The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-01-08
Hard TImcs and Their Remedies.

hold his ground. at is beautiful quarrel as
it stands.'
Hard Times and Their Remedies.
There are at the present moment, at the low
est computation from fifteen to twenty thou
sand persons out of employment in this city
alone. Ii we add to these the number Of indivi-
duals who are entirely dependent upon them
for support, and averaging perhaps four or five
in family, we have a sum total of present
distress and prospective embarrassment which
is alarming to contemplate. The spectacle of
go many unfortunates suffering at once from
the pressure of want and the rigors of severe
winter, is sufficiently painful without having
its horrors aggravated by other considerations.
But those other considerations, distressing as
they are, will at least have one useful effect
that Of awakening attention in the minds Of
many who would otherwise have no feeling for
their suffering fellow creatures. THESE persons
will not be able to blind themselves to the fact
that crime is an almost invariable concomitant
OF misery and that unless steps are taken to
prevent the spread of the latter, and to relieve
Its present necessities, its ultimate evils will
react tenfold more heavily upon their own
pockets, in the shape Of the increased taxation
to which these forced additions to our criminal
statistics must lead.
But what are the remedies, it will be asked,
which are best adapted to meet not only the
immediate pressure of those evils, but to
carry our laboring population safely through
the crisis that is at present weighing
so heavily upon them? The question has it's diff
fculties, but it is susceptible of an answer. It
is not, however, by the Ineffective palliatives
that have hitherto been suggested or attempted,
that solution can be given to them. Gallant
ties like those Of which We are now speaking
are not to be repaired by eleemosynary efforts,
either on the part of the public or of indivi-
duals. Talk not to us Of soup kitchens, where
aims are doled out underneath the very coun-
ters that have ministersd to the extravaganza
which has caused gil this distress. Abstain
from insulting the misery of the poor, by cid
ding" schemes for their relef-schemes which
suggest but too ap.ly to the MUD the philau-
thropical occupation of Nero while his capital
was burning. 1t will, no doubt, suit very we'll
the tastes and inclinations of those who have
set the example of extravaganza, TO nanifest
their sympathy for the misery that surrounds
them, by fresh extrava gances, which only tend
to agsravate, instead Of diminishing, the evil
We can very we'll understand the henevolence
which eagerly catches at these opportunities
Of displaying itself in fine silks, costly laoes,
and glittering jewels, and which, from a sump-
tuously spread supper table, complacently tells
the shiyeripg and starving crowd outside-"Go
to, good people, until we have done; be patient
awhile: you shall have the crumbs and cheese
parings Of our meal.o Il was benevoence of
this sort that prompted the tboughtless Marie
Antoinette to ask why her people coald not
eet cake when they were furnishing for want of
bread, and that in period o. similar distress
suggested to the enlarged and philaathropic
mind of England's premier dlke the suostit,-
ton Of curry powder for The main element
OF the popular food. No! soup kitchens con.
certs and balls whether the staple OF adorn.
ment Of the latter be silk, calico OK linsey
woolsey-or charitable subscriptions, literally
headed by the Cooperation, will 80 but a shor.
way towards relieving Che pressure of the
present crisis The influence of their proceeds
upon the condition of our poor may be likened
to that of SO many drops OF water upon the
great body Of the ocean.
Still less will the remedies suggested at the
mass meetings of the distressed operatives
themselves bring about any alienation of their
sufferings. Scarcely one Of the ideas throwa
out by the speakers at these as semblages has
had practical object or beari e. They de-
mand relief as right, and not as a favor; AMI
not content with enunciatiug principle suhi-
GENTLY broad in its application, the visionar'es
who get up these meetings call TOR an
equal division of property amongs. the masses.
Do they require to be told that those who have
acquired property have accumulated II by their
OWE energy and prudence, ard that in coun-
try like this, where there are no arissocratic or
artificial barriers to mans progress The ab-
sence Of wealth bat too frequently attests the
absence Of the qualities necessary to its attain
ment? All such absurd theories can, there.
fore, only have the effect Of recoilng with dis
grace upon their propounders
The truth is, we are now suffering from tho DC
ziodlcal pressure Of one of those cycles of expau
sion and contraction which must always affect us
more or less severely as long as the monetary
system Of the United States continues on its
present basis Individual efforts can therefore
furnish no cure for its evils. The only CON-
prehensive and practical remedy tnat occurs to
US, is for Abe Corporation to vote a large ap-
preparation for the opening of ali the streets
and avenues, as far as Harlem, which are laid
out in the city maps, and also for the consruc.
tion Of stone docks and piers on the North river.
from the Battery to Canal street, The open
ing Of these new streets and avenues would ne.
ocssarily lead to the excavation OF vast masses
of granite, which would form the best possible