New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-04-02
cbsrics and laborers 20, finds something

chanics and laborers go, finds something
more necessary TO regulate the importations
of foreign goods. And yet if it is enough
in the one case, it ought to be in the other.
As for Trades Unions, the case is this:
Workmen find their wages declining
whether from the incoming Of more hands
than are wanted, or from the natural ten
dency Of employers, who are themselves
struggling in the world and must live, to
depress the pay Of the employed. They
see that being isolated they are weak and
helpless. Accordingly, they combine to
discuss what is for their common interest
and to protect themselves as far as posi-
bic against the diminution of their earnings.
Now, we say that this is perfectly legiEi-
mate and praiseworthy. The Trades IN
ions may not be always managed in the
most judiciOus manner; it is not to be ex-
pected that they shoold, and we have often
taken occasion to express our decided dis
agreement with the proceedings of some Of
them. But in the present general anarchy
oflabor, they are an excellent element, and,
as in the case of the printers in this city,
often proceed with judgment and produce
good results. The sweeping condemnation
passed on them by our correspondent
seems to US altogether erroneous, not to
say absurd. With regard to Associations
he makes worse blunder, probably be-
cause they are more recent thing, and he
has allowed himself to fall little behind
the times. The Associations are not
formed with a view to strikes, qaarrels
with employers about wages, &c. Their
purpose is simply to make the workers
their own employers and assure them their
full earnings, undiminished by the en-
ployers' profit. They are simply larger
application of the principle of all partner
ships. 1t is hard to see why anybody not
directly interested in keeping up the de-
pendence of labor should say anything
against them.
Our correspondent is also Nativist, and
evidently wishes there were some means of
checking immigration, but we think him
mistaken in this also. This is large coun-
try, and though there may be temporary
inconvenience from an excess Of foreign Ia
bolers in the large cities on the coast, they
are in the long run benefit to US while
they benefit themselves by coming. The
capital they bring, and their industrial
skill, are positively advantageous, while it
is much better that our soil should feed
them here than that its products should be
sent to Europe for consumption. And we do
not think it such misfortune to American
mechanics and laborers that they should be
crowded from tho oitisO by these new
vv,nv.g. ryvI do we doubt but that the
means will presently be adopted for aiding
the surplus labor thus accumulated in our
commercial ports promptly and surely to
find employment in the interior.
One word as to the Tariff. The primary
object of Tariff, in our view, should not be
to check foreign trade, but rather to devel-
ope and vary our own industry. When any
branch of manufactures or production has
become matured and established, so that
it can fairly meet the perverse opera
ton which supply and demand have in the
present state of things, the necessity for the
protection of that branch of industry has
ceased. ED. Trib.