Kearney and Knight wrote “Our Misery and Despair” to promote the social cause they believed in at the time. Their appeal was a powerful response to the corruption, bribery, and cronyism in the 19th century United States. Rich people with political influence who would now be labeled as ‘oligarchs’ are defined in the document in terms common for the époque. The authors call them ‘land monopolists’, “bankers”, and “money men”. The tone of the appeal can even be characterized as “socialist”, as Kearney and Knight advocate for the need to give real power to the working class and fight for closing the income gap between the rich and the poor. They express these arguments in a very strong argument, up to the point of “taking charge of the government” by “workingmen”.
Interestingly enough, this very socialist tone is further substituted by much more nationalistic advocacy that would be considered as “right-wing” rhetoric nowadays. Kearney and Knight link the abuse of power by “money men” to another issue in California – the Chinese immigration. In the authors’ view, the ruling class, typically for the aristocracy, designed a plan of using very cheap labor. In order to maximize, the profits they turned to immigration as the source of working hands that would not cost anything to their masters.
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The document is quite explicit to suggest that Chinese immigration is taking away jobs from “working men” of California. In fact, the text ends with the ultimatum that “California must be all American or all Chinese”. There is a very definite connection between the race and labor problems in the eyes of the authors. They elaborate on the issue of Chinese working habits and the relationship between companies who hire them to conclude that slavery had returned to the United States. In the opinion of the authors, the particular immigration from China with a powerful emphasis on the race is impeding any job growth in California.
Irish-born socialist Joseph McDonnel has written yet another piece on the same issue, but from a very different perspective, the same year in New York. He puts forward very progressive arguments comparing the outcry against the Chinese with previous dissatisfaction toward immigrants from various European countries. McDonnel’s central thought is that no particular group of immigrants should be discriminated based on their origin. In his view, the negative sentiment toward Chinese immigrants is motivated by the capitalist plan to enslave people and cut down wages in the United States.
McDonnel advocates for the campaign against the system of “low wages and long hours” instead of fighting with immigrants. He believed in the conspiracy of the rich that called for “an international labor action”. In his opinion, the rich, or “the capitalists” as he calls them, were the real villains that fueled labor issues in the United States. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that he includes in this group “false politicians” and statesmen who were also behind the enslavement of poor immigrant groups.
Both documents depict vividly the transformation of the interaction between race and labor in the United States. In fact, the period of 1870-1930 through massive industrialization, immigration, and urbanization, has largely shaped the American perception on the issue. It was exactly the period when the US became the only large country in the world whose economic development depended significantly on immigration from three big areas: Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Unfortunately, the benefit of immigrants’ labor potential has not always been valued, as the labor market experienced the efforts to constrain the mobility of workers, often based on their race, and reinforce control of employers. (Glenn, 2002)
Treatment towards different races in this period was very complex. In fact, except the obvious discrimination in labor rights between white workers and other races, unequal treatment was present on other levels. For instance, Asians, especially Chinese, were subject to a very brutal treatment with virtually no labor rights at the time when African Americans had already gained some protection as a labor force. (Zieger, 2007)
All in all, the period before the World War II is best characterized as the time when labor rights depended heavily on one’s race and origin.
- Glenn, E. (2002). Unequal freedom. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
- Zieger, R. (2007). For jobs and freedom. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
