New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-04-02

| Neither associations nor trade unions can IN.
| duce capitalists 70 build faster than the demand
| for houses will warrant. Hence, if you would
have wages remain. those ionrneymen must OF ne
cessity leave the city their trade; and this is
/ what Americans would DO for they are always
ready TO take their labor TO the highest and best
I market or they would apply themselves 70 thar
/ kind Of business in which they can realize the
( greatest profit. But it is very different with the
/ mechanic that has been born aud educated IN To-
! reign countries most OF them ara brought up Ia
cities and have but little knowledge of any osher
/ business than that In which they have served
their apprenticeship, and would almost as soon
starve as 70 leave either the city or their trade
/ the consequence is, that our own country ne
chanics snd labOrers must cOnRent 10 take up With
/ the low pTices of a glutted market or be put 10
/ the painful necessity Of leaving their homes and
| friends to seek new homes in the far w est at an
expense which many Of them are unable to bear,
and all for no better reason than to make room ter
| foreigners in our cities, which il continued much
longer will give to them control Of our elections
and consequently Of our city
Bat perhaps some OF your trade union readers
| will say, We have known instances when q
strike has had the desired effect to raise the price
of wages. Admit that it has, but it has invarla-
bly, been upon the foregoing principle Of supply
and demand. When q strike takes place tney
cease to labor, and reduce the supply; "a that
way the price is raised, but it cannot continue
/ much longer than the supply remains reduced:
For when they return 10 their work the price VIII
come down, unless there has been an increase In
/ the demand for labor. And pine times ont OF ten
the unnatural rise has bad the effect to draw
larger number into the city TO share with them the
high price which had been effected by their strike
and thus increase the supply aud ultimately re-
duce the price below the previous rates.
1t is asked If there is respectable mechanic
/ who has passed through trade union society who
| has not been Heeced of bis ecrniDgs in the shape
/ nr 1rnisa AZ foa md 10 A. which
/ in part to pay roomhre, but more to support un-
worthy members, novices ct their trade, who al
WAYS seek TO live by the industry OF others, II In
/ the end they have been benefited by those socl'
cites? 1t has been the testimony of many that in
/ those societies they have acquired numerous bad
habits with but few, if any, that are good.
But let us look at the principle Of the trade uu'
ion societies which take to themselves the right
to establish the price of labor; for instance, that
! iourneyman house carpenter shall not work for
less than 50 per day, norris any builder allowed to
! employ any one at lower rate under the penalty
of personal violence, or having his windows broken
and the lives of bis family put In jeopardy. 1t IS
asked, where il the justice of such arbitrary awsf
| No one will deny but what there are some men
/ who cannot earn more than half as much in day
! as others; the consequence is that got efficient
mechanic must take up with less than he actually
earns to enable his employer to give work to the
novice or iRdoent, or the employer is obliged to
pay the novice more than he earns. There must
be injustice in either case.
Again, when there is not a suitable inducement
held out to reward the honest and industrious me-
chanic more than the idle and worthless, how can
we expect any advancement among the mechan-
les In some sections of our country il is very
common thing to find mechanics OF the same trade
receiving from ten to sixteen shilings per day,
according to the value Of their services. This is
what we, as Americans, glory and pride ourselves
in, that men are paid and raised In this land OF
liberty according to what they merit
The writer has been q close observer OF the rise
and progress Of our country for more than thirty
years. During that period he has several times
known the commerce and business Of our country
so Frustrated that many of the merchants and
manufacturers became bankrupt the mechanic
without employment and the laborer willing to
work for his food. But in every instance the evil
was brought ON US by overtrading And such are
the energies and enterprise of our merchants and
traders that they always will import more goods
than our exports will pay for. TINS has been and
duty to check the large mportations of manufac-
tured goods-avery large portion OF which can be
produced in our own country, OF more durable
texture, and would prove cheaper Tor the consu'
mer than those we import. Beside, If we manu-
facture them ourselves, it will give employment
to thousands of our people, and will create a de-
mand for our labor which is Indispensable to the
keeping up the price OF labor in this co1ntIy ,c
AN EXPERIENCED MECHANIC.
Remarks.
Our correspondent has not favored US
with his name, but it is palpable from the
tenor of his disquisition that he belongs to
the class of employers, not of laborers, and
has very possibly found the Trades Unions
at some time or other in his way. He is
very we'll informed on one side of the ques-
ton, but does not seem to know much on
the other. The gist of his article is that
mechanics and laborers are ignorant of the
law of supply and demand, and make great
blunders in consequence of that ignorance;
that the immigration of foreigners is an evil
to American workers that Trades Unions
and Associations are bad things, and their
attempt to establish standard rates wages
foolish and harmful and that there must
be tariff to keep out foreign manufac-
lures. Let US briefly consider the points
he brings forward, for though we have Of
ten discussed them, the lessons they suggest
will bear frequent enforcing.
We have no doubt that the law OF sup
ply and demand is true essentially, but its
genuine and legitimate action is no where
seen. Society being universally imperfect
and disordered, it is inevitable that thOus-
and causes should disturb the action of this
law. and in fact, nullify it as far as possible.
Were the social organization every where
conformed to the absolute principles Of ma
ture, were Industrial and commercial har-
mony realized, and all temptations to injus-
tice and oppression eradicated, then the
law of supply and demand would be In