American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1846-10-28

The WAGES OF LABoR-Fendlt Operatives
Il NsW Plan Proposed. The wages of female
operatives, and the impositions toe often prac-
tised upon them in our large cities, are tract
ing the attention of the press. The following
from the New York True Sun, upon the sub
ject, will be read with interest:
We cannot come into town ola morning, or
depart in the afternoon, without discovering
multitude of young and, oftentimes, beautiful
girls proceeding to and departing from their
daily tasks in this wide spread metropolis. We
are constrained, when we behold the grouping
Of this interesting class of our community, to
follow them, in imagination, to and from their
homes; and we are compelled to believe many
of those we behold on such occasions are great
sufferers through the want of adequate remu-
neration from their employers for their daily
work. On the gentle attentions of woman we
are more or less dependent for our comforts in
our respective families, and it is incumbent
upon galantry, to say nothing of benevolence,
to look after the worldly prospects of that por-
ton of them, who not only may not have a
homo to partake of, but who are as wayfarers
and strangers among us, and toll for their daily
bread.
The season of Winter is close at hand and
no time can be more appropriate than the pres
ent to inquire, whether it is not possible to fall
upon some plan by which living remunera-
ton shall be awarded by the employers to the
employed.
On this question, we, with all difference,
would observe that it cannot possibly be to The
interest of the manufacturer to undervalue the
ingenuity of those by whom alone his avocation
is sustained. 1t is, on the contrary, decidedly
to the manufacturers interest to cherish the en-
ergy of the hearts and hands through whose
ability and steadiness he obtains stock OF mer-
chandise wherewth to supply at Wholesale in
this city, the retail traders of every town in the
Union. 1t is, indeed the manufacturers duty
as we'll as interest to cherish the energy of
those he employs by the gift of generous price
for their labor-a price adequate to the task
performed. generous price for labor acts
kindly upon the feelings, and the work for
which it is given not only becomes less irksome
to the employed, but necessarily nearer to per-
lection, because It is wrought with satisfacto-
ry, well-remunerated alacrty-the harbinger of
industrious content.
On the other hand, it cannot possibly be of
any great moment to the individual consumer
who purchases at retail to give trfle more for
an article, absolutely necessary to her who
makes it. Sxpence added to the price of an
umbrella can be no material object to the man
who needs so ingenious luxury; yet that one
sixpence, on all tho umbrellas sold, might add
to many females as much possibly, as twenty
shllings week more than they are at present
receiving through the manufacturer not first al
lowing, and next putting the sixpence on to
the price he gets from the retail trader. AS in
the case of umbrellas, with all other articles
made by the combined ingenuity of the hands,
intellect, taste and Judgment of woman.
To carry on wholesale trade in any article
extensively and probably, we take it for grant
ed, then, that it is neither profitable nor req IL
site to enforce the practice of setting too low an
estimate on the value Of the labor by which the
trade alone exists. We say, therefore, and it
is with confidence we say it, that all the injury