New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-12-03

A@'s"V III" "VuucN VA b'S tVFcis
streets, and of the coruptions whies NOSE Joeo'e
fellows the slave breeding journalists, afe s., rooe
to ne, because We have free community. aus 20
not buy and sell the immigrants on their arrival,
according to the precepts Of Virginia Democracy.
The whole nu nber of i'm immigrants relieved or
assisted Oy the Commissioners of Emigration dur.
the past year was 1l9, 800, OF whom ll0,390 were
cared for in this city And Of the 1868 im-
migrants that have landed at this port since May
5, IS47, 617 900, or nearly one third of the whole
number, have required aid; and S2250, 900 have
been expended for their benefit. Thus we have pre-
sented to us in sure figures the cause Ofthe excess
ofpoverty in this city, and of the dark side ofimmi-
grafton 90 rendered by our pernicious natonal
policy. The Report further afiirms that the beg
CARS who swarm our streets, beslege our dwell
iDgs and persistently demand aims, are immigrants
of this kind. 1t next touches upon the overstocked
condition of the labor market, and here its gener-
cties are not luminous. 1t says that no legisla-
ton or contrivance can evade the perpetual law
that with labor as with every other marketable
article the demand should regulate the supply, and
that there are in New. York thousands of men and
women beyond the industrial demand. But legis-
lation can do now what it did in lS42-fnd en-
ployment for these people in mills, factories,
mines and workshops for the want Of which they
now starve. Why does not the phiantbropic As
sociaon increase the value of its Report by telling
us the cause Of this want of employment
The amount placed in the Savings Institutions
was g., 34S ,653 SO during the pas! year; and the
Withdrawing of $3,323,l4 Sc, or nearly million
more than the deposits, indicates sadly the suf
fernps of the laboring classes during that period
According to the published estimates of the As
sociated Workingmens Committee, there were
1875 900 men, women, aud children ia absolute
wspt. of whom 100, 900 were accustomed to pro-
vide for themselves and also for the remaining
IS 900 who were dependent upon them. The
Report in hand does not vouch for the accu-
racy of these statements, but says it is evident
that no public or private efforts can for any
length of time furnish employment for one
half of this number OF supply the means OF their
subsistence. The Report empaatically remarks
that the mechanics of this city spend as large
sum for strong drink, including loss of time con-
sequent upon it's use. as their employers an
nuslly rave, and that this will doubtless apply
TO the lower class of lsborers. In reviewing the
distress of last year, the Report leaves out
of view its main cause.-the gradual decrease
of industrial resources since the tariff Of
1876. In all comfy and courtesy, we tell
these gentlemen who make eleemosynary reports
that if they do not study political economy
they had better not give US disquisitions on the
81 nd vurafchaduaaa huk Confina
themselves simply to facts Apart from the Ten
perance question they tell us nothing calculated to
instruct the community on the source OF popular
distress. In regard to the class Of applicants for
relief, the Report states that the most remarkable
feature was the respectable character of many Of
the applicants, while in former years but compar-
atively few of this class required assistance. The
number of families relieved from Nov 1, 1854, TO
Nor. 1, 1855, was 15,549; number Of persons,
g., 396; number of visits, $3.50; being 26O per
cent or nearly three times greater than the aver
age Of previous years. The receipts were from
Nov. /, 1854, to Nov. l, 1855, $902O9 S. on hand
1T date of last report, 1856 SO; balance due treas
urer, SO e63 %. The disbursements and appro
priations for the same period were $956lS AZ.
A striking feature of this Report is the sweeping
condemnation of all other modes of relief than that
afforded by the Society in question, and by the
assertion that all other associations only tend to
increase psuperism because they act "by i'm
pulse" rather than judgment, and waste the money
that would otherwise be judiciousy expended.
Notwithstanding the assertion that this Society is
fully able by its efficient organization to dispense
all the charities of the city, and look after all the
poor who are needy and worthy of relief, the
pretenson must be received with some doubt-in-
deed, very large portion Of the city knows that
it lie not fact-that they never have reached many
of the cases most worthy of relief and never will
because their ruleA do not admit of alms.giving
except the rscipist 10 humbled to the ne
cessity of becoming beggar. One of the
rules of the Society is "to give only in
4" small quantities in proportion to immediate
F" need and of coarser quality than might be pro-
" cured by labor, except in cases Of sickness"
Now the whole of the three hundred and siXty-oue
Visitors of the Association are not necessarily
saints or men of refinement. 1t is Likewise q rule
Of the Society that no one can be relieved except
through the Visitor of the section in which he
lives, whose duty it is to "gve relief only after
personal investigation Of each case BY visitation
" and inquiry" which it is not always possible for
the Visitor to do; and hence poor women often
suffer long before confdins their wants to man
whose first word on entering their apartments
may be to tell them that they do not look as
though they were much in want. We con-
cede the great good done by the Society,
and the excellence Of many of the Visitors, but
We are net prepared to award it monopoly of all
the GOOD that can be charitably diffused in this