Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1841-05-20

~ VHE T. JouIneyInen dIIOI6 VI huB"o'o, ."
feriug under the lash of the most tnalig'
nant oppression and persecution, respectfully
ask the attention of the public to this plain state.
ment of their position and situation.
The employers of this city, on the ninth Of
March last, considering the wages Of their jour-
neynen exhorbitant, united and combined
themselves-not to put dowa the wages to suit
the exigences Of the time-aoithont asking the
cooperation Of the journeymen to correct er-
rors, or put down the rate of items that mightbe
considered unfair or unreasonable, resolved
recklessly TO strike right to the heurt's core Of
the poor mans rights. to tear up root and
branch, his privilege-evento to be acknowledged
a party to bargain in which his necessities
were as much interested as the avarice OF the
employer. They offered US an alternative to
work for their prices or be discharged. Prices
too Insignificant and contemplate to be looked
at by men-if within their hearing we may
presume to call ourselves such. We were dis.
charged. We then offered compromise Of
per cent. to Is per cent, discount on our old
prices, which added to The IS or l8 per cent.
discount on the deprecated money we were
compelled to receive as pay, would make tar
deduction OF 25 to 33 per cent. on the original
prices lit is useless here for us 10 undertake
to show to q mercantile community, that The 70
or 80 per cent. alone is considered fair profit
in any ordinary business. We would also call
remembrance that this rs or 33 per centum is
added to the usual profit on every garment made
and trimmed. or sold 10 order, and necessarily
comes from the customer, and the difference in
the amount that the customer has to pay in
funds, and the deprecated money that they pay
their workman is gain in the employers
hands.) This offer wa' refused as matter OF
course the next proposition should come from
thcm-we waited quietly and silently for this
roposi,ion-instead of offering any they be.
came enraged at the bare idea of parcel Of
poor men npresumipg TO have understanding and
wills of their own.
Maddened with avaricious hunger they rush.
ed like sturving wolves to satisfy their appeti-
tes on any thing that they entce into their fangs
They bring negroes from another state with the
selEsutiied expectutionth that they canH HUMBUG
the community into the belief that the REFU-
SED negro taiIors Of Charleston can produce
as mastery work as ourselves. They giye the
negroes the same prices they offered us. Ne
groes that may live in anyskitchen or hovel
Tor 81 or 81 so per week!i Do they think Us
men7 Do they think us possessed of any sense
offeeling or selfesteem, that they should expect
us to board in novels or kitchens while they
themselves expect not only from the profit asi.
sing from the lahour of one or two journeymen,
toesupport themselyesin the most elegant style
oflving, but lash themselves to madness because
they do not amass fortunes besides.
We have used every honorable means to
bring the difficulty between US to an amicable
compromise we have only endeavored to pre-
vent their taking every dollar that was the
product THE sweat Of our own brows, and now,
in giving up further resistance to the will Of
employers, when driven to the lastextremity, we
ask Of a discriminating public Judge of the rneri,
and dement's OF the heartless oppressors, who
whouId grind US TO the dust for the sake OF
avarice, and the poor man who struggles to the
death to resist such oppression.
WIN. HICKEY,
F. IVES.
WIN. ADDY,
WM LEGG.
J.B. COURTRIGHT,
GEO, SAPPINGTON,
EDWARD OWENS,
JoURSEYMEN TAILoRs ur AUGUSTA.
Augusta May IL, c" 16