New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-04-18

Iess than the usual aud average rates of wages
Suppose the usual price Of composing In type an aver
sor page Of duOdecimO to be fifty cents and MI lro"
| Mr. Craghead or any other extensive printer were
TO reduce the prices in his establishment TO iortytwo
or fOrty-6ve cents per page would such reduction
effect only the workmen employed by bin Or womb
its influence naturally extend to other printers and
tend to constran them also to reduce their prices
! We say lie undoubtedly would The reduction OF
Wages below the usual standard by employer TENDS
TO invite and even necesstate such reduction on tue
part of other employers He who gets his work done
cbeonest can naturally updergork his rivals and draw
away their business If The Journal Of Commerce. tor
instance pays but $500 per week for setting up Hs
type. and The Tribune is paying $500 for setting like
amount of its type, The Journal has IN tnat i'e 9Ioo
advantage of u.s. and is thereby enabled to under~oTk
us and draw away our custom. We must WORK harder
to live ard make poorer living by hard work. tnan
our neigbbor, contrary the dictates OF natural equity
But why not let every one make such bargains as
they NAV see fit we asked. just look at the
practical working Of that system, and you nave our
answer:
Our Young Mechanics, especially the bachelors hnd
MANY attractions in the great cities A good many Oh
them would come here to live if they could get WORK
Many do come, trusting to their chance OF hning work
here ON or soon after their arrival They come with
very little money, and are soon relieved OF that little
Fancy one of these going great printing concern
like the Harpers in quest of work: What voice mas ne,
or can he have in fixing the price of his aborl Work he
must have at some rate but the Harpers are under no
such necessity Of employing him. There are always
Journeymen seeking employment; there are seldom
Employers in urgent need of Journeymen and unable to
n fha Enulovorc undpr the
Free Trade system pay just such wages they please
If YOU don't choose to work at that rate, can find pen
'tyyho will Good morning, SIR And the needy
Jour has lust this choice profered him Take what
we please give you and be thankful for it, or begOne
and starye And as each turn of the draws
more and more work into the hands of those who cut
down wages enabling them take jobs cheaper than
their competitors, the tendency OF unregulated cOmpet
son is ever toward lower ana lower wages We firmly
believe that had there never been Printers Union
Association in City, the usual and average wages of
Printers would at this hour be hardly two-thrds what
they are And we have not doubt the cOmpOstors
on The Journal Of Commerce this day receiving
era per cent weekly than they would be had the
Printers Union existed.
Individual journeymen, acting separately can make
resistance to the reduction of wages they must work to
live and so must take whatever wages offered The
opposite rule may prevail in given locality three weeks
in five years. owing to the operation of peculiar inu
in San Francisco Sydney after the discovery
of the golddggings of California and Australia but the
exceptions more than serve to prove the rule
Look through our city and the world, and you will find
(other things being equaD Labor best rewarded in those
callings where workers have been most accustomed
combine IN demanding and enforcing definite rates of
Wages and poorest paid in caings where such com
binations have been attempted
OF course, this principle of Combination may be
abused, like any other good thing. Journeymen are
quite as selfish Employers and quite unit to be
trusted to determine without cOunerpose what shall
be the recOmpense of their labor When they
bne to prescribe the conditions which their services
shall be rendered, Employers should likewise unite in
considering those propositions and deciding whether
they should or should not be acceded to. What We
plead for is the supremacy of one class another
but Uniformity in place of Inequality Order instead of
Anarchy Law instead of Force, Peace instead of Nar.
And If liberal enlightened, moderate and just Employ
ers and JOurneymen will confer with each other freely
and frequently and institute tending to evolve
Concord from DiscOrd the present fermentation among
the Trades of this and other cities will result in the
Establishment of sautary and permanent rules governing
the increase dminuton of Wages, placing both En-
ployers and JOurneymen much better footing than
formerly and suppantng that pernciOus chaos wherein
the hardest master is enabled to take business away
from his fardeang competitors, and Wealth is amassed
by grinding the faces of the Poor.