New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1849-01-11
w...s asd Prohts In Manufactories -sooia'
Anarchy.

.t.ption Let US consider u.
That the prices Of our Domestic Manufactures
..osr,Ily are lower and the difficulty Of selling
60 Greater than formerly. certainly needs 10
su,ooo,,ration. The Price Currents, the Official
.,.,sroepts Of Importstons, furnish abundant
800 Of the fact. That Iron masters for exam
,Ie oanno, afford to pay wages when their pro
a,c, i, dull at $40 per ton which they could very
wsn ,ford when the same article was quick at
ssO. sarely needs no exsrlnsc proof. And If for
,os, nrices were somehow maintained as quota
ZION. vet the homemade fabrics were elbowed
and iostled in our markets by rival Foreign pro-
Act. 40 As 20 render sales slow and difficult which
trmerly were prompt and easy, that would ope-
rate AZ dsadv geously as a reduction Of prices.
man employing a capital Of 100000 ia making
Cotton sheetings, for instance, and able to sell
every yard at net profit Of one mill as soon as It
reaches the market can live and often thrive
when by selling the same goods at FIVE times that
pros, bu. being obliged TO wait a year for e mar
het no would be ruined. An eager market, small
profits and quick returns are the elements Of
healthy and prosperous bushes.
But our markets are now slutted with Foreign
fabrics sales are slowy and with difficulty effect
sd our warehouses are choked with unsold pro
ducts many factories are Stacking of their work
some have stopped entirely, and few are al
ready in the keeping Of the Sheriff. AL the man
ufacturing establishments in the country could To-
day be bought for less than cost, and but for the
hope Of change Of National policy affecting
them could be bought for great deal less Ia this
state Of things-with heavy stocks OF their pro-
ducts on hand and unstable, with scanty or no
dividends on the last years business, their books
often showing heavy losses instead, many Of them
have resorted TO the expedient Of reducing the
Wages Of Labor.
This 10 in precise accordance with the theories OF
Political Economy which for some years have pre-
vailed in this country. All along 1t has been pro-
claimed lsee B achansn's speech in lstO) that the
great obstacle TO Manufacturing success and staoih
~ here was the imitation ofou Currency and Prices
that the one way 10 protect and maintain our Man
ufsctures was by reducing the money cost oil the
elements OF Production, 90 that they might com
pete With their European rivals IN all the open
markets Of the world Thus Says Mr. Buchansnl
n a piece of German cloth costs but ESQ, while
like piece Of American cloth costs elOO the only
vav 10 give the American maker fair chance Is
20 reduce the cost Of making the article here to
$50. and the IN he may defy competition OF course
the partisans OF this theory seldom say, In so many
words, you must reduce the Wages Of Labor
but they can't mean anything else. To reduce the
coat OF piece Of American cloth from 500 TO $50
YOU must reduce the cost OF the Wool, the Carding
Spinning, Weaving. Dyeing, &c. There is no
other way. Shutting out foreign competition VIII
cten reduce prices by securing to our producers
an pie and quick m arket instead OF partial aud
do one but TO this the Free Traders are ayerse
They could not have failed TO see throughout that
the adoption of their theories involved serious
reduction OF the Wages Of Labor.
But the moment that reduction becomes imper.
alive and begins to be effected, they set up gen
sral howl at the niquity and ropaoity of those on
whom is imposed the necessity OF enectng 1t
They fegn Indignation at those on whom they
have cast the burthen Of carrying this feature, tins
essential result Of their policy into effect. Read
ing their journals or listening 10 their speeches
you would suppose that they had always opposed
ani resisted the policy which renders this reduc-
tion inevitable.
To make this necessity manifest, only the sim
plest exercise of honesty and common sense IS re
quisi,e. Over in England, separated from us but
by ferry Of eleven or twelve days, there are
thousands engaged in making cloths, with riper
experience larger capitals, low rates of interest
more extensive and therefore more economical es
tsblishnents, and in the average superior mach-
merry to those at the command OF our manufac,ur-
ers The cost Of whisking over fabrics is scarcely
worth mentioning Now abolish, as nearly as
NAV be, the Duties, land our thirty, twenty five
and twenty per cent sd vslorems come very near
this, especially in view OF the thirty per cent. du-
ty on the Hemp and coarse Foreign Wool from
which q large proportion Of our ooarer fab
RIGS are manufactured and how Is 1t possible that
American Wages should remain, as they have
been. from forty to one hundred per cent. higher
than those paid for similar service in England =
We cannot see how any candid man can fail to
perceive that our Duties must so up or our Wages
come down.
We speak here of the general result, not as
Stunning TO decide whether any particular redae'
tion at any given time was or was not imperative
We SEQ what must be without presuming TO de-
eide when or Just how far 1t must be. But there
10 one fundamental assumption underlying al this
discussion Of the Reduction Of Wsges especially
by those who would use 1t to make capital for
Loco Focoism, which we wish now to consider.
A company have subscribed capital, erected
factory, stocked it and set 10 work, and have per
hsps done middIing well for years. AT length
they find they are sos doing well, and decide that
they must get their work done cheaper or stop
dong Now we recognize fully the right of the
Hired Workers to combine and resolve We will
have 90 much for our labor or we won't give IL
], 10 their right to do so, and long they don't
interfere with the right of others to work or no,
they please, any ten, hundred. thousand or million
have q right to make such a compact aud live up
10 it. But the employers also have rights. and
among them that Of saying how much they can
Pay and where they must stop we speak here
Of the Employing Class we do not admit the
moral right Of one or Of few to screw dow u
wages below the general rates paid all around
them.)
Bat We see newspapers, which must know bet
ter, arguing in this fashion. The manufacturers
Aors made money az some time therefore, they