The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-12-19

QeAtAs
Progress OF the Revulsion OF IS54-Distress
Among the Working CIasses-Causes. and
Effects.
The readers of the HERALD this morning will
peruse with no small degree Of interest the ex-
traordinary reports which we publish to-day of
the disastrous workings of the present financial
and commercial revulsion among the laboring
classes Of this city, and generally of our North
ern States. The first Of these reports il from
our own reporters; the second chapter is from
newspapers Of other cities and towns; and the
third is from the New York Tribune, appended
to which is the preposterous argument of our
anti-slavery and high tariff Fourierite philoso-
piers, touching the causes of this lamentable
depression.
The effects are before US in shape truly
formidable and startling. They extend to all
the varied interests Of our working classes.
Railroad builders, ship builders, house builders,
carpenters, masons, iron workers, printers, pub
fishers, merchants, tailors, all our productive
interests, in fact, are suffering from the general
stagnation and suspension of businessmen
the theatres and eating houses are seriously af-
fected Thousands of able bodied, active work.
ing men and women in this city alone, are now
thrown out Of employment; aud, from the facts
which we have collected and from all the exist
ing signs Of the times, the evil is just commenc-
ing with the beginning Of hard and cruel
winter. 1t is quite possible that, before the
return of spring, we shall have in this sim
gle city OF New York, from twenty five to thirty
thousand of our industrial population, possessed
Of willing and able hands, bat with nothing to
do for the subsistence Of themselves and their
families We may also expect proportionate
degree of suffering in Philadelphia Boston,
Lowell and other commercial and manufactur-
ing cities, and throughout the North, from
Maine to-the Western borders Of the immediate
valley Of the Mississippi. On the other baud,
Baltimore, Charleston, Mobile and New Orleans
may share, to some considerable extent, in the
prevailing evil which is upon rs, but we ven
ture to say that generally throughout the
Southern States they will be comparatively
exempt from the overwhelming distresses of
the ordeal which we are destined to pass in the
North. From the Atlantic to the Mississippi,
north of Mason and Dixon's line and the Ohio
river, we shall come off better than we can now
anticipate, If before the expiration of the win
ter there are less than five hundred thousand
working people, including their families, de-
prived of their employment, and their means Of
subsistence.
The first natural inquiry among rejecting
minds, in view Of this distressing Revision, is,
what are the causes which have brought it
about Our Tribune philosophers charge the
whole thing to the absence of q high
protective tariff, and to the evils OF
Southern slavery. 1t is to slavery and free
trade, according to these philosophers, that we
may justly charge all the existing and pros.
pective mischiefs of this present dark and
revulsion. A high tariff excluding
foreign manufactures, would have saved us;
but the Shareholders Of the South have dictated
and enforced the opposite policy Of Compare.
tive free trade. This absurd, this utterly pre-.
posterous view Of the subject, is beneath even
the usual shallow sophistries Of the Tribune.
II is consistent however, in this, In holding the
system of the South responsible
for all the financial mischiers which may affect
the country, including the evils Of Northern.
overtradmg, excessive stock obbing and greedy
swindling But that anti-slavery malignity is
truly contemplate, which, ignoring the facts
visible to all eyes, stoops to the impudent &C.
,usation that we may charge this existing re-
vulsion to the shareholders Of the South.
What are the facts? What are the causes Of
his unreasonable and widespread rsvulsion ?
They are here:-
l. Excessive bank paper mutations upon the
basis, real or imaginary, Of California gold.
2. Excessive stockjobbing in railroads, over
building, over-trading, extravagant living, and
Wild goose speculations.
8. The European war;
4. The late drought.
First, q comparatively limited clan eng ,ged