Evening star., 1933-06-25

terest. The poor, having only vague
ideas as to what will promote their In
terests, may permit themselves to be out
maneuvered.
There is no question on which the
interests of rich and poor are SO
Numerically opposed as on the question
of cheap labor The rich want it. Cham
bers of commerce pass resolutions asking
for it. Manufacturers associations work
effectually to block all plans for the
elimination Of cheap labor. Strange as
it may seem, great many wage workers
fall into the trap and vote for the same
things, or for the candidates who sup
port policies for Cutting the labor mar
ket with cheap labor. Still more strange
is the fact that many reformers, who
profess great sympathy for the poor and
antipathy for the rich, walk blindly into
the trap and support policies which glut
the labor market, reduce wages, increase
unemployment and widen the gap be-
tween rich and poor
Ours is a market economy. Under this
economic system, whatever increases the
supply of labor on the labor market will
depreSs wages and increase unemploy-
ment and poverty. Whatever decreases
the supply of labor on the labor market
will raise wages, decrease unemployment
and improve the conditions OF the
working classes There is no way OF i'm
proving the market for anything except
to increase the demand for it or decrease
the supply of it. That is as true OF labor
as of wheat, cotton, books or pictures.
Immigration of manual workers in
creases the supply of manual workers in
this country. No matter what other re-
forms are instituted in behalf of manual
workers, they will benefit immigrant
workers rather than our own so long as
immigrants are free to come. They are
still free to come from the western
Hemisphere and from the Philippines.
Congress has not extended the quota
law to these parts of the earth. They
who want cheap labor have successfully
blocked all efforts in that direction. Some
OF these objectors have demanded pro-
lection for themselves in the interest OF
an American standard Of living, and
then demanded the privilege Of hiring
cheap labor from other countries in
order to break down the American stand
ard of living.
\A/HAT reason has any American
w manual worker to expect that he
viii gain any advantage from the re-
turn of good times? If he lives on the
Pacific Coast, there will be million
Filipino laborers ready and eager to come
and take the jobs as soon as there are
jobs to be had. They will work for less
than the American expects, and they
will fill the beet fields, the orchards, the
vineyards and the barber shops; they
will become bellboys in the hotels, por-
ters on Pullman cars, buffers in wealthy
families. And the Americans whom they
have displaced will be left to crowd in
wherever they can, and depress wages
everywhere.
The American worker who lives in the
Southwest win have to meet the COM
petition of Mexican poems. There will
be millions ready and eager to come
whenever there are jobs enough. They
will work for less than the American ex-
poets; they will become section men on
the railroads; they will fill the truck
farms, orchards and cotton fields of
Texas, Arizona and California, and
even the steel mills of Gary and Pitts
burgh They will depress the price of
cotton even to American farmers. The
Americans who are completely displaced
will have to crowd in wherever they can
and depress wages in other parts Of the
country.
If the American laborer lives in the
Southeast, he will have to compete with
1uoct Indian Naproes These are eager