New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-11-04
The Laborer's Interest.

the Working Man, and be would like 10 heei
from us directly on that point.
Now we do not prefer to consider the interests
of the different Glasses in Society as oisoili'eu,
inconsistent with and hostile to each o'her' lhat
there are instances where they seem to be SO, we
admit and deplore: but we insist such instances
are errors to be amended, and not conditions TO
be reasoned upon as natural and immutable.-
But, waving that for the present, we shall en-
deavor hastily to answer our correspondents diff
fculty.
We premise, then, in the first place, that it is
clearly the Laborer's interest that the exchanges
of the fruits Of his labor be as direct and simple
as possible. II nne-tenths of all the products of
his labor are consumed and like proportion of
the articles required for his subsistence are pro-
duced within days ride Of his residence, then
it is obvious that the portion OF his earnings
which must be absorbed in the payment of ex-
changers and transporters of products Will be
vastly less than in case his products must be
| sent to Europe or India for market, and his
wants supplied thence. For instance-he is a
farmer, and sells Grain for Cloth. Now if the
Cloth is made in his own Country he will pay
very little more Grain for it than the cloth-maker
receives; but if he buys his Cloth in England
and sells mis- Grain there he must inevitably give
a great deal more Grain for his Cloth, or the
cloth.maker must give great deal more Cloth
for his Grain, than in the former case. Allowing
that the Cloth can be made near where the Grain
grows-that there is no serious natural imped-
ment, then it is certain that the greater distance
is placed between the two classes Of producers,
the smaller will be the net reward of their labor.
Allow Free Trade, and the Cloth may continue
to come here from England, and the Gran.grow-
er's surplus to 90 there in payment; yet it is not
the less palpably true that Tariff which should
bring the Coth-naker to the side Of Farmer
would increase substantially and signaly the
earnings of both And this is equally true Of the
Laborer as Of the Employer; for the Wages of
Labor are always governed essentially by the
profits of the work on which he is employed
This ground we have heretofore stated more fully
Let us proceed from laws to facts:
| Our older men can all remember the time
| when workmen's wages were no better than now,
and the cost of the articles they must purchase
was dearer. Fifty years ago we bought our
Cloths almost entirely across the scas and such
clothes as our young men wear now cost more
than twice as much Money or Labor as at pre-.
sent. We are sure that great portion of this
improvement has been consequence Of our par
tial Protection to our own Industry
Take another case: Twenty-four and FIVE
aro active inducfrIouc roupr ,,-cn,on
New.England were glad to do homework for fiji.
ty to seventy.fiye cents, and at the highest one
dollar per week. We knew active and faithful
ones to work by the year at fifty cents week.
Now young women Of the same class receive an
average of trice to three times the prices then
paid, though the price Of nearly every article they
buy is decidedly lower than it then was and the
majority of them 1oill not go out to do houseuork
at any price-not from idcness, but because they
prefer to work in factories, where their employ.
ment is less scrvile, and the days work has an
end to it. When we were in New.Hampshire
two months since, we visited the families Of Sc
ven substantial Farmers, Mechanics and Mer-
chants, and in not one was there woman en-
would work for such wages as men in mddling
circumstances could pay, as they could do better
in the factories. Where any young woman of
character and capacity does work, she requires
and receives Difference to her feelings and her
convenience such was not dreamed of thirty
years ago. And indeed one Loco Foco friend of
offered it principal reason of hostility to
the Protective Policy that it had made all the
girls too independent to 60 out to homework, too
exacting to be of any use as servants, and raised
their wages so that none but a rich man could
afford to employ them.
But look at the general condition and average
rewards of Labor: No man, surely can doubt
that the Labor of the country is better employed,
better subsisted, and better paid than it was last
year, up to the time that the present Tariff went
into effect. We speak of the general condition,
fully aware that there are still deplorabe instan-
ces Of idleness, want and suffering. We never
supposed, never represented that the best Protec.
tive Tariff was cure-all for Social and National
cvils-wc know that it cannot be. But that
there are this day hundreds of thousands at work
who would now be idle if the Tariff had been left
at a uniform twenty per cent. level, and that the
aggregate earnings of the labor Of the country
many millions month more than they would
have been in that case, We have not a shadow
Of doubt.
For do but look at the present attitude of the
Laboring Glasses of Our great Cities-of those,
we mean, who work for wages. Do we not near
of strikes for wages on every side? -of combina-
tons fworkmen to obtain better terms, and often
OF meetings ofemployers to accede to them Now
we do not say that these strikes are always polite
or lust-we have known instances where we
have thought they otherwise. We seek
| none of tho ,N,nularit1 ,rb;cb 20 \, L.