The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-11-14

chase even the poorest clothing.
Mr.. YOU'VE next gave his readers an extract
from the work called London Labor and Lon
don Poor" by Mr.. MAYHEM, originally EN-
ployed by the Morning Chronicle to collect
facts in illustration Of the condition of the peo-
pie of England, and then discharged because
he refused 10 garble The facts in aid Of The pre-
sent system, by which GREAT BRITAIN is sacri-
ficing her own people, in the vain hope of con
tinuing her mastery over the farmers and plant
ers of the world. The passage read was as
follows:
'Dlr. Mayhem has been informed upon unques-
tionable authority that, owing to the cheapness
of provisions, general reduction of wages is
contemplated by the manufacturers throughout
the country. Should this be the Gaze, it will at
least open the eyes Of the people generally TO the
Manchester motives for carrying free trade. The
benefit derived from the alteration Of the corn
laws will then stand thus: 20, DOC, 900 quarters OF
corn reduced from 50s to 40s. per quarter equal
ElO, O0O,O 900 sterling gained by some class or
other. BY whom, is the question? Certainly not
by the landlords, or farmers, agricultural la
borers; and if the wages of working men be gen
orally decreased in consequence of the cheapness
of fuod-which was said would be such benefit
to them-it certainly cannot be alleged that the
Operatives will have ultimately gained one penny
by the measure; and since neither artisans nor
agriculturists will have benefited by the change,
who must have pocketed the El0, 900 900 saved
by it but the very manufacturers and traders who
advocated the alteration, and used the poor
merely stalking horse to cover their own
dishonest ends Of course, to capitalists cheapness
Is the greatest possible bLsssing-to souer-
eign TO exchange for t,Dcs the precious quantity Of
commodities is 10 double the income of each capt.
talist through the country; but since this very cheap
is no,p brought about by the cheGpening of the
labor upon tohich alone the loorking has TO liue
that which is said by economists to be the great
est possible benefit to the community is gain
only TO the small portion of it termed the moneyed
class."
The receivers of salaries are to have their
revenues doubled-and the receivers of divi-
dends are to have their revenues doubled; and
these things are to be accomplished by the same
means that are leading gradually, but certainly,
to the deterioration and determination of the
laboring population The rich are thus to be
made richer and the poor poorer; and the system
which produces such effects is regarded by our
DEMOCRATIC friends as being in strict accordance
with sound Democracy!
Low as wages already are, "a general reduc-
ton is" we are here informed, Contemplated
by the manufacturers throughout the country"
and upon what part of the consumption of these
poor people will this reduction fall? Being al
ready but little more than half fed, they can
make no reduction in the quantity of food, and
the whole must inevitably fall upon clothing, to
the loss of the cotton-planter and the wool
grower.
We would invite our readers, having stu
died these facts, to reperuse Mr.. Walkers
reports, and satisfy themselves if even single
promise has been realized. The DEMocRATI
press parades its statements of the quantity
of flour and grain exported, but it is care
full TO afford its readers no explanation of
the causes why wheat now sells in Chi
cage at about forty-fve cents bushel and
cotton in New Orleans at thirty dollars "a
bale; all of which is readily explained by the
one great fact, that we are now employing for
eign immigrants, compelled to work at starva-
ton wages in lieu of free men; whose labors SO
recently enabled them to live as became Anne
rican citizens, and to feed and clothe and edu-
cate their children as became children who were
to be qualified to participate in the exercise Of
selfgovernment.
Already have we closed furnaces that but re-
Gently made four hundred thousand bars of iron.
the whole value of which, great as it was, con
sisted In the labor of man, and that labor repre-
sented only the food, the clothing, and the house
room of the laborers; and the whole proceed of
this food, this clothing, and this house room,
went to the farmers and planters of the Union.
In lieu of that great market, they now have
the starving gunmakers of Birmingham, totally
unable to clothe themselves, their wives, or
their children, and forced to live in cellars, be-
cause their whole earnings are insufficient even
for the purchase of sufficient food-and the
men who desired TO make coal and make iron.
are now raising food for themselves and for the
supply of the wretched people of Spitalfelds
and of Manchester. The work, how ever. is as
yet only begun, as our readers will see by the
following paragraph, which we take from one
of our exchanges this day received.
" MEETING OF THE IRoN MEN.-The iron men
held meeting at Ironton Thursday last, and,
among other thlngs, resolved that they would not
the ensuing year make as much iron by forty per
cent. as they have been making. This resolution
was adopted after mature elaboration. The low
price Of iron demanded it as matter Of self pro-
lection to those engaged in its manufacture. They
came to the conclusion that il was against their
interests to consume their stock without realizing
: fair profit upon the iron made. No change is
: intended to be made in the wages OF the laborers;
6 but on the other hand, il unanimously agreed
{ that no reduction should be made
IPortsmouh (Ohio) Tribune.
No reduction is to be made in the rate of
wages, but, as matter Of course. the number
Of men employed must be diminished forty per
cent, and the men thus discharged must either
starve or raise food for themselves, and thus
swell the surplus, by reason of The existence of
which, wheat has been so far reduced in price
that the farmers are everywhere storing it,
waiting the arrival of a new Irish famine that
may come. Truly, their prospects, under the
benign influence of Mr.. Walkers tariff.