Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1849-02-15

those paid for similar services in Englanda We
cannot see how any candid man can fail to per-
ceive that our Duties must go up or our Wages
come down.
We speak here of the general result. not as
suming to decide whether any particular reduc-
Ltion at any given time was or was not Imperative.
We see what must be without presuming to de-
eide when or just how far it must be. But there
is fundamental assumption underlying all this dis
cusson of the Reduction of Wages especially by
those who would use it to make capital for loco
Focosm, which we wish now to consider.
A company have subscribed capital, erected a
factory, stocked it and set down to work. and have
perhaps done middling well for years. At length
they are not doing well, and decide they must get
their work done cheaper or stop going. Now we
recognize fully the rig hi of the Hired workers to
combine and resolve, " We will have so much for
our labor or we won't give it." 1t is their right
TO do so, and so long they don't interfere with
the right of others to work or not as they please,
any ten, hundred, thousand or million, have right
to make such compact and live up to It, But
that Of saying how much they can pay and where
they must STOP eve speak here to Employing
Glasses; we do not admit the moral right of one
or of few to screw down wages below the gen.
eral rates paid all around them)
But we see newspapers which must know bet
ter, arguing in this fashion The manufacturers
have made money at some time; therefore they
ought to pay as high wages as they have done,
even though they run their works at loss. All
this. by the way is in its best aspect directly in
the teeth of the Free Trade theory, which as
sumes that whenever money cannot be made by
employing men in given way, it is proved that
they can be more adyantageously employed al
something else, and to be dismissed to seek such
employment We cannot realize that any more
obligation rests proprietors to run their works
at loss, even though they have formerly made
good dividends.
But do the gentlemen who are voluble in bar
rooms and eloquent in journals on the right and
wrongs Of labor in factories even begin to prac-
tice on the principles they present to others &
Suppose one of them has realized $4,000 by
printing newspaper, (and the same in any other
department of enterprize) how long will he con,
tinue that paper after it has become hopeessly
losing concern, in order to insure good wages to
the printers employed thereon!
Follow the man who has just declaimed so ell
oquently on the oppression of Factory Worker.
home to his dwelling, and see if he hires labor
domestic or other, on any better principles thar
hat Of he r.ot Go u vhof
will fetch. Where is the farmer, the mechanic
/ the merchant, who pays fifteen dollars montl
/ for labor that he could hire for twelve7 Are no
the very teachers ofour Children male and female
IN non-manufacturing sections the country, paic
less for that most responsible service than h
average earnings of those employed in the Fac
tories Who are there, outside of the Factories
who make abstract Justice and Fitness, insteat
of Interest and Necessity, the rule of their bar
! gaining Now if there be movement in favo
of radical reform in the principles buying ant
selling, of hiring and paying--a movement to sup
plant Necessity by Justice in the government o
these important relations-we say amen to it, mos
heartily but we protest against applying rul'
to single class which NOBODY else is governed
! by. You, Mr.. Orator at the laborers' indignation
meeting, when you look out to buy dress o
Merrimac or Fall River Prints, never think of ask
ing or paying what the goods cost the makers O
merchant--you ascertain what they can be bough
for-and, though that be ten per cent below th'
cost of production you do not think of paying an.
more. Nay though the maker were to tell yol
that he had supplied you cheaper for years THAI
you rould have bought but for his making, yol
will still say" What is that to me Trade il
governed by the law of supply and demand-yo,
sell for all you can get. while buy as cheap a
cam" We do believe higher and better Law
will yet be accepted; but, SO long as this is ;h'
law for every body else. with what justice shal
we seek to force another upon manufacturing com
panies alone
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