The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-10-22

0evulsaOn among sns Lower ClaSSss-
- n,>~S froepsc1 for tine ~W'sr,
me revuiIok which hes prosassed = many 81
tie IA ,ders Of the financial end CONNIE. Al world
hss ssr ok likewise at the root and base Of soce-
". rae reporters are to be believed, over
twenty thoA sand working men have already been
discharged fN IN employment in this city alone;
these, wish then families, probably amount to IN
aggregate Of Hft, thousand persons who are al
ready in want Of f. cd, and incapable Of doding
employ ent 1t is o bvious, moreover. that the
curtailment Of manufao> 'uring industry aud the
cessation Of almost all ente -prises employing me
Chemical labor has but begun BY the first of the
year we may expect that TIL. number of idle
wcrkmen will be not less In New York alone,
than thirty to forty thousand, and Nhs aggregate
number Of persons deprived Of their Qsud sup
port, and dependent on casual aid for th.ir daily
bread, scarcely if at all below the enormous
figure of one hundred and fifty thousand
What is to become Of these persons during the
long cold winter that is at hand!
1t is right, while giving the mechanics and
working classes Of this city credit for much
higher standard Of morals than the average of
their class abroad to remember that they are
men, and liable to ell the infrmities aud the
passions Of human nature. We cannot expect
them to be angels. What terrible reflections,
then, does this prospect for their winter suggest
when we bear In mind that within few hun
dred yards of the tenement house where they are
starving there will be etores piled TO the roof
with -four, and beef and pork, ard not much
further of, banks with safes full of coin? How
frightful the picture becomes when we further
reflect that the police fierce of the city would be
utterly inadequate to repres hungry mob, bent
on plumber and on food for their starving fami
lies and that crisis might arrive when the mill
tary companies, composed of the Weather class
of citizens, and as resolute as they have al Eays
been found in the performance of their duty,
might be compelled to deluge the streets with
blood and fll the cutters With corpses iu order
to preserve peace and order! These are hard
things to realize yet the rising and the setting of
to morrow's sun are not more obviously written
in the future than they.
1t has been the peculiar good fortune of this
country to be gene,a ally exempt frcm crises of
famine and popular distress The country is 30
wide, nature is 60 bountiful, the spirit of our
consuming enterprises, that we have known but
once or twice in all our history what it was to
have among us scores of thousands of human
creatures perishing Of hunger and struggling
against the temptation to crime which extreme
misery afords We must look abroad to find
precedent for such cases
In some countries the distress of the poor has
been "rammed down their hroats with bsyo-
nete,' to use the humane expression of famous
statesman; bu. there they had large and relia-
bic and available army. In France 1t has for
many years been the practice of the government
to epdeavor to counteract the demoralizing ten
denotes Of famine by creating work for the un-
employed. Louis Napoleon is one Of the most
prominent converts to this doctrine; the masnif-
cent works which have made Paris the queen
city Of the world since his accession have mostly
been constructed for the cole purpose of giving
work to the poor. Augustus, in like manner,
embelisded and sggraDdized the city of Rome
not from love Of architecture or splendor-but
in order to give bread aud occupation to the mob
which had rendered all government impossible
for half century. The precedent may be con-
tary to the laws Of trade and sound economy;
but 1t seems to have answered; and any expen-
diiure is better than successful outbreak CT
"the dangerous classes"
We desire to submit to the authorities and the
leading citizens Of New York, whether, In view
Of the coincidence Of extreme suffering among
the unemployed thousands Of our city, and large
aggregstions, In well known centres, of grain,
food, and specie, it would not be proper, before
we &c. any deeper into the winter, to take some
thought how our mechanics and working men
may be prevented from becoming dangerous
classes" 1t belongsto the people of the city and
to their magistracy to suggest means by which
the end sought may be attained; but perhaps II
may not be eupeifluous to remind them that acts
Ct the Legislature have been obtained sanction
ing large expenditures for Central Park and a
City Hall In prosperous times the work to be
performed on them would cos. full twice as
much as II would now; hence, wise econo-
my, as well as higher considerations Of prudence
and humanity, would seem TO dictate scne imme-
date step toward their vigorous commencement
In proper hands, these two works might feed all
the starving people Of the metropolis throughout
the winter, ard the city treasury might save near
so per cent in wages.
But the selection Of q meats Of relief lies
with Others We only truss that something will
be done, and that quickly.
The MICHIGAN SOUTHERN RAnwAY.-The new
directors or the Mtchi0an Coufharn RaiIunv have