The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-11-07 00:00:00

THE PROSPECTS FOR EMIGRANTS.

The New York Times says :—" Persons abroad wish-
ing to emigrate should remember that the season of the
year will have much to do with their success or failure.
Seasons have a far stronger influence on business in
the United States than in England. Thus, let that
most useful class, farm labourers, come here in the
autumn, and endeavour to dud wink in the suburbs of
cities, or iu the country, or on Western farms, and ten
to one they would WA find a place open, and would be
obliged to support themselves during the winter
months. . . . . But a still more important question is,
are foreign workmen wanted at all in the United
States? To one large class we say decidedly they are not,
and that is the untrained clerks, eqpyiete, and young
mercantile men without capital. They are a drug in
the American market. If they have capital they can,
of course, find openings here. If they have great mer-
cantile experience and skill, they will naturally dis-
cover a demand for their services, but no greater than in
England. But without money and without skill they must
either sink to the bottom or float on every chance tide.
Nor is there any specially good opening in this country
for foreign professional men. The professions are
crowded, and the rewards for talent in them are not so
great as hi England. One class is always in demand
here at the proper season of the year, and that is farm
labourers and farmers with small capitals. But even
among these Englishmen are not usually as well
adapted for our methods, and especially for pioneer
life, as other nationalities. They are not so flexible,
cannot so easily adapt themselves to new ways, and
perhaps have too high a standard of agriculture. An
English workman should either seek a place in the Eat-
urn States or purchase an 'improved' farm in the
Central West, where pioneer work has been done
for him. Stock fauns, especially in Kansas, have,
however, been successfully managed by English-
men. There is scarcely a village in the 'West
where a skilful farm labourer who should arrive in
' the spring will nut at once find employment at good
wages.
• •
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"In regard to mechanics and skilled workmen, it is
somewhat difficult to advise. The whole matter of the
relation of capital and labour is just now in a very
muddled condition. The -Unions will undoubtedly
make it very unpleasant for any foreign medianic who
(1,4 s not join them. And yet, if he is in them, he
must stand idle for months, and unite in demaiadin/
higher wages than the country can afford to Pay. It
mechanics woiffil consent to s ',movable reduction
of wages there would unquestionably be a great
revival of work; but in the present condition of
things, with employers cutting down production
and labourers refusing to work, this country can
hardly be pronounced • good place for skilled workmen.
Yet this state of things must be brief. The annual
growth of Cie country necessarily employs a vast
amount mechanical labour, and there will soon be
amyl fps:lbws for experienced mechanics hi every
direction. We think also that for the prevent there is
an ah'indant supply lisr• of unskilled labour, such as
IMAM hod-carriere, conunon labourers and the like,