National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-09-11
LARnR AND CRIME.

can observer" writes to us from Phila-
delphia that when the grand jury for the
August term of the Quarter Sessions of
that city visited 'the prisons and peniten-.
Charles they were amazed to see the large
number of young men, ranging from sew
"enteen to twenty-one years, imprisoned
''as criminals, and, upon inquiry, were
'told they had no trade, and it was almost
Impossible for them to get chance to
'4earn trade of any kind" The expla-
nation of this deplorable condition of affairs
will at once suggest itself to those who
have made study of the effects of the re-
strictive rules of trades unions. Those
rules prohibit employers from taking more
than a limited and prescribed number of
apprentices. The result is that hundreds
and thousands of the youth Of the country
are compelled TO grow into manhood with
out acquiring any knowledge of even the
most ordinary means of 'procuring Iveli-
hood. They are consequently set adrift
upon the community idlers, Migrants and
criminals. The trades unions claim the
right to make these restrictions as matter
of elf-preservation, and fail to realize the
fact that, with rare exceptions, the country
is never overstocked with good mechanics
of any description. On occasions when
business is dull, and when commerce is
stagnant under the influence of financial
panic, it is true that the mechanics suffer;
but at the same time we find that three
fourths of the members of these trades
unions are of foreign birth, naturalized by
our laws to become citizens in the full
acceptation of the term. Their sons feel
the restric tions to which we refer, and in
turn run the risk of becoming either an ex-
pense or a scourge to the community.
While we admit that a comprehensive
consideration of this important subject
leads to dangerous ground, involving the
correctness of our policy of inviting and
encouraging immigration, we insist that it
can be settled without infringing upon the
rights of any class. The troubles of which
we complain are mainly confined to cities
of large growth and thickly settled commu-
mites, where the trades unions work their
greatest iniquities. In the country, in the
agricultural districts, lawlessress and crime
are confined to boisterous rowdyism and out
RACES upon the person, while burglaries,
thefts are larcenies are unknown. 1t re-
quires but glance at this statement of I'M
denisble facts to see that where labor is
without restriction in its natural growth
crime is checked, while where the inhsbit-
ants are crowded together in small spaces
recruits for the prisons and penitentiaries
abound plentifully. The deduction which
naturally suggests itself is that the surplus
population of our great cities should be
eeded out. How TO do this, and to do it
without infringing upon the privileges of
the laboring class to protect their dearest
interests, is the problem. Surely the coun-
try is large enough, with its boundless area
of undeveloped agricultural lands, and with
its unlimited resources of every description,
to afford employment for millions of men
who seek our shores as the refuge of the
oppressed of all nations. Although this is
not a new subject and is one that has at
tracted attention for generations, it is one
which grows in importance with the
growth of our country.