p. 16 | American Slavery by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 8, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 14.

American Slavery.

By Editor

A DISPATCH from Kansas City, March 25, reads as follows:—

"With the exception of the Pacific Roads, the railroad blockade has been raised from this city, the switchmen's strike having been settled. Freight is going forward as usual on the Atlantic and Pacific. The terms of settlement are as yet unknown. The men returned to work at 7 o'clock last night by order of the chief of their association, and are themselves ignorant of the prices fixed upon."

If there is any worse case of Chinese slave labor in the United States than that, we have never heard of it. The Chinese, we believe, although under the control of some company, are informed as to the wages they will receive when they are set to work. At any rate their case is no worse than that of the white laborer, yet we have seen no protest against white slavery. These poor laborers are deluded with the idea that they are striking for liberty, while they are in reality in a condition of voluntary servitude to labor "managers." No Southern overseer ever exercised such despotic sway as is exercised by the men who control a large part of the laborers of this country. Oath-bound secret societies have made it impossible to any longer call this a free country.