The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-06-07
"PLEA IN BEHALF or UNEMPLOYED
CLERKS"
Editors of the Bulletin:

Editors Of the Bulletin:
perused with grave interest the commu
nication which appeared in the BULLETIN o
the Oath ultimo, under the above heading
and was deeply impressed by its facts ano
suggestions, and those to which they gave
rise in my own mind. If business men
whose dependence on clerks they are obliged
| to admit, will duly consider the situation.
of such of the latter as are at present with
out employment, and without the means OF
subsistence, it does seem to me they viii
have forced upon them a recognition OF
some measure of obligation in the premises
1t is not pretended that merchants are
obliged to provide for all belonging to the
class OF clerks.
In the most prosperous times there is a
superabundance of clerical labor, OF which
a part, at least, if there was not an aver
sion to it, could be directed in other chan
nels. Sentiments and considerations of hui
mainly should, however, cause merchants
to exhibit some concern for those by whom
they have been faithfully and efficiently
served, and whose services, or that of
others, they expect again to need. If clerks
are as dependent on their employers, as
brutes on their masters-which is indeed
the fact in respect to many-they are not,
like bruteS, destitute of sensibility.
lmag inc clerk of superior intelligence,
refined and intellectual culture, honorable
sentiments, qualified to adorn the best So
ciety, and having a dear wife and children
to provide for whose happiness and welfare
are more dear to him than his own liie
driven to the necessity of daily soliciting
pecunlary aid from his friends. However
charitably the latter may regard his situa-
ton, it is simply impossible for any one,
endowed with the qualities enumerated, to
resort to such an expedient without dam
age to his own self aspect, and to an equal
extent suffering decentralization
Is it wonderful then, that dependency,
encouragement, and finally despair and
cessation of every manly effort succeeds
such condition man of such qualities
Will never decline to enter any path which
conducts to an honest livelihood. But when
circumstances do not confer the power of
choosing, and the man is shut up to single
pursuit, in which also there is no present
opening, and the prospect for an indefinite
period in the future affords not glimmer
of nope: does he deserve only universal ex-
ecration and social ostracism, if overwhelmed
by the circumstances of his condition, and
an absence of prospective relief, he falls
from his native elevated moral and social
plane, and becomes bankrupt in charac-
tere
Hence l think the suggestion in the COM
above referred to entitled to
earnest consideration, to wit: Let mer-
chants now make their engagements with
clerks, at stipulated salaries, for the year
beginning the LIST Of Sept next. Let
the said clerks enter Immediately the mer-
chants offices, and receive each month";
from the date of entering, such part Of
the stipulated annual salary as shall be
to the whole number of
between the said date of entering,
and the 1st of September 1875"
Thus the immediate necessities of the
said clerks will be met, and they saved from
the consequences to which, when unem-.
ployed and distracted by pecuniary straits,
they are dangerously exposed.
L cannot perceive why it is not Just as
legitimate, and as little hazardous, to make
such advances to clerks as to advance in
the usual way to planters. Nor do think
hat the percentage of losses from the
former cause would equal those which are
yearly experienced from the latter More
over, under an arrangement like the above,
5ha sums paid to clerks anterior to the date
1t which they would begin the annual en-
could be secured against loss, in
5he event of death, by life insurance
For example: the payment of from So to
$40, according as lineage of the clerk, is
5wenty five OF tfty-two years, or any inter
'enlng age, will insure the payment to the
merchant of $1,000 in case the clerk should |
lie within six months from the date of the
policy OF insurance. Such preeaution, to
provide for which the clerk would himself |
willingly bear the expense, would render
he transaction entirely safe and | think
he end proposed to be accomplished de-
erves immediate, serious, and practical de-
Iteration. Co SYMPATHIzER.
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