New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-04-28
GRI.E.EMPLOYMENT.

SELF.EMPLOYMENT.
At a meeting of Journeyman ShoemakerS recently
held in our CITY to consider the subject OF Wages oneO
the speakers took occasion to speak of SELrEMPLoY-
MEsT as The TrJunes remedy for precarous work and
INADEQUATE pay for it, and to condemn our prescription
as impracticable and llusOry
Win impracticable1 Here three four thousand
Cordwaners at work in City, half of them with fam
lies TO support and the residue without. Now it is as
plain as any mathematical demonstration that # the
married ones can cOnrve to live and support their fam
lilies without asking anybodys forbearance or charity
which nneeentweneths of them certainly do then the
single men who live by shOemaking could surely save
fifty dollars each before the close of 1853 if they
really TO trg exercising only the same economy and In
dustrv which must be exerted by their married shop
mates.
Well then We will suppose the sing shoemakersto
have nothing this day but the clothes on their backs and
the tools in their hands, but to be really anxious to i'm
prove their condition. and willing to labor and economic
totbat end wherefore, all even hall them should this
day resolve to thoroughly industrious and frugal hence
forth until their independence should be achieved Thus
working and saving will assume that one Thousand OF
their number will have saved an average OF Fifty Dollars
each by next Christmas and that they shall then be willing
to combine this in efforts to improve their own con-
dion and that of their less fortunate brethren.
But no--let us not put their public spirit and conf
dence each other to so severe test Let us suppose
that they will be ready to invest Oneha OF their savings
in Working Shoemakers Union duly organized under
our excellent General Manufacturing Law, with paid
I'D cash capital of $4,000, in thousand shares of
sos each Let SAem choose Board of Directors,
consisting six of their number and six the best
business men who could be induced to lend their gratu
itous aid to the enterprse-retred merchants shoe
dealers and other citizens of eminent prObty and phi
lanthrOpy Let this Board of Directors untrammeled
by interference from the stockholders 90 forward to a
point irst-rate General Agent General Manager,
with Chief Gutter Supervisor of Work-paying
each the worth of his services in the open labor market
Let Book-keeper and other necessary empOyfs be
gagged rst-rae store taken, with shoprooms over it
or elsewhere for workmen that should be deemed ad
visabe and let operations be commenced on the follow
ing basis
l. Leather and Stock of all kinds to be bought at all
times for cash down. and in the largest quantities prac
tcable;
q Stockholders in the corporation have work from
it i'll preference to others; but work TO be given as
extensively as possible to others.
s. Each workman be entitled to take out stock at
his own discretion, always paying its cost for it on
IL,
value of his work when returned Each article to bear
its makers private mark, aud TO be examined. valued
and paid for at its cash value in market less five per
cent more or less experience should dctate for the
! expenses of conducting the business
A. No article to leave the store until paid for in cash
the wholesale prices being invariably five per cent de-
ducton from those charged by retail and all customers
treated exactly alike
= Each vh
shoproom to pay for it, and every at liberty to do
his work in Jersey, Westchester, Connecticut above
Albany should he see tit The Union, having been paid
IN cash for his stock when taken out would have no
right TO complain if he kept it out month nor even
though he never returned it.
What is there difficult or hazardous in all this What
binders Journeymen Shoemakers doing it easily and
surely as a company of poor Working Men have bought
and made village now known as Mount Vernon of two
or three farms lying little way up the New-Haven
Railroad We really cannot comprehend the obstacles
which our shoemaking critic deemed so insuperabe.
OF course there are difficulties and dangers to be
encountered in this in every other enterprise. The
stockholders might elect incompetent knayish drec
tors or these might appoints worthless General Agent.
&c &c. But the presumption is quite adverse to
these doeful antcipatiOns; and with Efficient faith
full Board any mistake in the selection OF Agent would
be promptly remedied
If such concern were started its store properly
located It's fabrics unsurpassed in excellence and cheap
ness and the requisite appeals made to the public
through placards and advertisements, believe the
Union might give full and steady employment to all its
members at least and the entire capital be turned from
stack into fabrics and from these into cash at least
orce fortnight If SO, and only one per cent. profit
charged on the boots and shoes sod the could
divide tweayfour per cent annually among its stock
holders, whit, paying far better prices for work than
now currek
The great peril hitherto encountered by experiments
of this SORT even more formidable than Inexperence is
that of Debt Let Working Mems Union begin in debt
undertake to give credit find its capital inadequate
and begin to borrow and buy stock on time and its ruin
is morally certain The moment your cash runs short
and no more viii be invested as stock call halt You
cannot get by shinning still less by buying stock on
credit and every days laundering On credit will only
settle you deeper into the mre We have witnessed
era hopeless DISASTROUS wrecks caused by neglect Of