Year: 1878

The telegraph informs US that the
shoemakers of Chicago are on strike,
that the employers offer $40 so per week
while the operatives demand $l2 for the
same length of time. 1t is further stated
that the Six Chinese companies of this
State offer TO furnish the number of oper-
atives required to replace he strikers at
81 sc per week, half the number to be
skilled workmen, the remainder green
hands. If tie Chicago operatives persist
in their demand while the employers re-
main equally stubborn, we may reasona-
bly, hope that ere long the Chinese ques-
tion will be better understood at the East
than it is understood now-that Eastern
people may see the evil effects OF live
machinery upon tho labor market. Ger
tainly Eastern labor, always lower priced
than on the Pacific Coast, has as yet been
brought into no such ruinous competition
as that about to be offered We read Of
the immense number of cramps" who
are roaming all over the West, ostensibly
in search eli employment which will give
them food OF tho hard times which pre-
vail and suffering existing among the
working classes of:he stagnaton Of bus
mess and the devices proposed by phisn-
thropical minds to alleviate the prevailing
distress, and ii looks little hard for
Eastern workingmen il, in addition to
their present trouble they have the ques-
tion of Chinese competition to contend
with. Yet, perhaps it may hasten tho
solution Of the problem. We have al
ways thought and yet believe, that it is
only necessary for our Eastern brethren
to see this matter in all its lights as it is
daily and hourly shown TO US, to impress
them with true sense Of the evils sure to
follow ar uni cstrsined influx of Chinese.
While the evil is kept from their own
thresholds they know nothing Of the
truth OF what we complain ; that is
thing which can only be learned by the
teachings of experience. If the skilled
operatives Of trade in Chicago fnd
their labor brought into a competition
which offers to do what they have been
dong for less than one-half the rates
which their employers offered, but which
were rejected as insufficient, it will show
people OF the East the dangers threaten
ing them from servile labor, ten fold





ional investigations could show them. In
stead of listening to the complaints ofthe
unemployed of California driven frsm
the field of light labor by Coolie compe-
tition, it would become matter directly
affecting their own hearthstones. We
do not know whether the Chicago opera
tives who have Joined in this strike are
right, or wrong. We know nothing OF
the cost OF living, rent, and the thousand
and one causes which 90 to make up the
sum total Of a worllingman's expenses.
We know that although capital is provsr-
bisliy selfish labor is at times equally so
and when it thinks it can take advantage,
becomes tyrannical. We know that la
boring men are mere frequently than
otherwise led by demagogical teachings
to act against their own best interests.
Even in California ten years ago, these
teachings were productive Of such effect
that both the great political parties were
forced into the necessity Of Incorporating
a "ten hour" plank in their respective
platforms, and the Legislature was stupid
enough to pass ten hour law, which was
nullity upon the statute books except so
far as public works were concerned. 1t
is natural TO humanity to want the great
est price in the market for whatever it
may have for sale, and thoso who supply
the labor market are no exception. But,
too often labor demands more than cspt
tai can afford to pay, for capital will not
employ labor at a loss.


In this Chicago matter we think tho
proposition of the Six Companies will ro-
suit in good to The Pacific Coast, though
it may be at the expense Of suffering TO
the strik ing operatives Of that city. 1t
may open the eyes of Eastern people to
the fact that at our doors lies an Empire
which could throw upon our shores
number equal to our whole population,
and scarcely miss them from its crowded
provinces. We do not therefore regard
tho proposition Of tho Six Companies as
an unmixed evil.


Since the above was in type we have
seen a dispatch which states that the Six
Chinese Companies make no suoh con
tracts for labor, that the Chinese in this
State make from $25 to $40 per month
and would not go to Chicago il assured
OF $50. Whether the Six Companies
make contracts or not we do not know,
but we do know that all big contracts for
labor are made with ''head mon" and il
a thousand Chinese are wanted for Chi =
cago or any other point, we do not doubt
they can easily be got.


THE MORE MURDER rRIALs.-Tho
trial of Lord, another OF the parties i'm