepers. photographers, Sec
ton hands, carpenters, painters, brick
layers. paperhangers, plasterers. garden
ers and farmers, and scores and scores
of other workmen who are Japanese and
they are in our own state of California
competing with our own American labor
er and in some instances have succeed
ed in driving the white laborer away
from certain sections of this land, espe-
cially in the fruit districts. So they are
finally coming to monopolize first one
line of business, then another, and buy
ing land and homes and eventually pos
sessing the country. Already in some
parts of this state this process is well
advanced. In several places the Japan
ese not only do nearly all the work, but
they own or lease majority of the farms
and homes.
The Asiatic can live so cheaply that
no white laborer can hope to compete
with him in the cost OF living, and most
right thinking men agree that it is not
best that the white laborer should be
forced or expected to compete with him
in this regard. Besides the Asiatic has
usually no family to support and no chill
dren to educate. AS result of these
conditions. whenever Asiatic laborers in
wade any field they soon come to monop-
olize the farm and other common labor,
and so the white man is driven out en-
tirely. This is the case in the fruit or
chards of Vacaville, largely in the raisin
vineyards of Fresno, and wholly so in
the berry fields and apple orchards of
Santa Cruz county and also the seed
farms of Santa Clara county. So disas-
trous to the white laborer of California
has this Asiatic competition become, that
just in the past year soup houses were
T
Angeles and other cities Of California,
to feed the unemployed white laborer.
On the other hand, il is claimed by
some employers OF labor that Oriental
labor is absolutely necessary to the de
velopment even to the existence of their
industries on the Pacific coast, and that
only with this labor can they resist the
,ir NE ha Iahn
unions. None of this is true. Farm and
common labor has never been excessive
lly high on the Pacific coast, and as yet
the Japanese laborer here has not en-
tered the mechanical trades to any great
extent 1t is in these occupations that
the higher wages are paid. but that says
nothing for the future. If it were true
that our Pacific coast industries cannot
; be developed without Oriental labor, l
think it were better that they never be
developed at all. than that our white la
borers should be degraded or driven out
by contact with these Orientals 1t is
the stock argument of the selfish who
wish to add to their profits by bringing
in cheap labor that unless they can get
ness.
The American slave buyer of the last
century satisfied his conscience and an
swered the objections OF the opponents
of the traffic in human flesh by the same
kind of arguments. He loudly proclaim
ed that without the slave trade he could
not procure his house servants and cul-
ltivate his cotton fields.
We still have the race problem which
his selfshness imported, the ultimate so
Tuition of which no man can see And
we shall import into the Pacific coast an
other and worse race problem than
the South had to solve unless the result
lis prevented by wise and patriotic legis-
Ilation.
But il is not true that Oriental labor
lis necessary for the development of the
Pacific coast. OF course if the Oriental
lis allowed to go there freely, the white
Ilaborer. knowing that he cannot COM
pete with him. will not so there. 1t
would be foolish to expect him to do so,
But If you keep out the Oriental there
lis no possible reason why the white Ia
borer should not so there and receive
better wage than paid the Orientals- 1t
has been said that people of different
color and widely separated racial ten
denotes do not live side by side under
the same flag in peace and harmony.
The conditions of few to whom
wealth has been granted bears little re-
Ilation to the welfare OF any nation. Our
nation cannot be higher than the gen.
eral conditions of the masses of our peo-
pie. II the masses of our people are
prosperous. our country is prosperous. II
(contlnued on page a.)