The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1872-05-30
Out of Work.

" SNuSi"iiJ itOuI pcTSOuS WHO
have no settled occupation in life, or, next
to none, follow some precarious cerkship.
Or If it is of those who endeavor to follow
a mechanical trade, they are persons who
are not "up" in their calling. Workmen
of any handicraft who are masters of their
business seldom want for work. But the
number of miserable clerks"-no other
words will express the subject-out of
employment to day 10 New York, Bos.
ton, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Baltimore,
Chicago, and other great cities of the
land, is not only lamentable, but enormous.
Merchants, bankers, aud business men of
all kinds-more especially those who
labor under reputation for benevolence
are inundated by applications from per-
sons thoroughly deserving, who are re-
duced to the most desperate straits for a
bare subsistence. a
Only few days ago, gentleman dis
covered, in the conductor of the car in
which he was travelling, an old acquaint-
ance, formerly a clerk with salary of
three thousand dollars, who was thankful
to have even his present employment.
Nor is he the only one of this class so
engaged. The evil is, moreover, an in
creasing one, and people would do well
seriously to bethink themselves Of re-
medy. Even clerks who do get work
have, ordinarily, SO poor future before
them, that the fascination this employ
ment has can only be accounted for by
absurd notions of its ''gentility." IF per-
sons had rather starve in genteeP man
ner than take off coat determincdly, aud
60 to work, why it is their own affair, we
suppose. But it is time peoples eyes
were opened to the enormity of the evils
they generate by crowding the unproduc-
ing ranks of life, and letting the produc-
ing 60 unified.
There is great demand for men, for
workers but the market for drones, for
loafers, is always full People of sense
have about arrived at the conclusion, In
plain language, that "any fool can be a
clerk" while to be an efficient cabinet
maker requires qualities by no means so
easily found The result is that the
supply of the clerk class is enormously
in excess of the demand, and as pat
ural consequence, their salaries can be
screwed down to the very lowest limits,
and this fact the capitalist is generally
at no great hesitation to improve upon.
Not ouIy is the number of clerks kept
far above the demand by the hosts strug-
Cling for admittance to its "honors'
who thin it is more "genteel' than
manual labor, and by the influx of fe-
male labor that is setting in that direc-
ton, but the business is often perpetua-
ted from father to sou. Boys are put
into the ranks OF clerkship who are en-.
tirely untitled for service there. A clerk
having boy of fifteen, goes to the head
of house In which he is himself employ
ed, solicits place for his son, and con-
graduates himself on having by so doing
contributed at least six dollars a week
more to the scanty resources of home.
Were he to reflect that he is, in all pro-
liability, condemning the lad to the
chronic impecuniosity under which he
himself groans, he would be less delight
ed. These children should be kept in
view, and their real interests cared for.
They should be rescued from that most
miserable of all lives, the constant strug-
gle to maintain appearance the shabby
shifts and mean devices to appear some
thing which they are not This is real
poverty.
This, too, is what makes the carpenter
or the shoemaker, albeit his actual gains
in money may be the same, SO far richer
a man than the clerk He has good
fire, plenty to eat, and warm clothes. His
wife cooks the chops, and does the wash
ing. and doesn't care who knows that she
does it; and their means amply suffice for
life which is perfectly natural, genuine,
and above board in every respect. And
the West beckons to people who might
otherwise friter away their lives at home
in the bondage of clcrkships. We have
boundless territory to be developed,
virgin soil to be upturned, and lands
which will grow yearly in value, to be
obtained on the easiest terms. There are
men in the Western States who had the
courage, in early life, to leave the counters
of Chicago and st. Louis to rough it in
California and Colorado. They bought
land for cents which is now worth thous
ands of dollars. They dug the ground
which Denver aud Sacramento now cover
Their vigor and physique is certainly as
good to day as that of their fellow clerks
whom, at nineteen, they left at the desk
while they have more dollars than tie
others have cents.