Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-11-08
THE. PANIC AND THE WORKING
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Oo" peChuse hef husband wages nave
been reduced or perhaps cut off entire
ly, This very economy intsnsifes the
hardships of the industrial classes,
cutting off the demand for their labor
IN thousand ways, Nor is the de-
creased demand at all confined to ar
ticles of vertu and luxury or even the
conveniences of life. The American
people are proverbially wasteful
of the necessaries of life,
such as food itself, and the
room for economy in the matter of
dress is notorious. The bank suspen-
sions with which the panic opened were
mere child's play compared with the
wholesale suspensions Of mills, facto-
ries and workshops of all sorts, which
our telegraphic columns continue to re-
port daily. But the telegraph does not
report a twentieth part of the indus
trial suspensions occurring in the
Northern and Eastern States, turning
thousands on thousands out of en-
ployment and the means of livelihood
ON the very verge of winter. Our ex-
changes are crowded with the details
of these suspensions, and the
lately busy beehives of manufac-
ture are actually threatened with
starvation in the midst of bounti-
full crops and bursting harvests. The
Vanderbilts can endure a shrinkage of
millions in their nominal wealth, and
be really no poorer than before The
owners of mills and factories can afford
to lie idle rather than work at loss on
markets that have become overstocked
because consumers have become eco
nomical. The middlemen of all classes
can shift their burthens on other class
es below them. Even the farmer or
planter can stand a shrinkage of so
per cent in the value of his corn or cot
ton, and still live; his provisions for the
winter are already made. But when
the panic reaches the poor, the laborer,
and the mechanic, it can no further go;
these classes can shift it on no others
below them, and so they must grin and
bear it. 1t has been SO in all ages, and
under all forms of society. The poor
We have always with you, are words of
inspiration.
We have INDUCED the hope that these
sad results of the panic in the more
crowded portions of the country would
not reach pur more sparsely settled
section. True, the shrinkage on cot
ton, tobacco, etc, must affect us, Just
so far as our planters are foolishly in
debt and obliged to sacrifice at present
prices; out of debt, they could keep
their crops till exhausted stocks en-
HANGED their value In any case, how
ever, we had hoped that our laboring
classes would be but lightly affected.
Yet we find East Tennessee already in
a railroad ferment throughout its whole
length, and our Nashville mechanics
may also be called on to submit to some
reduction of force or of wages under
the necessities of the times. Heavy
stocks were laid in early in the fall,
and the general disposition to
economist makes merchants slow in
giving new orders, SO that the carrying
trade of our railroads has been serious
ly diminished. The difficulty of NOV
ing cotton for want of currency, and
the indisposition of many. to market
the staple at the prevailing low prices,
have also diminished our railroad bust
ness. Thus railroads find themselves
compelled to econOmize, as well as 9th
ers, and one of two alternatives seems
necessary in some cases: to reduce
either the number of employees, or the
aggregate of their wages. We have
been obliged to deal with this problem
ourselves in past years, in the little
world of the printing Office, and long
ago established few rules for our. own
guidance: First, We have urged en-
ployees that it would be
more brotherly among themselves
to divide the amount of!work'a far as
it would go, without discharging any
each be content with less wages for a
while till times got better. Secondly,
when discharges were inevitable, we
have retained men with families de-
pendent on them, rather than single
men, even though the latter might in
exceptional instances be better artisans
than the former. Railroads and other
employers may find the rule of retain
ing as many as possible of their old
and tried workmen, greatly to their ad-
vantage in the near future. When the
panic blows over and trade resumes its
wOnted tide, they may need them.
Efficient and experienced workmen are
rather scarce in the South, and the few
We have ought to be retained
even at some little sacrifice.
On the other hand, our work
ingmen will profit by studying the
actual situation. They will find the
banks doing nothing, merchants wish
ing they were out Of business, manu-
facturers with no market for their
wares, farmers tied up hand and foot,
and railroads doing less than half their
usual business. In such state of
General depression, the old saying
comes in, that half loaf is better than
no bread. The philosophy of strikes is
to resist the inordinate expressions of
capital; but capital itself is now suffer
ing more embarrassment than any
strike could occasion to it. All will,
we are sure, agree with us that strikes
cannot cure a panic, restore confidence
or draw currency out of its hiding