The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-07-02

II involves more: for il duplicates abroad
all the " division of labor " required to
produce these wares at home and, in ad-
dition, It inficts upon us a new race Of
!" idiots " according to Mr.. Townsend's
philosophy }, by the division Of labor which
ID required in the business of importing.
You. enter, for instance, the importing
palace Of A. 7. Stewart. The first man
you meet does nothing but open and shut
The door There are twenty men Of this
kind. The second does nothing but bow
to you, If you appear to know what you
want If not, he bows and points you the
why to 20. There are, perhaps. twenty Of
these. The third does nothing but take
down packages. The fourth puts them up.
The fifh opens them and shows the goods /;
be must mot even talk about them. except
to answer questions. The sixth folds and
wraps them. The seventh carries them,
with mem. and the money, to the change
counter, where the eighth makes the change.
How can division Of labor be carried out
more completely than where it requires
eight persons to sell and deliver yard of
tape, after it lies upon the importers shelf 2
Is it more intellectual to measure tape than
to manufacture it =? Is it more manly to
open and shut q door for living than to
make ore into iron ? Is it nobler to wrap
up packages than to build steam engines
Does it develop harder intellect to unroll
carpets than to run the complicated machine
that weaves them?
Every process in production, whether Of
agricultural or manufactured goods, is crea-
tive, and likens man to God, the first and
greatest manufacturer and planter. Too
many Of tie processes of trade consist in
absorbing profit for which no value is con-
ferred /; and to this extent they liken a man
to the devil, the primeval, thief.
If A. I. Stewart should send delega-
ton Of his clerks to Washington, to ask
that he be permitted to sell foreign goods in
American markets " free " from American
taxation, Mr.. Townsend would see nthat
only the emancipation of trade. But when
the workingmen's associations in Pennsyl-
vaL:a, who are now getting exactly twice
the wages in gold which are paid for the
same services in England, and who deserve
all they get, and need it all in order to live
comfortably, and not be mere wages-slaves
when they demand that their wages shall
not be lowered by free trade. this Bohe-
milan sees in it clear case Of asking aims.
Had be lived in 1919, when 10000 work
men were turned out of employment by
free trade, or in 1895, when still greater
suffering prevailed, be could easily appre-
ciate the motive OF the workingmen of Pitts
burgh. They may, indeed, be Of the class
who do nothing but strike nails on the head
They certainly could not strike the nal
on the head" more effectually than when
they demand that Congress shall not turn
them out Of employment to benefit British
ironmakers.
There is, however, no part of the world
where machinery is substituted for manual
labor more extensively than in PeDnsyl
vania ; and Mr.. Townsend cannot find the
spot in the whole State where steady,
dull, monotonous manual energy strikes one
spot hour after hour" All this work il
done by machine labor, where machinery
has beer invented for it, and the drift and
intent Of the statement, viz: that, the sane
processes which are elsewhere performed
BY machinery, in Pennsylvania are per
formed by hand, is a wretched and maliciou:
SANDER, unworthy of any man pretending
to truth or honor
The last sentence of the above screed
shows a density of idiocy that is almost in
conceivable. Because half the farmer:
wheat is now required to pay for trans
porting it one thousand miles to market, Mr.
Townsend would set all the men who are
now in manufacturers to raising wheat
thereby doubling the already destructive
competition between the growers of wheat
destroying the home demand, increasing the
already excessive supply, and compelling
the farmers to send all their wheat three
thousand miles, instead Of one thousand, &
result that would swamp every wheat raisel
west of Pittsburgh, aud give ALL HIS grair
for the freight instead Of half