The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-05-24
A PLEA IN BEHALF OF UNEMPLOYED
CLERKS,
NEW ORLEANS, April 90, 1874.

NEW ORLEANS, April %, 1874.
Editors New Orleans Bull etn:
Present facts, and the gloomy pOspects in
regard to the business of New Orleans, fol
months to come, are indeed saddening. As
consequence, many merchants have re-
duced their clerical force, and some Of thest
and many others are also retrenching theil
official expenses by scaling down the sala
ries of the clerks who are retained. OF those
who have been discharged, many are adrif
on the sea of idleness and want, with neither
oar nor compass, and without rations for 8
single day. They who are the authors Of
such situation have acted in strict cOnfOr
nifty to a legal right but is it not hard in.
deed, land does not the case involve q mora
element y that the consequences OF CONNER
cial stagnation should fall in go great dis
proper ton ON those who had no agency in
causing itf LIN
| Is 1t humane, because Of dizziness in trade
or even though trade was for a season en-
tirely suspended, that merchants. in such al
| exigency, should discharge such clerks Of
have no other means Of subsistence than &C.
cruing salaries, and who are, made beggers
the day their salaries are discontinued! II
is supreme mockery, at such time as now
when merchant discharges his clerk, to
suggest that he may find employment else
where! Everybody knows that the stagna-
ton in business is universal, and that no.
body has need to increase his clerical force.
Not only SO; but everybody knows, also, that
if large per centage of the places now fill
cd, in commercial houses, were, by death, or
any other means, made vacant, they would
not need to be re-filled.
Vacancies occurring in public institutions
alone offer any chance, and the applicants
for these are so numerous shat individual
chances for procuring any such vacancy
are but little superior to the chances of
drawing the grand prize in lottery. The
above being facts, it is question OF mo-
mentOus import to those to whom they APP
ply (without salaries, and With no means Of
subsistence) how to preserve union of
soul and body. 1t ayails nothing that they
are efficient, and willing in any manner to
earn support for themselves and families
And if the challenge is made: "Why stand
We here idle all the. day'" They could truly
respond: "Becauss no man hath hired us )"
"No will one hire us" For all such there
seems TO alternative but daily to bore their
friends, and those even with whom they
have only. . partial acquaintance, for ''lit
tie money" al4t
1t may readily be imagined that man of
honorable pride will approach closely the
verge of starvation before he will resort to
expcdients which liken him to . vagabond.
Every merchant in this city probably knows
one or more clerks, upright In character, in
dustrious in habits aud Of superior capacity,
whose present daily subsistence is procured
in this way. Instead, therefore, of compel
ing such to undergo the exceeding humilia-
ion, (hardly preferable to death itself, of
oan them.a few dollars until able to return
he same how truly noble would it be if
he said merchants should anticipate the
equests and volunteer their aid in given
um or certain average amount per diem
or stipulated time. Moreover, the graft
udc that such acts would evoke, would be
10 mean compensation for them; and they
would perhaps beget in the recipients Of
hem a more exalted estimate of mankind
han was before cherished. fs
Granted, that the merchants of New Or
saus are making no money. They never
heless have something on which to live,
,hereas unemployed clerks have nothing
0 live upon. All of our merchants, of
curse, expect that the advent of another
year will revive business. So
n as it is practicable, let them make their
ngagements with clerks now, at a stipu-
tied salary, for the year beginning the LIST :
September next. Let the said clerks I
nter their Offices Immediately, and receive
ach month from the date of entering, such
part Of the stipulated annual salary as
nall be prOpertionate to the whole num-
er of months intervening between the said
ate of entering and the LIST of september, I
Us.
Thus will be provided for the said clerks
resent necessities and they be relieved of 2
onths of mental anguish and dependency. !
Oreover the antecedent period spent in the I
ices by the pre-engaged clerks will not be :
vain. They will, while business is most /
ack, have made themselves familiar with q
q officers respectively, and with the duties =
their respective departments and so
ill be the better prepared to discharge n
lose duties, as, with the entrance of the 3
ason, they increase. h
Being DESTROYS Of doing what can in +
half of the above named class in this season !
its extremity, have revolved their stu
ion in my mind, and make the above, to !.
3, seemingly practicable suggestion. c.
SYMPArHIZER. =
The GENTLE LIFE.-This is the beautiful -
ritage of the we'll born man and the gen. h
woman. They may be poor or rich. to- i
y, they may be living life of leisure or q,
ling for their bread-all the same they q,
rry with them the grace, the care, the
In <srs, Aho l. loI |