Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1858-06-17
Remarks of Gen. Cameron
On presenting petition from laJoring men
Of Pennsylvania.

ptt1StIt
Of Pennsylvania.
am requested to present n petition. signed
by large number of laboring men engaged
In the manufacture of iron in Pennsylvania.
| receive great many letters daily from per-
sons of this class, and | will say here, what
will save me the trouble of writing great
many letters. They think the Congress of
the United States can relieve them from their
troubles. There never has been n time in the
history of the iron business of Pennsylvania
when there was so much real distress among
the laboring men of my State-the men who
do the work, the men who 90 to the forge
before daylight, and return there long after
the moon has risen-than there is at present
1t is not a complaint now on the part of the
capitalists. Men of capital, men of fortune,
can take care of themselves Capital can
always take care of itself; labor, poverty, indi-
gence and want, always need sympathy and
protection.
These persons reside in the town of Norris
town, on the Schuyikill river, some twenty
miles above Philadelphia. The river Schuyl-
kill is traversed, on both sides by railroad,
one extending some twenty or thirty miles
another one hundred miles. On the one side
of the river is canal. All these works
have been made for the purpose of conveying
and sale. The county Of Schuylkill, the
great coal deposit Of Pennsylvania, has a
population of some $4,000 or 10000 people
all of which has grown up within the last
twenty five years.
At this time the whole laboring population
engaged in the iron and coal business, of the
whole country extending from Philadelphia
to the mountains of Schuylkill county, are
entirely idle; the boats are tied up the loco
motives are, IN great measure, standing
still, and the laborers are running about
hunting employment and hunting food
These are the persons who complain they
think that Congress can relieve them. |
have told them, and | have written to them,
that they have the power in their own hands.
The laboring men of this county are power
full for good always. They do control when
they think proper, and l think the time is
coming when they viii control the politics of
this country. | tell them that before they
can get common protection they must change
the majority in the Senate; they must change the
majority of the other house of Congress; and
above all, they must change the occupant of
the White House, who is the dispenser of the
power which controls the legislation of this
country. In place of gentlemen who sneer
when we talk about protection, they must
5Cnu ueT0 WHO KNOW something OF the
wants, something of the interests, something
OF the usefulness of the laboring men,
Hitherto they have not acted as if they
cared for their own interests; while they
talked about tariff which would guard their
labor from competition with the pauper Ia
Dor OF Europe, they would go to the elections
under some ward leader and vote for men to
represent them here and elsewhere, who cared
only for party drill. and who had no interest
above party success. This system they must
change if they hope for success. / think the
laboring men of Pennsylvania, at least, are
now beginning to put their own shoulders 10
the wheel, and | believe they will make
such noise in the next October contest as
will alarm the gentlemen all over the ceuntrv
who laugh at them.
The canals, railroads and mining operations
of this region of country have cost more than
hundred millions of dollars. The furnaces
and other works connected with the mann.
tacture OF iron, cost an enormous sum. and
the people interested in the iron and coal
business; directly OF indirectly, along the val.
ley OF the Schuylkill amount to more than
three hundred thousands souls. Since 1855
there has been blight upon the business
growing out of the unwise legislation of Con
gress, which has really protected tho iron of
England, Russia and Sweden, and thus ia