44 Minnie Throop England 



native labor or, more recently, imported labor as the solution of 

 the problem. Owing to the increased facilities for communica- 

 tion and transportation labor is more mobile than ever before. 

 It is not improper to speak of a cosmopolitan labor supply, much 

 as we now speak with regard to capital, of a cosmopolitan loan 

 fund. The supply of East Indian coolies is practically unlimited 

 and they have enough confidence in the British government to 

 induce them to set out for the most distant plantations provided 

 they sail under the British flag. 151 The Chinese furnish another 

 and equally abundant supply of labor for colonial purposes. The 

 Chinaman shows the capacity and readiness to take the place of 

 the. negro and the capacity to fill any position from coal-heaver to 

 banker. 151 But there are difficulties in the way of importing labor. 

 In the first place the imported laborer may compete with the white 

 man and cause endless trouble. We have seen the steps taken by 

 the Australians against the admission of natives of India to their 

 country. In the second place, the imported laborer tends to dis- 

 place the native and causes new problems to arise. Colquhoun 

 says: 



" On the one hand we have lands waiting for the labourer, we 

 have whole islands lying fallow for want of hands to till them, 

 we have minerals waiting to be exploited. On the other hand we 

 have the omnipresent Chinaman, ready to swarm into these lands. 

 It seems an extremely simple situation, but mark the complica- 

 tions. In some of these countries white men cannot work. Well 

 and good ! The Chinese will work under his supervision, but — 

 the ever present ' but ' — there is already a native population, who 

 ought not to be jostled out of their place on the land as the Chi- 

 nese will inevitably jostle them. In others the white man can 

 do a certain amount of work, and here he finds that the Chinese 

 undersell him." 152 



The more closely one studies the labor situation the more is he 

 impressed with its complications and the less optimistic does he 

 become of an immediate solution which will give any great im- 



151 Bigelow, Children of the Nations, 308-309. 



152 Colquhoun, Mastery of the Pacific, 308-309. 



220 



