Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-10-23
What Makes the Difference.

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in New York, and the tyranny of their
employers, with confirmatory correspond
ence from a fancy goods clerk, who has
had bitter>experience, If we are to believe
his own account, which we see no reason
to doubt. If he is late in the morning, five
minutes, or if three minutes late from his
hasty lunch at noon, he is docked one
fourth of day, while he is obliged
to work during the hours for which he re-
ceives no pay. He has thus been required
to work fourteen hours, for only half a
days wages. His evenings are expected
to be spent in drumming up trade, for
which he gets no thanks or pay. He says
his experience is that of other fancy-goods
clerks when travelling. His labors COM
mence at sunrise, and are ended at twelve
o'clock at night, or perhaps one o'clock
next morning, just in time to jump on the
train, sleep in his seat, and at daybreak he
is in the next town ready to go through
the same routine" Hefollows these state
ments with thanks to the paper that has
taken up the cause of oppressed clerks,
and makes the following pathetic appea'
"I speak from experience. This a.
done for four years. / have travel aeVe
yalises in hand, through rain or sc WIN
or cold, from Portland, MAR sa5ne, ai no'
Minnesota; from Grand Ae, 70 ot; raui'
gan, to Selma, AlabaT Rhaplus' Ml:ni-
draw the stupenf % ror my services wee
dred and fifty dollars liars 1% ner al annumIand num- %
this from one of ,bn iarnppst pUt not;o, borSaS
IN u. tne " led States. You have spoken
IN oui 1ehalf You have chosen to devote
wv columns of your paper to purpose
! which must be philanthropic in its motive,
for favors like these are never bought by
the workingmen. thank you from the
bottom OF my heart for the voice you
have raised to befriend us as COM
munity. Ipray it may never fail until it
has accomplished something towards its
| purpose, so that man will not be asham-
ed to see his name in the directory stig-
matized CLERK which now almost sig
nafies candidate for the poorhouse."
Coupling this with the following fig
ures from the magazine article to which
we have referred, we shall get some addi-
tional light upon the subject:
1.-THE census of 1860 shows in the
State of New York 49,597 clerks, to II, ,745
masons! And besides this is another
curious fact, that while the wages of the
masons are $3.50 per day, those of the
clerks do not average over So per day |!
| See, also, how the nOn-workers count with
the masons in other departments 11,745
masons only in the largest State of the
| Union, with population of $3.50, 1856 but
there are 3,679 barkeeper, 6,127 drivers,
$500 lawyers, and 5,235 clergymen. <
"The three bricklayers' unions of New
York city contain some four thousand
members, each of whom pays an initiation
fee of $25, and monthly due of twenty
five cents. If injured at bis work, the
injured member is allowed Sc per week
while disabled, and at his death his family
receives 1850. So far they are benevolent
institutions but in the event ofa strike,
or other important movement, this union
shall have power to levy upon it's mem
bers for extraordinary purposes such tax
or sum as may be at the time necessary,
which tax shall not at any time exceed
the sum of ten per cent. on the net earn
| ings or wages each member may be re-
ceiving at the time of such assessment
This may and must bring in a vast sum );
and learn from one of the officers that,
in this great strike at New York, in addi-
ton to the $25,000 in their treasures, they
have received from other unions and con-
tributions some $150,000, large portion
| of which has not been expended, or had
not been at the end of the sixth week of
| the strike"
The magazine writer thinks he has ex-
pressed the secret of power in the trades
unions, when he says, the demand for
their labor, and the high wages which are
consequent upon the demand, enables
them to make upa large fund, and to help
each other when occasion requires it; and,
as far as that goes, he is right. The pow
erlessness of the clerks is also considered
by him to result from their inferior wages
and this also is right, so far as it goes. The
reason for the scarcity of mechanics and
farm hands, and the glut of clerks, is at
tributed by him to the disreputable char
acter of manual labor.
"Work is disreputable-is it not so ?
Else would not these thousands of poor
clerks gladly leave two dollars day to
get five? Disreputable means not in es-
TEEN, not honorable. Now, I ask, is it
practicable for any bricklayer in this city
of New York, or in any city known, to
| enter, to be one Of what is called, good
society?' No matter how well educated
or how we'll bred he may be, the fact that
he is a bricklayer does forbid his being ac-
cepted as friend and equal by the men
and women of good society. 1t is not
easy to understand why stock gamblers
are accepted in good society, master ma.
sons and carpenters not why clerks at
two dollars per day are manageable
masons at five dollars a day not unless
that they are able to keep smooth hands
and wear good clothes week days as well
as Sundays. No one would claim that
the clerks are more intelligent, more moral
more capable, better members of society
than the masons; but the facts are as ]
state them"
/ Now, if these things are so, our nation
is in sad plight.
| ''nl fares the land, to Fastening ills a prey,
+ Where wealth accumulates, and men decay
The efeminacy which leads to a dislike
of honest, manual, labor, never exists ex
cept at the expense of manhood. There
is fashionable class in this country
doubtless, to which neither the mason
with his five dollars per diem, nor the
clerk with his two dollars, would be eligi
BILE. Beyond this we know of no society
where clerk would be received, and 8
mason or a carpenter excluded. 1t may
exist, but we have not discovered it
j; Our magazine article does not locate thi!
society, or define its boundaries. Certain
ly, it is not in rural districts: and, if il
, cities, where is it to be found. Evidently
!, if it exists at all, it must be among tina
class which is the pest of all large town
the class who gamble, pick pockets, sci
!. lottery tickets, keep intelligence offices
and contrive to keep up q sort of styl
upon the ill-gotten gains Of such and sim
ilar occupations But our author doe
J not, of course, mean this class, when h
) cnaaks NJ srood society. We are incline