New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-01-14

1920 "SCfRCED L1BORERS UNEMPLOYED.
The fint reason which Mr.. Commissioner
Wells gives for reporting against the House
Tariff bill No. us, and advising that n bill
which be has constructed be substituted for il,
is that there is "a scarcity Of labor especially
"of skilled labor, in the country He repeats
this in the declaration that scarcity of labor
"is the first cause which has contributed TO
1.-THE initiation Of priccs;' aud subsequently
rciteratcs it 10y saying: There is an acknowl-
edged scarcity Of skilled, and to a certain
extent Of msbilled, labor in the country
While lost in wonder at tho selection of this
hypothesis for the foundation of n scheme of
taxation and finance for the United States,
the following letter came 10 hand from
Catasauqua, Lchigh County, Penn:
"The blow is coming. We learn from
pittsburgh that the barmill proprict0rs can't
chang on any longer, and that the mills
will all close within n week or two,
"and the men be out of work. 1t will be
"iust horrible. Some concerns will stop without
"an order on their books, and their sheds full
"of iron. Works are stopping all over Penn
"sylvana. Here in the II.ehigh Valley, see
"wlat evil has been wrought by not passing
"the Tariff bill last Congress. The fol-
lowing rolling mills are standing idle
" two mills ut Easton, each about go hands,
"12O hands; jordan Mil, mt Allentown, 100
"hands; Lehigh Mill, at Allentown, 80 hands;
" East Pennsylvania, catasauQua, 90 hands;
"Catasauqua Manufacturing Company, $50
hands; two mills at Newport, each 40 hands,
" 50. The number above is of the hands
" directly working in the mills, beside those
"who arc also idle that were supplying them
" with coal, ore &c. The coal miners of this
VALLEY arc also standing still, consequent on
" the dizziness of manufacturing. Three thou
sand miners are out of employ"
"a scarcity of labor" is the evil our Iron
manufacture languishes and dies under, eh7
Brothers in the Lehigh Valley, and you, poor
doomed thousands of irOn-artificers In Pitts
burgh, are you "scarce2' Scarce labor il labor
which does not exist for q required need
Do MT you EXIST Does not Il stoppage of your
wages affect your Do Mt you feel this Jam
aiy cold Do you not know that you have
the right, not justly TO be alienated, to stand
ut your FORCES and hammer American iron into
shape for American use, striking out of il
bread for yourselves and families, and the
comfortable living fit for sovereign American
citizens-a right in competition with which
no true American will ever bring the
rights" Of importers and forcignersH "Scarcen
are you-so scarce that the dull eye Of book
economy. can't sec you, and can't see tho truth
patent to tho whole country, that the iron-pro-
ducing labor Of Pennsylvania Is amply suffi-
cient for Pennsylvania's capacity to produce
iron, and that there arc skilled and unskilled
labOrers in the United States numerous enough
to stock fully the existing furnaces and rolling
mills Of the United States7 This Is the truth
and the assertion that there Is q national scar
city of labor TO run the machinery now set up
In the nation, and to keep its capital invested
in manufacturing employed, Is an assertion
working in the interest Of foreign importers,
and made to get foundation for the theory
that our importations must Of necessity be kept
up, and Ia utterly mistaken and wrong.
But patience, friends In the Lehigh Valley, and
all over Pennsylvania, fast darkening now at
night with the extinguishment of her forget fires
and her tunnel-head flames Tariffs are not
framed In Radical Republican Congresses by
Free Trade theorists or British importers. The
laborers Of this country henceforth make its
tariffs. You earlers Of days wages, us YOU WHO