Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1913-06-12
"PRoTEcTINe" AMERICAN LABOR

Senator Thomas, of Colorado has
ably exposed the fraudu1uent nature of
the claims made by the sugar barons
in behalf of a tariff on sugar. One of
the barons' senatorial advocates,
Smith, of Michigan, had spouted the
usual rot about foreign ''pauper", labor
in these words:
You have got to pay the Iaborer
who works in the beet fields, on an
average, $2.75 a day, while the poem
who works in the sugar fields of
Cuba, who wears cIout upon his
stomach and not even a hat upon his
head or shoes upon his feet, does
not get over 10 cents day; and you
propose to pit .>the farmers and the
laborers upon the farms in that in
dustry against such labor as that.
Senator Smith must have been
shocked when Senator Thomas an
swered him as follows:
have made some investigation of
the subject-a very slight one, because
the information | desired came from
another source. In the House of Rep
resentatives on the 18th of April, Rep
resentative Hardwck, in discussing
this phase of the tariff question, COM
pared the wage rate In this industry
as between the State of Louisiana and
the Republic of Cuba, and at page 1913
of the Record he gave it in these
words:
1.-THE labor cost in factories in Cuba
and Louisiana is practically the same,
and for field labor Louisiana pays
hardly as much as is paid in Cuba. 1t
appeared in the sworn testimony be-
fore the special committee that in
Louisiana the sugar planters pay the
following rates for field labor: Seventy
five to eighty cents to men per day,
rs cents per day to women and 81 per
day in harvesting time; whereas in
Cuba for the same class of labor the
planters are paying from 81 to SIPS
per day, and in Cuba the women do
not work in the fields. So 1t seems to
me that the equalization of labor cost
is not involved in this proposition"
Then turning attention to the asser-
tons made concerning labor in the
beet fields, Senator Thomas said.
Those engaged in it toll from day
break until darkness, and sometimes
beyond, thus embodying not hours,
but 10, IA and 16 hours out of "a. 1t is
this sort of day labor of which men
speak when they assert that it
commands So and $3.50 per day. Meas
ured by the 8-hour standard instead Of
IL or IA, the fieurers would, of course,
be considerably less.
Upon this subject the labor COM
missioner of my state reports-and
am perfect willing to take his state
ment-that "the contracts are $50 an
acre for thinning, two hands pulling
and topping beets, all contract work
foreigners only employed. All the fam
lily work is hours day, about $3.50
q each and board themselves"
y In view of the fact that inquired of
gthe junior senator from California
(Mr. Works. on the 9Th instant, as to
the class of employees in this work in
his section of the country. | deemed it
only proper to ascertain from the labor
commissioner of that state what the
facts were. My inquiries were as to
the nationality of the labor employed
in that state, as we'll as to it's COM
pensation, and this is the reply which
| have received from him:
San Francisco, CAL, May 10.
c. S. Thomas,
Highlands, Washinton, D. C.
Help employed on beet farms i.
California 1910, Japanese represented
Sc per cent; Chinese, Mexicans, Hin
dus, IL per cent. Large acreage con,
trolled by Japanese who only emplo.
Japanese help. Work done for other,
under contract. Wages for Weeders
$1.5o; toppers and leaders, $1.93 pei
day, without board.
And although he does not say so,
assume that the hours of labor are
equally exacting. as elsewhere.
If a get rick quick scheme we're to
obtain money through representations
half as false as those made by capital
ist employers, he would have great diff
ficuIty in escaping a term in the pen
itentiary.