New-York tribune., 1918-01-29
China to the Rescue
A Large Supply of Labor Available
There for Our Needs


To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: | learn that a bill has been drafted
by the New York Board Of Trade and Trans
portation providing for the importation Of
Chinese, designed to help out our labor sltua-
ton. The very presentation of this idea Will
be likely to horrfy n large part of our cit
izenship, especially those responsible for the
barrier between us and n country that is now
one Of our war allies
AS the law now stands the Chinaman is
forbidden to enter the United States; it is
a crime to employ him here. The Board OF
Trade proposal adjusts the situation to our
own advantage, safeguarding our real inter-
csts. complete registry and continuous
controlling surveillance of all Chinese enter
ing our ports are established, clean bill Of
health is required and it is specified that
when the is over they all to return
to China-thcse provisions to be executed
under close government supervision.
Under present circumstances there is no
hardship imposed by this plan upon American
labor When the law was originally adopted
there great surplus of labor in this
country, constantly supplemented by immi-
grafton from all over the globe. But so
there is not to-day one thoughtful working
man, realizing how grave arc the conditions
existing simply for the lack Of man power,
who would object to measure like this,
carefully prepared with provisions for full
public safety and homo labor's rights. Even
Mr.. Gompcrs, with his broad minded poll
ces in the interests Of patriotism and the
labor world, could be sponsor for the sensible
and definite features of this bill.
The temporary service guarantees of this
measure should be sufficient to alay all
prejudice or any fears that permanent foot
hold would ever be given to these foreign
ers. 1t is a war measure. If with their shov-
els some thousands of these ablebodicd
human beings had been by magic brought
into the centre Of commerce when the recent
blizzard weather was increasing trade con-
geston and aggravating incompatible suffer
ing, they would have done wonders in the
way of relief and kept us out Of cmbarrass-
mentS now upon us.
Cinnamon now among us arc recognized
for their lawabding characteristics. Crim-
nal statistics show that offenders among them
are in the smallest proportion Of aliens that
have come to this country.
AS great a menace as the coal shortage is
the farm labor proposition. On my modest
upstate farm have been unable to thrash
grain, put in the barn later than usual, be-
cause sufficient help was not to be secured
at any possible price. My neighbors (and the
same condition is reported from other parts
of the country have left acres and acres OF
potatoes in the ground simply because it
was not possible to find men to dig them
every character of farm work neglected be-
cause outside of men drafted there has been
the call of the factories Offering quadruple
wages. With this discouraglng outlook no
farmer afford to plant seed this spring
unless he is assured that there will not be
even a worse repetition of last seasons ex-
peliencc. It is a business proposition. The
farmer. like anybody else, must look ahead
II there is one vocation that the Chinaman
can be called proficient in it is agriculture.
His farming is intensive. lie is strong and
Industrious. his habits are sanitary and he
is trustworthy; most of the pre- udice against
him is the outgrowth of the economic law
of supply and dcmand-for. obliged to com
pete for tho meancst necessaries Of life at
home, the Chinese arc in such enormous
masses that they accept The very lowest pit
tance for stipend Here under this war
measure no such thing can operate In no
way would they intrudc upon the skilled
labor market. lf there could be such intru-
sion, it would be a public affiction. Their
principal occupation and use in this country
would be on the farms and in the crudest
character of labor, such as road making and
repairing.
As a business proposition if we want to
obtain coal, if we want to obtain iron, if we
want to obtain wheat, go to the place
where the coal, the iron and the wheat are !;
if we want labor, we should go where avail
able labor is-and that now is only China.
No time should be lost in getting this
labor. The scarcity Of food and consequent
nigh prices are in large measure due to the
fact that our farms have not been worked
normally, not to anything like their fair pro
ductivc capacity, xpn account of labor short
age.
The result of lack OF forcsi ight is the pen
atty we arc paying. If cargo of coolies
were to arrive here, there would be such a
rush for them by our farmers--frantic for
! hclp-that every one Of them would be hired
before he could be landed. 1t would be {.
scene only eQuallcd by what has been wit
messed when some public spirited citizen has
distributed coal to freezing humanity in this
city.
France is already leading the way by i'm
porting thousands of this rescue labor
The Washington proposal to transfer sixty
thousand negroes from the Porto Rican ISL
ands will in no way solve our problem. In
New York State alone forty thousand men
left the farms last year and (wth the def
cheney growing for the last three years. three
times sixty thousand such laborers would
not supply the needs of New York alone
EDWARD HATCH, JR.
New York, Jan. %, 1915
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