The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-29
THE NEW YORK PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THB LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT PROFESSIONALISM EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
Work and Wages.

WoEA anu WhReBs
PFom The Tribune
The journeymen composing the regularly
organized associations or guilds of several
trades in this city have resolved to strike for
higher wages on Monday next This fact
evokes the following suggestions
/. Every man has a right to hold his labor
or its product at such price as he shall see fit,
subject only to the laws of the land. He has
right to agree or combine with other laborers
or producers not to sell below given rate,
whether that rate be reasonable or not. If he
asks, or they combine to exact, too much, the
general public will thereby be annoyed and
embarrassed; but the chief loss will fall on the
extortioners, as it should.
II. The workman or guild abandons the
ground of legality and right the moment he or
they attempt to force, coerCe, or intimidate
others into uniting in or deferring to their
demand. If, for example, any coal dealer in
our city should see fit this day to advance the
price Of his coal to SO per ton and refuse to
sell for less, he would be justified in so doing.
If he could induce every coal dealer in or near
New York to agree with him not to sell below
that rate they would violate no law by such
agreement. But let them go a step further,
and conspire to repel or obstruct the receipt of
coal by others, and its sale below their arbi-
trary price, they would become law-breakers
and public enemies, and must be dealt with
accordingly.
III. 1t is commonly asserted that labor is
less amply rewarded here than it formerly was.
This is not according to facts as we have OBJ
served them. We came to this city in the
autumn of 1881, when our country was gene
rally prosperous, taxes light, and public debts
merely nominal, and when no considerable
war had for over sixteen years wasted the
substance of our people. The average rate Of
mechanics wages in our city was then less
than 80 per week-in our trade (printing) de-
cidedly less. Now, the average wages of me-
chanios in our city are not below $l8 per week.
True, the cost of living has considerably in
creased meantime; but not nearly so much as
100 per cent. Coal rose to SIC per ton in the
winter of 1912, and was higher, on an ave-
rage, thirty to thirty-fve years ago than it now
is. Pork cannot be 80 per cent. higher now
than it was then. We doubt that the woollen
fabrics which constitute the staple of our
mechanics wear are at all dearer to-day than
they were in 1872; they surely are not 25
per cent. dearer. Rents are considerably
higher; but q man may live four to six miles
from his work. yet reach it as cheaply and
almost as quickly as he then could from
distance of two miles. Many articles have
Dt6u Cu6dpbl6u ny Jll6 progress Ol luV6nLlOn
and improvement. For instance:-The news
papers sold in 1881 for the present price of the
Tribune did not contain half so much non-ad-
vertising matter as, and were got up at tithe
of the cost of, this journal. Yet we pay for
labor hereon so to 100 per cent. more than
was then paid for similar labor.
~. There is, and ever must be, a strong
current of labor setting towards the cities
Wisely or unwisely, almost every young man
iVNt thno 10
so in a city, whose theatres, concerts, process
sions, celebrations, splendid edifces, etc. etc.,
excite his curiosity and attract his regard. A
capable, efficient, diligent mechanic, being
single, can earn more, and obtain more enjoy
ment in q year in city than in the country
at all events, he thinks he can And, so long
as human nature shall remain what it is,
every year will bring thousands of young
mechanics to the cities.
V. With marriage and children there comes
a decided change. The wages whereon single
man can live sumptuously, will barely and fru-
gally support an average family. When his
children, who can earn nothing, number half
dozen or more, the mechanic, unless he has
saved something in former years, can barely
exist when in full work, and is a pauper when
out of work Such, briefly stated, are the
conditions under which mechanical labor is
performed in our city.
vi. 1t seems, therefore, to us that if the
journeymen in any trade are about to strike
measure which we by no means advise
their only rational hope of success in that
movement rests on their ability to induce a
very large migration of their members. If,
for example, ten thousand of our older Jour
neymen, who find their expenses fully up to
their incomes when they do their very best,
could be induced and enabled to migrate to
the new States, where their labor is in quick
demand, and where-though wages are lower
than here-food, fuel, timber, and house
room are very much cheaper, the projected
strikes might have chance of success. In
any other case, they seem to us doomed to
inevitable failure, and to prove injurious to the
public, but especially calamitous to those who
embark in them.