Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1858-06-03
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From the N. C. Standard.
SUPPORT YOUR MECHANICS.

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SUPPORT YOUR MECHANICS.
We copy the following excellent article on
this subject from the last Spirit ofthe Age:
"Whenever," says that paper, "we pass
through village and hear: the frequent
sound Of the carpenters hammer, the clink
of the blacksmith's anvil-that village, we
say to ourselves, is Aourishing." True
DR.. Franklin once held a debt against a
brother mechanic, and being put off from
time to time, he determined atlength topush
him; but passing his shop late at night, he
heard the sounds. of his debtors hammer,
and he changed his mind and gave him fur
ther indulgence. He saved his debt, with
interest.
But our mechanics are not encouraged as
they should be. We purchase many things
at the North, from our bitter enemies, which
could be as we'll purchased here And in
addition to this, we put our mechanics on
the credit system, which hinders them in
their business and cramps their energies -
Cash is the life of trade, and especially of
the mechanic arts. We would as soon ask q
man to trust us for apound of beef or a pint
of meal, as to ask a mechanic to trust US for
a pair Of shoes, or for making a coat, or for
mending wagon Of. carriage: Pay ssyou
go is the philosophers stone, which turns all
you touch into money; and this is what the
mechanic is entitled to expect at the hands
of his customers. If you do not pay him
the cash, he cannot lay in bis stock to ad-
vantage, but is forced to purchase on credit,
and thereby incur interest, higher prices,
aud the cost of exchange. You. force him,
too, to depend upon the Banks for AID, which
working men ought, if at all possible, to
avoid. Neither, unless you pay him, can he
pay his hands; and thus the honest mechan.
ic, who works week in and week out for his
employersis compelled often to 60 without
his wages-to purchase on a, credit the ne.
cessaries of life, and is kept down and kept
poor, living on credit half the time and the
other half from hand to mouth. This is no
overdrawn picture. 1t is true one. We
have seen the reality time and again. Let
no one who can pay, but who neglects or re:
fuses to pay the mechanic or the working-man
the money he has honestly earned, say that
be is friend to industry or that he wishes
workiug-men we'll. People are judged by
what they do rather than by what they sag.
It is fashionable with some to put off the
mechanic and pay him last, if at all; but
these same people are always first at places Of
amusement or pleasure, spending their money
lis it theirs -as eomplacently as if no one
was suffering for his wages, by them thought
lessly or dishonesty withheld. But we will
not detain our readers longer from tile arti.
Gle Of the Age, which is as follows:
SUPPORT Your MEcHAN1cs.-There is
no truth more undeniable than that it is the
bounden duty of every community to sup.
port its mechanics. They are worthy and
indispensable class of men, and we find no
town or village aourishing without their aid.
Indeed, their presence or absence is always
true index of the condition of the place
whether it is advancing in wealth and i'm.
portance or sinking into decay. Whenever
we pass through a village and hear the fire..
quent sound of the carpenters hammer, the
olink of the blacksmith's anvil-that village,
we say to ourselves, is fourishing. 1t can.
not be otherwise, for the producers are ac-
lively employed, and outuumber the consul
mers. Whenever this is the case, the people
are growing wealthy, and at the same time
training the rising generation to habits Of
industry and morality. When, if city or
village pursue the opposite Of this course
neglects its mechanics and supports those of
some foreign town-those who can, will be
compelled to go to some other place, and
those who are compelled by force of oircum-
stances to remain, will become idle and
proaigate-they will cease to produce, and
become consumers-in few years they be-
come beggars, and their children ignorant
and vicious.
If there is any truth in the assertion that
we ought, as a nation, togive the preference
to domestic manufactures, the fact is equal
ly true with regard to the community; both
are sustained by the same arguments. If a
merchant would have around him substan-
tial customers, let him by every means in his
power support the mechanics Of his village,
and as they become more wealthy, their GUS
tom will increase, especially in those articles
on which he makes the greatest profits, for
it is undeniable, that as men become more
wealthy they also become more luxurious,
and no merchant will deny that articles of
luxury always afford the greatest profits
The habit Of importing large quantities Of
cheap and made articles Of competition with
our village mechanics, is short-sighted and
wrong, both as regards the mechaaic and
consumer; if the merchant would look fur.
ther into the operation of things, he would
find that he crossed the path Of his own in.
terest by doing so. Let the merchant bring
the case to his own door, and he, perhaps,
may better understand it. Suppose that
every individual who possesses the means,
and who uses in his family four or FIVE hun
dred dollars worth of goods perannum, should
instead ofbuying of him at retail, 60 to some
city wholesale establishment and purchase
his year'ssupply-would be notiu bitterness
condemn such an illiberal course, and would
he not say to him with truth, that he was
wayyiug against bis own interest, by destroy