ON THE SOAPBOX:

Jobs "Americans don’t want"

But we got rid of slavery. And the cotton still got picked.

At the turn of the last century and into the 1920s, legal immigrants were locked in sweat shops and forced to work 14-hour days, as they worked for slave wages. And the owners cried, "No. Please! A 40-hour work week and a minimum wage! We won’t be able to afford it... we’ll go out of business... prices will go sky high. Besides, Americans don’t want to do these jobs."

But we got a 40-hour work week and a minimum wage. And clothes and cars and steel still got made.

In the 1930's, there was the Depression. So many people out of work. My great-grandmother turned her home into a boarding house to make ends meet and fed hobos at the kitchen door for free. Labor was cheap, but there were still not enough jobs. So FDR instituted the WPA to put people to work. "Don’t do that!" the owners cried. "Some of us lost everything in the crash. If you put people to work at good wages, we’ll have to pay more. We won’t be able to afford it... we’ll go out of business... prices will go sky high. Anyway, Americans won’t want to do those jobs."

But the WPA became fact; and it put America back to work.

Then there was war, and a boom time. Afterward there were so many young men coming back from the war and so many young widows who needed work–-but there were plenty of jobs. Still, people felt as if they were worth more, and so they started to form more unions. "No! No! Not more unions!" said the business owners. "We won’t be able to afford it... we’ll go out of business... prices will go sky high. If unions are brought in we’ll hire non-union workers, so Americans won’t be able to do these jobs."

But unions came, and unions won, and union shops raised the standard of living for millions.

Over the next 30 years, the economy went up; it went down. But people and farmers and businesses got by.

Then came the ’80s, years of downsizing and recession, sky-high interest rates and prices. The small farmer lost out to agribusiness. It was the beginning of the end for the middle class. Few could afford to live as they had. Some people, even now, even after the relative stability of the Clinton years, are still out of full-time work. They work two or three part-time jobs to make ends meet.

But even though there are millions of people looking for work, some businesses choose to hire illegal immigrants–-no unions, no minimum wage, no higher standard of living–-and business owners want to keep them. And they say, "If you make us hire Americans , we won’t be able to afford it... we’ll go out of business... prices will go sky high. And, besides, Americans don’t want to do these jobs."

Americans do want these jobs. They just want a decent wage for doing them. And... you know... if we make it a felony to hire illegals, those who want their apples picked, their children nannied, and all the rest of it, will have to raise wages. But they won’t go out of business and prices won’t go sky high.

We did away with slavery and sweat shops and owing your soul to the company store. This situation is the current manifestation of the same old story. It’s time to end it.

• Related stories from Google News