New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-08-16
rHE TARIRF AND WAGES.

are not as favorable to H1gn wages As you
Wings, who include a majority of those
who pay wages!'
No, Sir. nothing of the sort. We I'M
derstand, quite as well as you can, that Ne
cessity and Self Interest now govern the
Labor Market-that every man who sells
his labor gets the most he can for it, while
he who buys it aims to satisfy his need at
the lowest market price. To this rule
there are exceptions and notifications, but,
as a general rule, Supply and Demand
regulate the price of Labor As every thing
else.
Then what d. you mean by calling our
Democracy the party of Low Wages =
Simply this, Sir, that the Policy adrO-
Gated and upheld BY that party tends
strongly to reduce and keep dorm the Re
compen,e of Labor throughout our Coun-
try. Individually we find most Employ
crs eager to buy Labor as cheaply and the
Employed anxious to sell it as dearly as
possible; and we don't perceive that the
politics of either make straw's difference.
Look out for No. L. is a maxim which
few are likely to forget.
But the laborer must sell his only
commodity; the employer will buy it if
he can make a profit out of it. The price
will be compromise between the lowest
pittance on which the laborer can exist and
the highest sum which the employer could
pay and have any profit at all. If there be
many buyers and comparatively few sellers
of labor, its price rises; if there be many
seeking work and few who think they can
make profit ont of hired labor, its price
falls. We need not stop to prove propo-
sition so self-eyident.
Well: In our country, Land being album
dant and cheap. and Population relatively
scanty, while taxation. whether in money
or military services, is comparatively light,
there is a natural tendency to High Wages
in Agriculture. Our well-fcd, educated
LabOrers are more efficient than the ignor
ant and badly nourished pcasantries of Eu-
rope, but, after making allowance for that,
Labor is still better paid-in Agricultural
products-than in Europe. A fair farm
hand boarding himself) will average a
bushc of wheat for summer days work
throughout this country; while in Europe
and average peck ofwheat a. his reward.
Thus Labor receives larger share of its
products because Land, Taxation. &c,
take less.
But Man shall not live by bread alone
He needs Shelter, Clothing and many
other products of Mechanical or Artisan
Labor as well. If the farmer has to pay
for Transporting his grain, &c, long dis
lance To buy all these. the net price of his
products WILD seriously diminished. Thus
harvest hand might receive, and often has
received. the price of t,co or more bushels
of Wheat for days work. and yet the
low price of Grain and the high price of
Goods in mi, section cut down his actual
recompense to Il low figure. Before the
Erie Canal wa, made, Wheat in Western
New-York was often down to twenty-five
cents per bushel. and sometimes would not
bring that. while almost everything but
food and fuel was quite high; 50 that the
man whose days wages would buy two
bushe., OF Wheat land even more) could
no; supply all hi, wants with as little labor
g, will answer now. To render lis labor
most productive aud enlarge the circle of
comfort, accessible to HIM. he needs that
the products Of hi, section be so diversified
that there should be employment for Labor
even at seasons when teamwork Is slack.
and that the suplu, products Of it, Agri-
culture may be cheaply and readily ex-
changed for Manufactures.
So far. we believe there i, no serious
disagreement among IL. Il Is no longer
necessary to argue. a. twas in the days of
Hamilton. that Home Manufactures are
desirable. Only in the darkest recesses of
the Slave region is il deemed polite for
community to cultivate one or two great
staples exclusively, and sell them to pay for
supplies from distance of almost every
thing else. The great majority of our Free
Traders now say, Yes, Manufactures are
desirable-we are As friendly to them as
'you are. only we don't believe in taxing
Agriculture to nourish them-let them
grow up more slowly under the natural
operation of the laws of trade
And now we find ourselves confronted
- Il.