The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-10-08
BALTIMORE.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8. 1858.

porore sour business men, our merchants or
t.5rr-ooods iobberS'' go about punlshing the
o5of,mers of Baltimore" as they have recently
boer proed TO do, we ask leave to offer them re-
snectful suggestion. The most dehghuui season
Of the year for outdoor exercise, Is upon Us, anu
tho bracinp. autumnal air fills every one win lie,
,;,;,, ond vioor Let them avail themselves OF
A., or;o,roopt to which it invites, and take
,,oosort afternoon, through that por-
tion of the city which is known DIS oou'n Da''-
mora We advise them, of course TO 90 so before
dark because 'the prevailing ePiueil'c vi 'pe
times has a tendency to increase III Vlrulehce
after nicht-raIl. and although Federal Hill pos
sesses great advantages for astrohomicai ooSerVa-
ton thew might, if they were 10 Ilnger long, see
ooa ,,,o,,, tbirrs mot quite so attractive as the
comet LET them 90 around, by daylight to the
wharves and ship-yards-to the places Oh nechan-
ical labor and resort, and the dwellings, OF the
humble ord industrious men who toll there. Let
them FORGET altogether what they have read in
+bo ,o,,.s,larors-the scalumneS' on the one side,
and the bosannas on the other-and after they
have inquired, for themselves concerning the ex-
istinp state of things let them make up their own
minds rs TO the respective merits OF the authorities
who hermit t. and the journals which expose it.
In no other way than by personal inquiry and
boor,otion can they arrive at the TRUTH and we
orc willing 70 abide implicitly by the judgment
Of ouy intelligent and impartial man who will
t,,,o tbe trouble to inform himself personally upon
tbe subject. Nothing is easier than to say, of any
statement. that it owes its origin to party ran
cor, or ssvindictive prejudice" When the facts
connot he controversial there is only the old trick
loft Of endeavoring to discredt the witnesses 1t
&c IN this account that We desire our readers to
90 to the original sources of information, them
selves. Until they do so, they cannot realize,
what every one who does it finds to be, unques-
tionabe though melancholy fact
Onr own information from the quarter referred
70 discloscs a lamentabe state of things indeed.
We find that the shp-building Interest," very
important one there's under cloud which
increases daily Arbitrary and violent interior
ence-of which the caulkers' riots were at once a
sample and portion-has not only deprived the
masters of the ship-yards of the selection of their
own workmen, but has forced upon them the
empIovment of others who are unfit for the duties
which they pretend TO discharge. Without good
workmen, it is impossible that there can be good
work, and without the latter, patronage must
fail. Custom, consequently, has decreased and
is decreasing, and the insecurity of life and prop
erv at night, by keeping away the masters of
small vessels who formerly sought those ship
yards for REPAIRS has of course contributed, still
further to the dimnution of their trade. While
this has been the result, on the one hand, new
expenses have been created on the. other by the
same irregular state of things. Insurance, which
two or three years ago was hardly thought of, is
now a matter of imperative necessity, and its
rates are not only seriously heavy, but are aggra-
waited by the obligation to keep watchmen on the
premises without whose employment risks of the
sort will not be taken by the Offices.
Our readers have seen, from time to time, the
progress and success of the movements by which
negroes and foreign stevedores and laborers have
been driven from vessels unloading upon the south
side of the Basin. The same system of force and
intimidation which has taken the control of the
shp-vards from their owners, has superseded con-
sgnees ana masters in the management of their
own business and property. The wharves and the
streets adjoining them as effectually commanded
by an organized force, as if it were actually and
visbly encamped there. Men have yielded to exac-
tons and submitted to terms, rather than engage
in vain struggles and fight useless battles Nor is
the invisible organization the only potent ONE
The manifestations of open dominion are as frequent
as they are reckless. Concealment of weapons is
regarded there as almost an aectation and parties
of ruffans cunning (as it is pleasantly called)
for the objects of their hostility, are so familiar a
sight, that the good people in that quarter have
grown to regard them as practically part of the
constituted authorities. Notorious desperadoes
have their 'crowds," equally as well known to the
citizens and the police if like the latter, they
wore uniforms and numbers.
Nor is the existence of this disorder the worst of
it. Still more serious both in its indications and
results, is the difficulty, nay almost the impossi-
biy, of inducing people publicly to testify to
what passes before their eyes. The abstract obi
cations of citizen upon this point do not appeal,
as forciby as they otherwise might, to a man who
has a family dependent upon him, and who knows
that he is liable to be shot at as he passes under
the lamp by his own door, if he dares become
witness for the truth. This difficulty of course |
stands in the way, both of the police and of the
tribunals of justice. 1t is necessarily grievous
obstacle to the discharge of the duties of both
But it is an evil which has grown up only from
the impunty of crime and which the authorities
can remove by extirpatng its cause.
The reader may enquire how it is-f such
things be true-that people do not at once desert
such an Alsata-such home and asylum and
guild Of evil-doers. The answer is very simple
one. The persons most directly affected, are men
n u,l,o
of labor is a cessation of bread. They cannot
afford to make sacrifices, because they have but
little to sacrifice They find it less inconvenient to
be ruined by degrees, than to be ruined at once
The owners of property, in their turn, cannot get
rid of it for the asking. The causes which would
induce them to sell would prevent others from
buying But, as we learn, the propretors of
buildings, and especially of small tenements are
beginning to feel the effects of the system, in the
loss of tenants and the dminuton of rents-n
depreciation of property, for which no state of the
market accounts
Now, if these things are true-and we are will
my, as we have said, to trust the ascertainment of
thelr truth to our readers themselves and abide by
teir Vefulct-ls 1t the part of public journal to
conceal them and hush them up, or to proclaim
anu oenounce them? When physical ''epidemics''
are rlie 1t is not customary to call the Board of
heah 'defamers, for proclaiming their existence.
" ny should it be otherwise when the disease is
moral oneF When house is on fire we are not in
the naoit Oh abusing the watchmen who spring
ilelr raI'ies or ring the bells. Why should it be
crilninai theh 10 give the alarm at a moral con-
nagrauon! 10 our minds the path of duty is
PLAIN one, and being unable to believe. with some
OF our nelghoors, that it is a libel to sneak the
truth, or that the commercial prosperity of Balti-
more is held by so poor and base a tenure as the
silence or the falsehood of its press. we are pre-
pared to take our chances with the opposite line Of
conduct. 1t IS thus that we threw unon the pres-
ent "Clty Government its share of responsibility
for the state of things in South Baltimore which
has eliminated if indeed it did not first appear
under Mr.. SwANN's administration. And we nro-
test, again, that in doing SO, we are not moved
jot or title by the politics which that gentleman
processes, and which he seems to suppose that he
embodies. We think that an incomnetent Mavor
is incompetent Mayor, whether he be the nomi-
nee of a Council Or Sachem of Tammany.
We should say of Mr.. SWAMI what we have said
already, if he were as thoroughly sDemocrat'
IS he vaunts that he is an american }, We sbould
not think a whit hattar or ,,-o.-