Arizona republican., 1914-10-13
The Eighty Per Cent Bill


 The Republican is in full sympathy with the desire of labor organized and unorganzed to better it's condition. Labor has been discriminated against in American legislation but now it has become a bower to be reckoned with and in recent years it has been coming into it's The justice of many of its demands has been recognized. When it has triumphed, there has been justice in it's demands
 But when labor makes unjust demands it weakens it's cause. Just men will abandon it, and demagogues, always towards, foreseeing defeat, will go to the other side, the demagogue though hot lover of justice, knows that where justice is there is always strength there must, finally be victory
 Labor is now making unjust demand upon the people of Arizona in proposing the eighty per law, and it must therefore fail Too many other things that do not appear on the surface are involved in this demand. Reduced to it's planest terms, the bill proposes that where there are as many as five persons of either sex in any occu- iation employed by any individual, firm, company or corporation, eighty per cent of them must be qualified electors of native citizens Of the United States or some subdivision thereof" We assume that the word of before native citizens" is q typographical error
 But, anyhow, there is a lack of definiteness here. There is such person as a qualified cleo
 
 be qualified eecor of state, but not of more than one state. A qualified elector of, say h. Giana, on coming to Arizona to reside permanently abandons his Indiana qualification and cannot be- corle qualified elector of Arizona until after a residence here of year. A woman residing in In-. diana is qualified eecor of that state and she could not become a qualified eector of Arizona until she has resided here a year.
 Thus, neither of these citizens of Indiana would be eligible under the proposed law to employment in this state in any store factory. laundry res taurant railroad office any place where five or more persons are employed, unless eighty per of the persons already employed were qualified eec- tors of this state. Whatever this bill is meant to be- it is not an American proposition
 , The effect of such law would be a paralysis Of certain activities in this valley instance the work of ditch cleaning is done largely by Mexicans majority of whom not qualified electors of Arizona. The Egyptian cotton industry could not be carried here under such a law It will be remembered that years ago the agricultural department warned the cotton growers against over planting. It pointed the difficulty of securing labor at the time it would be most urgently needed the crop
 For the picking of cotton some negroes were brought in from the southern states and at the ume or their arrival they not qualified cleo tors of the state Most of them could never become qualified electors the educational test There is such bar to the qualification of a major ity of the Mexican workers Many Indians who not qualified electors and citizens the United States though native born, employed in the cot lon fields. Without these laborers, who would not be eligible and could become eligible under the proposed law, the cotton crop of this valley could not be cared for.
 It is stated in of the arguments in favor of the bill that of it's objects is ito protect the foreigners from engaging in unlucrative employment which capitalists frequently offer" In this we find the theory that American citizens and qualified electors may be always found to do the work neces- sary to be done if only the wages paid high enough If it were possible to qualified elec tors to clean the ditches to work the farms and to pick the cotton by the payment of sufficiently attractive wages, could the farmers the grow CTS and other employers afford to pay such wages and compete with industries in states where there are no such restrictions on employment?
 The expense of production would be greatly in- creased and in the end the added of produc- uon is paid by the consltmer. Every laborer or ganized and unorganzed, and his family are con- sumers. They, with other consumers, would be taxed to pay the higher wages which but com paratively few of them would enjoy. great bulk of organized labor would gain advantage the operation of such law, outside the great mines So far as the occupations in this valley would be af fected there would be no gain organized abor