Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1865-02-02
slave aud Free Labor Compared.

ing III support VI slavery upOu tNb AutdH
that it was the best social system and
the cheapest labor. The first was lie,
the second u fallacy. The first admits
of no argument outside Of barbarism,
The second requires only comparison
of the two systems to show the error,
The available labor of a country is TO be
estimated not by the number of days of
manual labor spent upon the produc-
tipns OF a country, but by the aggregate
of it's productions. The cost of pair
of shoes is based upon the labor Of
skilled workmen required to produce
them and not upon the labor required
of carpenters to produce them-for In
the latter case 1t would require ten times
the amount of labor. With the free
states 1t is rule to do nothing by hand
labor which can be as well done by ma
chinery the slave states it is
rule to do nothing by machinery which
can be done by slave-hence the free
states have the cheapest labor in the
world, while the slave states have the
most expensive. We do not mean that
the pay of the laborer In the free states
is the cheapest in the world-for on the
contrary it is better paid by the day
than in any other country-but we do
mean that the aggregate productions of
the country are sold at less charge for
labor, while the laborer is better paid
than in any other country in the world.
The application OF labor saving ma
chimes has created the apparent anoma-
ly. The more machinery has been ap-
piled, the more call for labor and the
higher wages have risen. To illustrate
our meaning take this example; Twen-
Ave years ago, the price Of the best hands
in the haying season was not more than
eighteen dollars per month, now it is
from two dollars TO two dollars and
half per day-and yet 1t has cost our
farmers less the past season to secure
! their hay, per tor, Notwithstanding the
high prices of labor and the depreciation
/ OF the currency, than it did twenty-five
ycoto ssess'..a- srl-er= moving machine and
horse rake have made the difference.
The sewing machine while it has cheap
ened the cost of clothing, has proved
the friend of the needle-woman, and had
1t been in existence when the song Of
the shirt was written, it would have
| prevented the complaint which called it
forth and the song would never have
been sung or written. In linen and
other woven fabrics we have succeeded
in producing them cheaper than the
! cheap labor of Ireland, Holland and the
| east Our cane for cane-seat chairs
was split for US by the Chinese with la
| Dor at four cents per day, but it cost too
ohinery. With the horse corn planter,
| the western farmer plants his four rows
| at time as fast as his team can walk
and it Is but one mans labor to raise
! eighty acres of corn. The reaper har-
vests a greater wheat crop in this coun-
! try than could ever have been secured
| by any spare manual labor which could
! be put into 1t during the harvest month.
In fact all southern writers admit that
in any kind Of labor except sugar and
cotton raising, slave labor Is expensive,
but that in cotton it would pay. 1t did
| pay,-Cotton aoaS king-but king no
| longer. King fax is making rapid en-
| croachments upon the empire of king
| cotton. But what made cotton king?
Slave labor? No. One machine-Whit-
| ney's cotton gin. 1t cost too much to
fit even cotton for sale by hand, and
northern mechanic did more to perpetu-
ate slavery than all the Rhetts and Yam
Ceys have done in two centuries.
But similar changes In the cost of the
thing produced and the labor to produce
it are constantly going on in the free
states. When any article costs too
much produced by hand, the northern
Yankee straightway makes machine
to do the work. A case in point has oc-
| CURED right amongst us. Our marble
and slate were taken out of the euarries
by hand labor. 1t was slow and expen-
sive. When sales were brisk and orders
abundant, enough could not be pro-
duced; when business was dull the
smen being skilled must be retained even
at ruinous prices rather than learn new
hands when business revived. Every
thinking man has seen that, some day,
simply throwing drill into solid rock
must be done by steam rather than by
muscle. Eight years ago Lowell me.
chanic came here and made q machine
10 90 the labor. He failed He made
different machine and he failed again
but he kept on through every discour
agement, was called crazy upon the sub
ject and laughed at, but he triumphed
at last, and got machine which will
revolutionize quarrying all over the
country, and he did more--he got ma
chine which will render stone cutting
| for Dlain huiidinu nurnosaS ~ -. :