Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1868-10-20
Labor in the U. S.-Whatan English
Paper says-Reply Thereto.


have of obtaining decent living,
and fair days wages for fair days
labor, when they get there. Ameri-
ca is no longer the land of promise
to the Industrial classes, and it cans
not be too extensively known that a
man must carry with him something
more than modest assurance and self
confidence if he would ensure success
in that part Of the world. We hear
that some time ago number of un-
ion men were sent out to America in
order that unionists in this country
might be left in better position to
make their own terms with the en-
ployers at home. Plenty Of men
were glad to go the tales they had
heard led them to believe that they
might almost literally roll in wealth
in America, and the ideas they had
caught from people who made it their
business to speak of the universal
content and prosperity of that coun.
try, upheld them in their determine
ton. They left their homes full Of
hope and courage. Their faith was
perfect; they had, as they supposed,
nothing to fear. They left trouble.
some certainty-the certainty that
they bad to toll amid care, disap>
pointment, and occasional lrivation
and went forth to battle with an
uncertainty, colored to meet their
views and TO tempt them to specu
late upon the promises of those who
had returned from the land of their
hopes sadder and wiser men. We
hear of these unionists again. And
what of them Many of the men
could find no employment whatever
One writesin sorrow to his friends,
dating from Pittburg (Pennsylvania),
saying " We have been greatly de-
ceived by coming to America, for
they have been on strike in this
country for six weeks, and rhen
"hey are at tc0rk there are t,Uo men for
erery situation. The working men
"of old England are CALLED by emi-
grafton" AS a warning to his fell
low workmen the writer of this desi-
red that his letter might be made
public. A cotemporary remarking
upon this says Emigration, wisely
conducted, must be of the greatest
benefit to the men who go and to the
mon who remain behind but we
once more advise all hard working
men who are looking out for better
wages, to make very sure before
breaking up their homes that they
will find happier ones elsewhere
That advice we most heartily endorse.
The labor markets in most of the
States of America are, to say the
least we'll supplied continued in>
pouring OF immigrants from Eng
land, Ireland, and Germany must
still further reduce the value of the
workingman's capital, and finally in>
troduce discomfort, spasmodic efforts
at emancipation from species Of
thraldom, and that antagonism be-
tween capital and labor with which
we are too familiar in this country"
REMARKS 1t is we'll enough for
English workingmen who think of
emigrating TO consider we'll before
hand what the true prospects are for
their kind of labor, as in some parts
of the u. S. certain kinds of bust
ness are overdone, especially in great
cities like Pittsburgh, The editor
above errs when he says, America
is no longer the land Of promise to the
illustrious classes" If by "land Of
promise" is meant, country where
labor is generally better compensa-
ted than any where else in the world,
then is America such land Of PROM
Use. 1t may be however that in 9TH
er parts of the world labor is as well
or even better compensated but
when it comes to using the surplus
proceeds of labor in the purchase of
homesteads, in clearing and improv-
ing lands, &C., we feel safe in saying
that man can safely reckon upon
making each days labor pay double
what can be counted on in any oth~
er part of the world. Laborine men
in the west, who are poor at the start,
are seen to start off slow at first and
for year or two make but little
show of property. But the third,
fourth or fifth year is apt to bless
them with just such homesteads as
they may aspire to own-usually
farm of forty to eighty acres, with
some stock and other living supports.
He may be in debt few hundreds,
but his credit will be unimpared, In
ten years froL +heir start you will
find such beginners, with hardly an
exception, to have doubled their
land estates, live in fine houses, own
great herds of stock and be free from
debt-valuatio 5000 to S10,1 900
Mechanic laborers, as q general
rule, do not progress SO rapidly; a
decade Of years usually finds them
blessed with good village property
and some money in valuation
81, 900 to $4,000.
But such statements are only de-
signed to approximate or show an
average offortune making in Ameri-
ca by men who are tolerably indus.
trious, manage well and economize
as men ought to. A few men remain
poor all their lives; some fail to rise
above small homesteads, and perhaps
not above two thirds of the men do
as we'll or better than the class first
a..uded to. Englishmen seem to ac-
cumulate property and average well
in this country, we think rather bet
ter than Anne lean born men--if we
excect such of the Americans as en-
gage in mammoth speculations and
accumulate millions.
Emigrants err in settling in the
cities and large towns, or even in the
small towns and often err also by