Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-01-06
THE RELATION OF CLIMATE
TO INDUSTRY.
An English Artisan I'm New York
What he saysPrObable increase
of immigration South.


What he says-PrObabIe increase
of Immigration South.
From the New York Times.
The London Spectator has been pub
fishing some interesting letters from one
of the English artisans who have gone to
Ithaca on the invitation of Mr.. Cornell, to
assist in the building operations now going
on there; and the views of the writer, as
those of one of ''the pauper labOrers of
Europe" on the wOrkingman's condi-
ton and quality in this country, are well
worth attention. In the first year he as
serts that the wages, considering the cost
of living-and this should be, but is not
always considered in estimating the rate of
wages-are not nearly so high in this
country as has been commonly believed;
nevertheless he thinks workingmen, at
least at Ithaca, can have more than in
England, inasmuch as TIE temptations to
spend are fewer
There are many comforts to which the
English artisan has been accustomed,
which there he has to go without, and the
money which would go for them he can
put into savings bank. Drinking ale, for
instance-moderate drinking, of course
as an evening enjoyment at the tavern, is
unknown. There is no good ale, and the
whisky he is afraid to touch, even if he
had taste for it. Moreover, the writer
in the Spectator, if we understand
rightly, intimates that drinking here is
more disreputable than it is in England.
Of the Cheerlessness of the houses, owing
to the absence of the open fire, he COM
plains bitterly, and also of the cooking of
his boarding house. The food is more
abundant than in England, and a much
larger number Of articles are accessible to
the workingmen, but his dietary, never
theless, is much more mOnOtOnOus.
Breakfast and dinner are the same, or al
most the same, day after day. There are
no little surprises or dainties in the bill of
fare. Everybody knows beforehand what
he will have for his next meal. The
working clothes, too, of the artisan are
cOaser here than in England-the English
artisan apparently taking some pains to
indicate by his costume that he is an ar
tisan, and not a mere labOrer.
What appears to have taken the IthaCan
cOlOnists most by surprise, however, is the
complete break the winter makes in the
work of most of the trades, particularly
those in any way connected with house
building. The correspondent of the Spec
tdtOr relates, with apparent establishment,
that the masOns and stOneCutters and car
penters who are working with him, all be-
take themselves, during the winter, to some
kind of employment wholly foreign to their
trade. He tells of one man who is stone
cutter in summer and either glassmaker, a
wheelwright, hunter or lumbeTer in winter;
of another, a carpenter in summer and a
teamster in winter, driving wagon and
pair of horses of his own; and the conclusion
he naturally comes TO is that it is even more
essential to an emigrant to the United
States to be able to do many things tOlera-
bly, well than TO do one very well. He
must, in short, il he is to get on, be
handy man, ready 10 turn to whatever
presents itself The hours of labor the
writer represents as too long for the pace
at which men wOTk-eight hours here, he
thinks, being equal in their effect on
mind and body to ten in England and he
thence concludes that eight hours day
ought to be the legal days work in the
United States; but GU these points the
judgment of new conner, not yet aCcli-
mated, can hardly be considered final
The effect of this changing about from
one occupation to another is naturally
somewhat injurious both to the quality of
the mechanics work and to his own
standard of excellence, and we can readily
believe the Spectators correspondent
I.
is not as thorough or substantial as it is in
England. The work of a jaCk-Of-all
trades has to be more or less defective,
and perhaps owing to the climate, and
partly to the state of society in many of
our Northern States, the mechanic must
be for a long time to come more or less of
jaCk-of-all-trades.
That the Northern winter has not be
fore this told more seriously on Northern
prosperity, and drawn off a greater pro
portion of its working population, has
been unquestiOnably due to Southern
slavery. 1t was in vain that Southern
poets and orators told fine stories about
the cattle spending the nights in the
fields, and their owners passing their eve
ninGs on the piazza in the month of Janu
airy, as long as labor was disgraCeful, and
the free mechanic worked only one de-
gree above the negro Chattel. Now that
slavery is dead, however, the probabili-
ties are that in a very few years we shall
| see a homogeneous society stretching from
the Canadian frontier to the Gulf, and
possessing in every region q fair mixture
of both agriculture and manufactures.
But we think it is hardly possible, when
ever that time comes, that the superiority
of the Southern climate should not begin
to exercise its legitimate influence over
Southern industry-partiCulaTly when
| compared as it is with extraordinary rich
| ness of sOil-and should not begin 10
draw off laborcrs from the Northern
| States, Just as the Northern States are
now drawing them off from Canada.
Undoubtedly the artisan viii prefer Il
region in which he is sure Of work in his
| own trade all the year round, TO ono in
which he has to lay down his chisel In
| October, and go numbering or Transferring
through the winter storms. The capital
| ist, too, who is sure of never losing inter
| est on the capital sunk in unfinished work
will inevitably have an advantage, and a
great one, over his Northern competitor,
who passes half his year fretting over
boarded-up walls or ice-covered water
wheels We think it is impossible to
| doubt that these considerations will exert
powerful influence on the fortunes of
the Northwest, with its tremendous win
tiers six months long, its frozen rivers and
blocked-up roads, and they are worth the
attention of every immigrant and every
| Northern man in search of a home.
The Columbus Georgia. Sun, of Dec.
30, says: 'EThcre were large numbers
on the streets yesterday. Planters were
busy cndeavOring to employ their services
for the next year. We overhead nine,
ten, and even twelve dollars month,
including rations, offered for tirst-class
hands. The favorite plan is to give a
portion of the Crop-generally quarter
| or q third. The terms are very varied.
Most negroes prefer remaining on the old
plantations, and many are seeking ante
freedom places and former owners. As
a class, we are told, the freedmen are
willing to make contracts, and all is get
ting along smoothly.
About nine miles from the town of
Warrcnton, Ga, lives Mr. Thos. NJ.
Brown. He has now on his plantation
every negro that belonged to him before
Lincoln's proclamation. There are thir-
teen families-between fifty and sixty in
number-on the old plantation. This
| ,-oor o,,o of his 1norOps s1IDprintendpd one