New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-10-23
TO WORKING MEN.
How 70 Increase Competition for the Par
chase Of Labor, and how 10 Raise the
~, scs of the LabOrer.


A Correspondent requests Us to explain
more fully than as be says have heretofore done,
how il il thst the man who has labor TO -ela il tn,
case with most Of us-is benefited by Pfo'ectioa aud
how |, Is that he is injured by the British FreeTrada
system.
In reply we might, we think. refer him 70 his own
.,nost purely agricultural neighborhoOd, where he
could. without difficulty find hundreds OF men, and
Hundreds OF women and children, wasting more time
than would, if properly employed purchase twice ths
ciothipc and twice the machinery of production they
are now enabled to obtain. Why, however he will pro-
ably ask is il that they do wssteti Because there
10 no demand for 1t except in agriculture and when
that Il the cose there must necessarily be great waste of
time At one season of the year the farm requires much
labor while at another 1t needs but hte, and If Us
neighbors sll farmers they are all In the same sit
uation the weather is fit for blowing, they and their
horses and men are all employed II it is not they
all idle In winter they have all of them little 10 do In
hsrvest-time they all overrun with work and
crops frequently perish the ground for want of the
aid required for gathering them. Now u would seem to
be quite clear that there existed soo other mode Of
employment that would find demand for the surplus
labor of the neighborhood ell would be benefited The
who had days labor 10 sell could sell it, and with
the proceed Of the labor off very few days wasted
could purchase clothing for his children r. indeed the
labor Of those children, also wasted did not more
than pay for all the clothing not only Of themselves but
OF his wife and himsef
In order that our readers may clearly how this
state OF things effects all laborers those who are
employed, must now ask them to examine with Va
the manner in which the prices of all oommodites are
affected by of supply demand or Of demand
supply 1t is well known to all Of them that when
the crop Of peaches or of potatoes , IN even oery
small degree in excess Of the regular demand the ex-
stence Of that email surplus far dminishe the price
that the larger crop will not yield much as a much
smaller would have done Ii Is also known to them
that when The crop little less than is required to
supply the demand the advance In price IS large and
the farmer then grows rich In this latter tho
chasers looking for sellers whereas in the former
one the sellers have TO seek the buyers Now labor Is
acommodity that some desire to SELL and that others
desire TO buy precisely the with peaches but
has this disadvantage when compared with any other
commodity TINT ii Ia loss easily transferred from the
place where exists to that at which it needed and
tat the loss resulting from tie absence Of decad on he
mot greater than in reference any Other commodity
uaatscever The man who raises hundred bushels OF
potatoes Of which only nnety-fve needed ut home,
csn send tho remaining Eve to distance OF hundred
or thou and miles and the loss ho sustans ia only that
which results from the fact that the price OF tho whole
q almost fixed by what he obtain fol the surplus
bushels burhcned they with heavy cost OF trans
portstio that he must LOSE for the tibet must goto
distant msrket must ALWAYS pay The expense ofSest'as
here This is heavy loss certainly bAt It Is trivial
when compared with that sustained by him who has la
Dor TO SELL because that cannot be carried TO another
market and must Be pased If no has two spare hours
day to SELL he finds that they waste Themselves in tho
very act OF seeking distant market, and his children
may 20 in rage or suffer from hunger because Of
his inability TO find purchaser for the only commodity
he has to sell So too, with the man who has dsys,
weeks or months of labor for which he desires to find
purchaser Unwilling TO leave his wife and Children to
70 TO a distance, he RENAME to be constant weight
upon the labor market and must continue to remain
until there shall arise increased competition for the pur
chase Of labor 1t is within the knowledge Of every
man who reads ts whether he be shoemaker, halter,
tailor printer brickmaker sonemason, or laborer, that
half dozen unemployed men in his own pursuit keep
down the wugcs Of all shoeskers all hatters all talors
or printers whereas woges always rise when there s
demand for few more than are in the neiShborhood
The reason for this to be found in tho difficulty Of
transferring labor from the place at which exists to
that st which is needed and it is TO that We have to
attribute the fact that the tendency to depression in the
veces of all labor so very great when there Is even
very ANAL excess Of supply and tho tendency to ce-
rafion 60 great when there is even very small excess
Of demand Men etarve in Ireland for want OF EN-
plovment and vet the distance between them snd the
people WHO here earn dollar day i. one that could
be overcome at the expense OF fifteen or twenty dollars
Wages NAV be high In part OF the Union and low In
another ard yet Thousands must reman TO work at low
ones because Of the difficulty of Transporting them'
selyes their wives and their families 10 the places at
which their se vices are needed Every such man tends
TO keep down the wages of al other ms clio hoes labor
10 sell and therefore every is interested in having
all other men fully employed and to have the demand
grow faster than tho supply Ihs is the best state Oh
things for all capitalists and laborers whereas to have
the supply in excess of the demand is injurious TO ALL
employers and employed. Al prcfi BY increase 'n tie
competition for NE purchase Of labor and all suffer from
taoreassd competition for The salscfd
We had occasion, but little while since, to visit
factory in which were employed two hundred
females Of various ages, from fourteen to twenty,
who were earning on an average three dollars
per week. making total of ak hundred dollars
per week, or thirty thousand year; or as much as
would buy FIVE hundred thousand yards Of cotton cloth
Now these two hundred females to represent
one hundred families, it would follow that their labor
produced Eve thousand yards Of cloth per family, being
probably three times much In value rs the total con-
sumption of clothing by all its member from the
parent down 20 the infant child.
Let US now suppose this factory closed what then
would be the value of the labor OF th.se girls few OF
whom have strength for field work evenf our habit o.
thought permitted that il should be so cmployed' 1t
would be almost nothing for they could do ite except
homework and the only effect OF sending them home
would be that whereas person fully employed per
forms now the labor of the house, would henceOrh
be divided bowen two or three, all of whom would
gradually loo the hsb, of industry they have been &C
quirng. Tue direct effect Of this would be dlmlnn
tonin the demand for female labor and Ammunition oil
lie reverb While the factory continues in operation
there is ooxpio for TIC purchase osrel labor Thcpa
rent deercs to retain least child neighbor de-
l.Ao 49, Il. IL. L.,