Mohave County miner., 1914-10-31


the last place at which man worked
what class of workman he may be and
should have that right to ask him any
reasonable question connected with his
trade, occupation or employment.
Should a printer show up in the MINER
shop the invariabla question is Where
have you been working, and where are
you headed for. Under the proposed
law this would be deemed prima facia
that the MINER was keeping a black
list. A blacklist is a mighty bad thing.
A man may get in bad with his en-
ployer, through no real fault of his own,
and his name goes on the black list.
In the employment he usually follows
he can get no employment and may
have to change his name before he can
get Job. We know Of this on many
of the railroads of the country. Men
who were in the Santa Fe strike of
several years ago have been employed
on the roads of Mexic" and the Salt
Lake railroad under various cognomens.
And these men were good workmen,
nothing vicious or criminal in their
makeup, their only crime being that of
striking for better wages or better
conditions or something of the
kind, which we have forgotten. 1t
was not fair to put them on the black
list and the employer guilty of it
should be punished for it. But con-
gress and the Interstate Commission is
getting after the railroads on this sub
ject and we believe the lawmaking
bodies of this country will be able to
get at the matter in better way than
that proposed by the proposed law.
31S-319 is the much discussed 80 per
cent law. Sometime ago the MINER
published what purported to be draft
of this measure, but it was afterward
found to be incorrect in important par
ticular, that referring to native born
citizens. Now, while the law strikes
at condition that exists in parts of
the State it is too drastic when brought
to cover other conditions in other parts
of the State. The draft of the law
may have contemplated something
other than that set out in the wording
of the measure, under the assumption
that native born citizen meant a per-
son born within the domain of the
| United States. This is not true, as
laid down by the text books of law. A
citizen of the United States is not only
one born within the United States or
its colonial possessions, but must also
have the requisite qualification to vote
for and hold office. Therefore citizen
within the meaning of the laws of the
State of Arizona must be a person,
male or female, who is over the age of
twenty-one years and able to read and
write the English language. A person,
although one of the most learned in a
language other than the English,
would be barred from obtaining live
lihood in Arizona. A boy or girl under
age, if coming in conflict with this
eighty-per cent law, would also be bar
red from livelihood, no matter if they
were native born. We are now and
have been in favor of the passage of a
bill requiring the employment of
English speaking people in hazardous
occupations within the State of Ari-
IONA. And this is for the protection of
the men employed in the mines, smelt-
cries and other occupations where there
is hazard of limb or life. We have
observed that where mixed crews of
men are employed in mines there has
been a greater preponderance of ac-
cidents, because men of different nat
ionalities could not understand the
others language. And it would be I'M
fair to the country to employ whole
alien crew of miners or others speaking
or understanding the same language,
therefore we favor the employment of
crews of English speaking people in
hazardous employments within the
State. Arizona wants men and money,
and discrimination against foreign i'm
migration and employment of desirable
foreigners should be the farthest from
the thoughts of the electors of the
State. And when we have built up one