Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1868-03-17
Equalization of Wages, Male and Fe-
male-Irish Labor.

AASSAN AAAo1k GttOSAs
lT'e and the rest Of mank{ad are To
have trouble about this matter OF
equalizing the wages between males
and females, not a bit Of doubt about
it. The injustice Of paying a man
$1,000 per month for so much work
and " man but s2OOQ for Just the
same labor and amount is roo palpa~
bly, unjust to bear the ligbr and logic
OF exposure
These times men u capital enlarge
their fortunes by hiring most OF their
labor done, and form among them
selves 8 kind Of mutual aid society
for managing this great affair Of
wages. Formerly down South labor
was managed by the grand national
organization ofsouthern shareholders
and northern democrats-the more
ignorant northerners, especially Irish.
men, aiding by their votes, and by
their prejudices against certain la
borers, the whole matter OF forcing
cheap wages upon the masses. In
the South the laborcrs, men and
women, were owned and hired out
at thirty cents per day, and in all
that vast country free laborers, white
as well as black, had to compete
with such forced labor at thirty cents
per day, or else travel north where
the competition Of working people
was only between free men and
women. But even in the north GERS
tain kinds Of labor had to compete
with southern labor. Slave labor
produced most of the grain in the
South, and every bushel Of northern
grain was measurably reduced in
value by the southern article which
went into market at half the cost
of northern products. Even at
this day, owing to labor in Ala
bama being held in its old channel
by forced means-the fragments Of
slave monopoly still existing, wheat
is selling in the streets at rs cents
per busheI. And to this day the
northern Irshman cannot afford to
go South and labor at current wages
on account Of what still remains Of
the very institutions which he so
long upheld by his vote as demo-
crat. In fact no people, not even
the blacks; are more hated in the
South-all on account of the Irish
demand for good living wages.
Free labor and forced or slave Ia
Dor were long the great national an>
tagonisms, and must have SO re-
manned for ages, had it not been for
the efferts of free school education
among the northern labor masses-
in opening their eyes and thus maxi
ing of esoh . mighty lever for his
own el yation by means OF emanci>
pating labor everywhere. Educated
labor trees itself from monopolists,
aud then elevates and enriches ali,
without respect to sex, color, nation
atty or rank
The African element in the South
became free, and Irish labor and me-
gro labor remained no longer cons
petitors At once rising to equality
and competing only with the rude
labor of Europe, all class as are bene>
fitted so uniformly and so visibly as a
result of African freedom that nobody
thinks of ever again going back TO
slavery. Even our Irish friends can
not afford to re-enact democracy for
the South, and thereby beget CONS
petitor which would allow them but
fifty cents day Tor their tolls
But the laber question is not yet
fully disposed OF. The labor of wo-
men must be made as dear as the
free labor of man, because it costs
women just as much to live as it costs
a man Negro labor AID Irish labor,
German and Yankee labor are not q
whit better than female labor. The
democracy of free labor is just and
must be equally compensated, wheth
en- the iaborer be white or black,
male or female.
This day men are growing in idle>
ness, whilst women are more than
ever intent on industrial life. The
village shows more male loafers than
female loafers Even in the same
family if there be q loafer it is the
urother, not the sister-too often the
husband and father, the mother be
ing the main stay. Village life al
most insures loafer life to two>tbirds
Of the uprising male family, whilst
most Of the village girls betake them
selves to industry.