New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-10-13
VOL. EIa. NO. 100.
Protection and working Men.

Mr.. Editor: was lately much entertained oy
the sensible remarks OF working man in reply
to a Free Trade advocate who was railing agalns,
the system of Protection to Home Industry. Al
ter hearing him rant much about the degraded
condition Of the Manufacturers as class-assert
that both young and old were kept in ignorance,
and treated more like brutes than intelligent be-
ngs, and that the great object of employers, re-
CARELESS ofcyery other consideration, was to wiring
from them the greatest possible amount of labor,
and that, too, for the least possible compensation,
our working man replied, that from his own OK
pericnce and information, his representations,
although founded in fact, were most egreglously
exaggerated Such grievances as do exist are
borne mostly by operatives Of foreign BIRTH who
have heretofore constituted a large portion OF our
manufacturers | learn from Them he continued,
what find confirmed by the testimony taken be-
fore various parliamentary commissions IN Great
Britain, that their condition here, somewhat de-
based as it may be- is vastly elevated and I'M
proved in comparison with that Of their brother
operatives Of almost every occupation there
With them manufacturers have reason to con-
oratuate themselves if by the almost supcrhuman
labor Of themselves and their famllles they can
keen starvation from their doors, while a meat
dict IS not general to them even once week; IN
cases of Sickness beggary or the aims house Is
their only resource; and yet, SAID hc 1t is known
and admitted that there IS more intelligence and
less distress among manufacturers than farmers.
This, he observed, is fully confirmed by the fact
that proprietor of land lately testified before
Parliamentary Commissioners that he and others
were in the habit of discharglng able bodied farm
ers whose wages barely supported them, Tor the
purpose of refining the same persons again from
the Poor Masters at still less amount 1t Is
not to be wondered at, then, SAID he, that the
Working Men of Great Britain, who have en-
dured such grinding exactlons there, should think
lightly of the minor grievances to which they are
subject in this Country. Not, SO, however, with
native born working men,-jealous advocates of
equal rights, they calmly inquire into and lnves-
tgate the causes why equitable remuneration for
their labor in providing for the wants of Society
is withheld from them, and then, with energetic
frmness, take measures to redress their grlev-
ances So far from the American Working
Mems submitting to the grinding expressions
IMPOSED upon those Of Great Britain and Europe
by their lordy, prohgate and despotic drones,
they are now successfully reforming the COM
paratvely minor abuses to which they are sub
ect In doing this, they find that the prominent
obstacle to their complete triumph is in having to
compete with the great mass of over worked and
degraded Laborers of Great Britain and Europe.
Now, concluded he, this is subject which is
important to the whole working class either d.
rectly or indirectly to the Mariner, Mechanic and
Farmer as well as the Manufacturer, unless the
object is to reduce the whole working men of this
country, to the degraded level of that in Europe
and Great Britain. 1t is necessary to prevent
this savish competition, to shield them from the
production of servile labor abroad, with which
our country has been flooded for the benefit of the
pampercd and purse proud Aristocracy Of Eu-
rome. PROTECTION.