The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-12-17
scarcity of Work.

metropolis. The report shows most
distressing condition of affairs, If Its
statements may be relied upon as
truth, and not an elaborate fiction, got
up for the purpose of political effect.
The World is so given to lying" ac-
cording to a great authority, that in
the present instance we cannot help
looking upon its statements and fig
ures with some suspicion. 1t says
there are fifty thousand persons in
New York who live by the labor Of
their hands. and who are now out of
employment. OF twenty eight thou
sand artizans employed in the jewelry
business, forty per cent. are reported
to be out of employment. The wages
of carpenters have been reduced from
So so to 81 80 per day, and only
about one-half of the journeymen can
find work at the latter rate. Four
hundred hatters are able to get en-
ployment only one day in six. OF
twenty thousand tailors in the city,
one quarter of them fre unemployed,
while wages have been reduced nearly
one third. The iron business, not
withstanding the very high tariff in
is favor, is reported to be duller
than 10 the past twenty years. AT
least one thousaod shipwrights can
find no work. From ore end of
East River to the other but five YES
sells are being constructed To cap
tie climax, thIee thousand servant
girls are seeking employment and find
ing none.
This is sad picture Its sadness
is deepened when we look at the
reckless extravaganza that character
ICES another portion of the com
munity. When young ladies in our
small country towns can find nothing
good enough for wedding outfit this
side of Paris. and the rage for foreign
gew- gaws and jim cracks continues,
we may anticipate that American me-
chanics and sewing women will have
hard time of it. The criminal prod
igality INDUCED in by well-to-do citi-
zens of the Republic, will of necessity
result in depressing the poor to a
yet greater depth in poverty and des-
titution- The rapid accumulation of
the wealth of the country by the few,
invariably results in greatly depress-
ing the many. While we have not
the titled nobility of the Old World
to monopolize our honors and wealth,
we are building up moneyed aris-
tocracy, whose possessions are based.
much as are those of the nobility of
Europe, upon the suferings and dis
tress of the laboring classes. As one
/ is exalted and its riches accumulate,
! the other is exhausted and its suffer
ings increased Nor does the state
ment of the evil throw any light upon
the best manner Of Graduating it. It
is the old complex problem which
| puzzled the brains of the wisest and
best centuries ago, and is still IN
solved. It has come down to US
from the dim, dusty ages of the past,
when the Israelites were compelled
to make brick without straw out of
which to construct the palaces Of the
Pharaohs. So long as the world
stands, it seems probable that the
problem will remain without salts
factory solution.
But the New York World, with a
malignant partisan spirit, both pitia-
] bic and contemplate, charges all this
suffering upon the Republican party,
assigning the deranged condition of
the currency, the high tariff, and an
unnecessarily protracted war as the
cause of the distress, and these the
work of that political organization.
1t seems idle to attempt the refuta-
ton of such silly and unjust assump-
tiens. Indeed, the World itself saves
US the trouble, for in the same article
in which it comments on the condi-
ton of the poor of New York, it
predicts that unless a change for
the better takes place (of which there
is no immediate prospecD New York
will see as much distress as it did in
the Winter of 1873, when process
sions of men, women and children
were no uncommon thing"
Shall we inquire of the World what