New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-04-29
sRLF.EMPLOYMENT, AGAIN.

SELF.EMPLO1MENT, AShN'
Why does Labor generally solicit employment as
BOOM Since the employer profits by the engagement as
well as the employed why should not the sense OF obi
cation be reciprocal and the two stand on footing OF
recognized and perfect equality
We answer-Because the supply Of labor is usually
in excess of the demand-because the Employer, hay-
inc capital can afford to wait while the Laborer having
nothing to fall back upon, must have work to-day or
suffer observation-disclosures there are too many VINO
want to be hired in proportion to those who want 70
hire In short the nferiority of position and sense OF
dependence on the abOrers part results from influences
identical with those which compel so many Needlewo-
men 70 work for six to eighteen pence per day.
What is the remedy Manifestly-to reduce the
numker seeking employment largely increase that Of
their EMPLOYERS so that hands shall be in request,
from being less overwhelmingly numerous in proportion
to heads.
Tho mechanic or artisan, then, who, by capacity,
study and frugaty fights his way out OF hlreng posi-
ton into that of an employer is prma tace beneac-
for of his less successful shopmates aud ought to be
regarded BY them with gratitude rather than envy He
has done the best thing he could do not for himself
ONLY but for them He has ceased to be their cOmpet
for for empoymen and has added himself to the num-
her of those having employment to give.
II is not unusual to hear mechanic boast" have
been poor man all my life thus far and always ex-
.pect to be-" Now sickness, loss of faculty or
limb or any of various other casualties may keep man
poor all his days in spite Of his best exertions, in
which case his poverty is no shame. But the me-
cbspic farmer or other ableboded man who, without
any special drawback his exertions contriyes to
shin through life destitute and in debt, and die leaving
hardly enough property to bury him decenty, has no
good reason for Wanting bis pOverty-he ought to be
ashamed of it, lie iibels a beneflcent God by imply
inc that poverty is the natural and almost necessary
condition of the Working Glasses The truth is that
vedirected Industry, in an age and country wherein
Labor is not robbed of its just earnings by des2otsm
leads naturally through thrift comfort competence to
ndependence which every fairly instructed, effective
capabe working man should regard as the natural goal
of his exertions At sixty the man who has been in
dust,ious aud frugal through life should be able TO quit
regular and systematic labor living in his own house.
and working only occasionally and moderately as incina
ton shall prompt.
There really is no insuperable obstacle to this. Here
ara tbo Mechanics and Artisans of Ncw-YOrk, earning
from eight to twenty dollars each per week for fair
davs' work out of which every one who has only him
self to support ought TO be saving from 500 to S5oo
per anpum; others less, but nearly all something. And
when man has once begun to save regularly and sys-
ematically there is not reason IN the world That ne
shoud not continue doing So and steadily improve upon
t. He who has saved 81 900 may usually employ it SO
as to earn him 500 per annum, and need seldom II
ever thereafter be out ofwork
I is the first step that costs" The main obstacle to
saving is the lack of the habit He who at twenty-five
hos saved hundred dollars earned by honest, useful
calf ntrnlu will no ary
unlikely ever to be destitute thereafter On the other
hand lie who has saved nothing at the end OF his hr
wear Of INDEPENDENCE viii be pretty certain to carry
moor mans head on his shoulders while he lives.
Our Young Mechanics are not thrifty because of the
evil habits they have formed during their minority The
ronnr carpenter or blacksmith or hpwrght too often
bhoy" on attaining his majority thoroughly addicted
r. long mines brandy smashes, Tammany balls aud too
often 10 gamblng and even darker vices He is more
Ulelv to be owing score at the grogshOp than keep
ING balance in the savings bank. What little finance
bskrows he borrowed of his uncle the pawnbrOker. He
can't save any thing on a mechanics beggary wages
when game suppers horses and fast companions are
50 costly so he spends as fast as ne gets borro|s
wherever he can and has to be smary dunned Tor his
hoard or lets it 90 behndhand. By-andby he marrles
and erepches some of his worst expenses, but too late
the increased demands of growing family absorb
every cent he can earn and at fifty or sixty years OF
ace GU IL see him emerging seedy and scky from the
oroeger whittier he has repaired for his btters or his
eleven o'clock, enfeebled in body and discouraged in
spirit out of humor with every thing and every body
and cursng the Banks the Landlords the Capitalists
or the Spectators punderers and ensavers OF the
Poor
No tits not creditableit is decidedly dscreditable-
TO an instructed efficient American freeman that he il
all his life selling his labor for present bread aud going
down to the grave the hireng of Tom, Dick or Harry
It's well for every mechanic to be journeyman for
vbileand of course to be good one-but each should
aspre to something better than that using the experience
and means acquired while thus employed to qualify him
for higher and more eligible position We want to see
Labor organized on Republican basis but this is the
work of men. Human machines may answer to plant
Corn or pick Cotton-to plane boards or mOrtse tim
bersbut for an Industrial Commonwealth somethingfur
Their and higher required, and this we shall have
due time.
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