The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-04-30 00:00:00

IMPORTANT TO INTENDING
EMIGRANTS.

In a recent report of the New York Association for
Improving the Condition of the Poor we find a state-
ment made, regarding the distress prevailing among
the working classes of that city, which will not • little
astonish those who suppose that labourers have but to
emigrate to America to secure a competency for life.
It is asserted—sod the assertion seems to be accepted
by the press generally as correct—that early in Decent.
her last it was estimated on trustworthy data that
50,000 men, and at least as many girls and women,
dependent on their daily toil for subsistence, were
without employment in the city of New York. High
as the wages appeared of those who bad work the
report adds, the purchasing power of these wages was
not commensurate with the increased cost of living.
The seemingly ample remuneration of labour fails to
put the labouring classes in as favourable a position as
they occupied before the war.
Commenting upon this statement, the Freetrader
offers in explanation of the lamentable state of elf tire
depicted in it the following facts. Previous to 186 S,
the port of New York sustained not lees than twenty
great shipbuilding yards, employing, with the sub-
sidiary trades—joinery, eparmaking, sailunaking, and
the like—not less than 20,000 skilled mechanics and
1,000 apprentices. At the present time these yards
ha. e either ceased to exist or they are lying idle. In-
stead of 20,000 skilled mechanics, shipbMlding and the
trades subsidiary to it are not now furnishing employ-
ment to 1,000, nor are there 100 apprentices now
serving their time to those trades. This state of things,
the Frearader aekures us, is not confined to New
York. The Albany and Troy stoneworks have
also been closed ; and in Chicago, the centre of the
Western corn•growing regions, 30,000 men are out of
employment. The protectionist tariff is, of course,
the cause. Ships cannot be built, although they enjoy
the benefit of an absolute prohibition of all foreign
competition, because they cost fully half as much again
as in the British provinces or on the Clyde. And as
ships cannot be built, not only those directly employed
on the construction of ships, but the sail and spar
makers, the engine makers, and the copperers also are
thrown out of work. The duty on iron, amounting to
eleven dollars a ton, increases the cost of every article
made of that metal 55 per cent.
With reference to this diminished purchasing power
of money, the Fred ruder states that the duty on wool-
I less averages 53 per cent., and in some instances
reaches 160 per cent. ;being highest on the coarsest
kinds, it consequently doubles the price of the stout
goods worn by the poor. Again, Nova Scotian coal
could he sold in Boston for about six dollars a ton,
while Pennsylvanian coal costs eight dollars ; a duty
of two dollars is, therefrre, imposed on foreign coal,
and the price of fuel to the operative is thereby in-
creased nearly 40 per cent. The duty on lumber is 20
per cent., that on window-glass is upwards of 70 per
cent. Increased cost of materials increases the cost of
houses, and, of course, also raises the rent of tene-
ments.