Times Advocates Importing Chinese Workers for Menial Jobs

“It Happens in the Best-Regulated Families,” by Clare Briggs.

March 2, 1920: People – especially women – are drawn by a live model who stands perfectly still in a display window at Harris & Frank’s shop on Spring Street. On the jump, The Times advocates importing workers from China on three-year contracts to perform menial farm jobs that Americans don’t want and won’t take.

The Times says Chinese workers should be imported -- temporarily -- to "till the farms and perform other 'inglorious duties' of American industry." But only for three years. And according to The Times, these imported laborers won't be taking jobs away from anybody because Americans won't do them. "American workmen shy from farm labor. It is too similar to that performed by the horse and the ox; there is too great a requirement for muscle and too little for intellect. The average American workman knows he is capable of better things," The Times says.