New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1845-09-05
RIGHTS and Wrongs Of Labor.

cient employment and inadequate recompense at
tribaiing il mainly to the vast and incessant influx
Of Laborcrs from Europe. To remedy this evil, 1t
suggested the formation Of guilds or crafts OF the
regular workncn in the various trades, TO prescribe
the regulations under which persons should be al
owed to follow their several callings, excluding
those who had not served full apprenticeship.
those who had but recently arrived in the country,
&c.--Now we concur heartily in the statement that
Labor is capriciousy employed and in many cases
badly recompcnsed in our City-we admit, moreover.
that the great influx of Workmen from Europe
tends somewhat to magnify the evil Though at least
nine tenihs Of the Immigrants now pass rapidly
through our City, and out into the new settlements
where tho Express admits that they are valuable &c
QUESTIONS; but we protest against the Express
remedies at once inadequate and impracicabe.
Inadequate, because the sources OF the evil lie far
deeper than the Express imagnes and are not reach
ed by lis prescription impracticabIe in that the
workmen who might form such guilds would
have no means OF enforcing their regulations and
ia fact never could enforce them Suppose, Tor
Instance. the Journeymen Stone Cutters OF our City
were to form Society or guild and therein en-
act that no man should be employed to cut stone here
who had not served a seven years apprenticeship
and resided two years in the Country what OF I
The prescribed yorkmen must live somehow they
would GLADLY work for very low wages rather than
starve Some employers might hire exclusively the
regular lourneymen but others would hire the
cheapest they could find, and thereby be enabled 10
underbid their fair dealing competitors and obtain
most of the work We said therefore, that this
plan Of the Express would not work. and TO prove
1, instsnced the Of the Express itself, which
has always refused to pay the regular Scale Of Pr
cesfortype setting adopted by the Journey men Print
ers' Association, or be governed in any way by the
acts Of that body. On the contrary its prices for
type setting have been uniformly many per cent
beior those of the Journeymen Printers guild
or whatever you please to term ito this the Ex
press makes answer;
The Tribune in the controversy with on the wages
oabor steps Of its way attack the Express because
we have never yielded and will yield to the com
binson prices of few Journeymen Printers in their
Trades. Union. We choose to regulate own prices
and journeymen work for not they please 1t is
enough for know that all of satisfied and
tented with each other and that IL ia piece OF mper
for any body tn interfere. We stand the prn
cipie that the employed and employer make bargain
that other has any right TO step in and make bar
gain for us
Very good but this completely upsets your no
ton of improving the condition of our workmen 10y
guilds or whatever you please to call them, to de
termine who shall and who shall not be allowed to
work We cited the Expresses practice to prove
its doctrine a nuty. The Express now avows
doctrines which Justify its practice. We submit
that there never caa be effective organizations Of the
workmen such as the Express commended with
out the concurrence of employers and this is forbid
den by the doctrine of the Express above quoted.
Whichever is right. the Express Of Tuesday or the
Express OF Thursday, it is manifest that both can.
not be- and the public will Judge whether we have
indeed stepped out of our way in refuting our co
temporarys fallacy by its habiiual conduct
The Express SAYS that except with regard to the Ia
rh. we are no Wing. We canno, make that excep
lion in behalf of the Express The passage above
quoted is of the plaincst anti Protective character,
based palpaby on the Let us alone Buy where you
can cheapest Let Trade regulate itself, maxims of
the Free Traders. In the Journal of Commerce or
Evening Post il would have been at home it is not
90 in Whig paper. We could not well defend a
Protective Tariff on the principles here avowed by
the Express
That paper proceeds 10 quote from the letter OF the
Jouneymen Carpenters of Paris TO their Employ
ers which we translated and commended some time
since In that letter the Jouineymen forth tina,
they had work an average. 200 days in the year,
and living in the dearest city of Europe. We're paid
francs as cents per day. or $3.50 per year-that
the cost of living in Paris had been greatly ncrcas
ed since this rate was adoptcd-and that il did not
now afford them toerable much less comfortable,
subsistence concluding
You wish the privilege of making bargains OF beating
down the price of work against this. BE
sured this cheapcning IL the ruin of Industry II kills the
good workman of whose necessities II avas itself IL
makes poor woikmen and oyeservanis. We therefore
ask for each capable workman francs per day for
msrkably good workmen, remarkably ms-adroit ones
the old and the feeble lei separate bargains be made
the labor Of whole night 10 be counted the that
oftwo days labor Of two neighbours that of three
hours by day We ask aid to obtain this for and
remain with due respect yours
THE JoUR>fNNEN CARPENTERS OF PARIS"
On this the Express comments:
These propositions Of the lazy ones who did not be,
eve that IL took two to make bargain and who were
perfectly willing that the old and feeble should shift for
themselves pdrfcck much Of d.rdrdR rdscait that tie
anfhories rerv go,iy arresied he ria eaders and be
the others would not work they supplied their
places with the carpenters in the employment Of the
Government. Il is difficult say whether the mpu
dence the wckrdnes the Stiffness OF this proposition
Of the Partisan Carpenters the greatest And yet
withs;sndng the intrinsic and sclfevident sbsuriiy 81
the proposition oi the Carpenters IL lust suited the cali
bre of the Tribune and the whole thing was given ana
an enthusiastic endorsement
The reader will Judge how far these impuations
Of lazy ones "agrd,1aR rascdiuy." &c &c are
deserved; and whether the French Government
r,ry properly arrested the ringleaders. who were
guilty Of the crime of asking their employers for "a
cents day, which would have given them less than
$500 year each whcrcon TO support family in
City, and that the deares, City in Europe They
were willing tina, poor or feeble workmen should
receive less. rs remarkably skful hands would be
able to command more; but they asked that regu
lar price for those recognized fair hands should
BE- established and that this should be "a cents day
The masters met them with Free Trade logic--fhes
wanted no standard price but tina, every one should
make his own price-which was in effect enabling
the masters 10 pay just what they chose. The
Joarneymen respectfully preferred their caini-ihey
committed no violence uttered no threat, bu, simply
declined to work below what they though, the
lowest sum ON which they could decently live. But