Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1868-10-23

lOI ldNOlH llht lUtSt dAC hONNA bbhthh ~
the workingmen. thank you from the
bottom of my heart for the voice you
have raised to befriend us as a com.
munity. pray 1t may never fail until it
has accomplished something towards its
purpose, so that a 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 sddi-
tional light upon the subject:
"The census of 1850 shows in the
State of New York 1857 clerks, to If, ,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 I
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 8. $50, 1856 but
there are 3,670 bsrkeeper, 6,127 drivers,
$500 lawyers, and 5,235 clergymen. y
"The three bricklayers' unions Of New
York city contain some four thousand
members, each of whom pays an initiation
fee of $25, and a monthly due of twenty
five cents. If injured at his work, the
injured member is allowed SO per week
while disabled, and at his death his family
receives $50. So far they are benevolent
institutions; but in the event ofa strike
or other important movement, this union
shall have power to levy upon its men,
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
tY,rr orx aaoh nar mo ha 70
ceiving at the time of such assessment
This may and must bring in vast sum /;
and l learn from one of the officers that,
in this great strike at New York, in addi-
ton to the $25, 900 in their treasures, they
have received from other unions and con-
tributions some $150,000, a 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 SOY
Else would not these thousands of poor
clerks gladly leave two dollars day to
get five9 Disreputable means, not in es.
TEEN, not honorable. Now, l 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 well bred he may be, the fact that
he is bricklayer does forbid his being &C.
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 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 l
state them"
Now, if these things are 90, our nation
is in sad plight.
"Tl fares the land, to Fastening ills prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay"
The effeminacy which leads to a dislike
of honest, manual, labor, never exists ex-
cept at the expense of manhood There
is q 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 a
mason or a carpenter excluded. 1t may
exist, but we have not discovered it..
Our magazine article does not locate this
society, or define its boundaries. Certain
ly, it is not in rural districts; and, if in
cities, where is it to be found. Evidently,
if it exists at all, it must be among that
class which is the pest of all large towns
the class who gamble, pick pockets, sell
lottery tickets, keep intelligence offices,
and contrive to keep up a sort of style
upon the ill-gotten gains of such and sim
liar occupations But our author does
net, of course, mean this class, when he
speaks of good society. We are inclined
to think the society he means to be crea-
tion of his own imagination.
But if work is not disreputable, whence
the glut in those professions which do Eot
involve manual labor' A powerful cause,
entirely overlooked by this writer, exists
in the exaggerated ideas which prevail in
rural districts in regard to the pleasures of
city life, and the chances which exist in
large towns for rapid advancement in all
professions. Instances of extraordinary
success are circulated far and wide through
the country papers, while the numberless
wrecks of health and morals, or the in
Vulnerable disappointments, privations,
and humiliations to which the larger por-
tion of young men who go to cities in
search of employment, must be subjected,
are unrecorded. 1t is true that men of ex.
traordinary talents find greater scope and
larger remuneration in cities than in coun'
try towns. But all youths have not ex'
traordinary talents and the advantages
which are secured by metropolitan life
are only to be obtained by pluck and per
severance, perhaps SO severely tried ere
success is reached, that the prize, when al