New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-07-20

ing favors Of any one. stu, there Will a.
ways be enough immigrants stopping in the
seaports-many too poor or too ignorant TO
DO otherwise-to keep Labor relatively
much lower here than elsewhere.
The Cities, then, must swarm. We hoped
we might be able before Congress adjourned
to proclaim the Public Lands Free, and ex-
hort every needy man to hasten thither and
take possession Of Home. We now fear
that Congress has wasted so much time in
wrangling about Slavery that nothing deci-
sive will be done with the Land question
But Free Land is certain-it will come be-
fore another Presidential ElectiOn-and it
is high time the Laboring Poor were quail
flying themselves to accept and improve the
blessing. There are tens Of thousands in
our city, hundreds Of thousands in our sea-
ports generally, who ought 10 be learning
the use Of the az, the pillow, the scythe, the
pruning hook, preparatory to the glad hour
which shall witness the recognition of the
Right Of All to Homes.
Our Laboripg Poor are unwiSely short
sighted, which is one reason for their re-
naming poor. Fifty Irishmen or Germans
land here some morning and want work.
Suppose three chances are open to them
|. To stop in the City and work as labOrers
when they can get work. for nine shillings
per day; 2. To 20 two or three hundred
miles inland and work on a Railroad at
ninety cents per day; or 3. To work for
good farmers at eight dollars per month for
a year-of course, with board and washing,
and no deduction for bad weather. Now
BALI these men will accept the first offer and
the other half the second, while scarcely
one will think the third chance worth his
notice, and yet it is the best of the three.
At the end Of the year, the farmers men
will have saved quite as much as the others,
while they will have learned what is worth
more to them than all their savings. Ten
years hence the City labOrerS and the Rail
road graders will be just as poor and not
nearly so strong and elastic as when they
landed. while the farmers men will very
likely have farms and dwellings of their
own.
Our farmers nearly all cultivate their
coil with too little labor-in other words,
they don't half cultivate it. A very COM
mon excuse is that Labor is so scarce and
so high that they cannot afford to have
more of it. We believe this great mis-
take. vet there is something in it. The
prices of American Labor are often quite
as high as our slovenly system of halffarm-
ing will Justify. But if our large farmers
would acquire the habit of hiring one or
two experienced, skilful Americans at lib
eral wages, and with them six or eight I'm
migrants, who have willing hands but
everything to learn, and who could be had
at comparatively low wages, because worth
no more, the benefits would be general.
The produce would be doubled the immi'
grants would gain the instruction and ex-
perience they so much need, and for want
Of which so many of them throw away
the best years of their life in doing work
badly, unskilfully and out of season on
holdings of their own; and the American
workers would be worth more than now,
their skill and experience serving wider
purpose, and they could be paid more.
Next year, the immigrants would be worth
higher wages and the year after they would
be qualified to 60 on lands of their own
and there will be Free Lands by that time.
There ought to be IN this City Public
Office to which a man wanting Laborers
might send from any part of the Country
and be sure to have his want supplied fairly
and promptly. Here is the great depot and
receptacle Of Surplus Labor, for which there
is generally demand elsewhere, but the
means Of intercommunication between those
who want and those who are wanted are
very imperfect. Private Intelligence Of
fees will never subserve the end, for if one
should succeed dozen would be started,
ard the multiplicity would destroy the util-
| ity. But if there were one Office to which
any man wanting laborers in any specified
capacity might apply with perfect assur
ance that the very men he wanted would be
sent if in the City unepgaged and willing to
go, great benefits would accrue to both City
and Country, and especially to those who
now wait long for employment. Why cannot
such a Laber Exchange be openedi