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Show CHEAP LABOR. Connecticut has established a labor bureau. The chief of this bureau is Mr. Arthur T. Hadley. He has issued a report, re-port, in which he reviews the question of foreign cheap labor. As was to be expected, ex-pected, this report says that foreign cheap labor should not be employed, and cites the Chinese as an example. But this is not all. Chief Hadley says that the French Canadians have a standard of living which it would "be a misfortune to American Ameri-can workmen to adopt. What this standard is we know not, but the French Canadians are a strong, healthy and hardy race, and their standard of living cannot be greatly inferior to produce such a race. Their standard of living no doubt teaches them frugality, and frugality is the thing which the majority of working-men working-men need above all things. Frugality means thrift, and thrift is the great desideratum de-sideratum of the laboring classes. Chief Hadley says that if Italian immigration to Connecticut increases for the next five years' as it has in the past five j'ears, a very perplexing social problem will result. re-sult. Connecticut can scared' bring against the French Canadians and the Italians the same charges that are brought against the Chinese on the Coast. It is but a year or two since the Hungarians Hun-garians who went to Pennsylvania were set upon and mobbed by the miners of that State, and against these poor Hungarians Hun-garians the charge was brought that their standard of living was so low that their very presence was a menace to American workmen. When anything does not suit a certain class they sound the demagogue dema-gogue cry about protecting the American laborer. America has been the home of inventive genius, and this genius has produced its wonderful wonder-ful results because labor in America was scarce and dear, and labor-saving machinery ma-chinery has been brought to its present perfection because the supply of laboring men was insufficient. The American workman deserves every encouragement, but what he needs most of all is to school himself in the ways of domestic economy and to frequent the grog shop less. Extravagance Ex-travagance and grog are the great enemies ene-mies of the American workman, and the sharp competition to which he finds himself him-self subjected by foreign labor will be found to greatly diminish if he abandons the ways of extravagance and vicious j pleasure. |