New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-06-24

! uNco AWAY WILL tuo cuAeA OOJecC OF IL
formation. For. if the companies ma,
employ vhomsoever they wish to, an,
make contracts for work with individuals
an open market for labor is at once estab
| lished upon the principle Of competition
which is the only sound basis Of bushes
transactions.
| Trades unions have their Legitimate
uses. but they are VIGOROUSLY liable t.
abuse. When the interests of one part,
only are taken into account and an arbi
trary rate of wages fixed without taking
into consideration the laws of supply ani
demand. a monopoly is at once estab
lished which operates as an injustice te
the employers. Capitalists are unable to
compete in the markets for their products
unless they can also avail themselves o
all the advantages enjoyed by their rivals.
We have seen how this principle works
in this city during the past twenty years.
Most of the different classes of tradesmen
are banded together in ira DIES unions, os-
tensibly for benevolent purposes, but
really and practically to fix the rates of
wages, which have ruled so much higher
than in competing cities. like New York,
Boston. Philadelphia. Cincinnati. ETC..
that the great bulk of manufacturing has
been transferred to the North. leaving
our own mechanics to depend upon the
precarious employment afforded by local
jobs for repairs.
In the item of printing alone there has
generally been margin of twenty or
twenty-five per cent against this city.
This has almost driven the business of
book making out of the market. The
newspapers have struggled against it as
well as they could, and succeeded to some
extent until latterly. when the decreased
railroad time between here and the more
favored cities enables publishers to throw
their great dailies on the market in such
season as to seriously impair the local de-
mand. 4 prodigious number Of Northern
dailies arrive here by every mail, and are
readily sold. One dealer alone informs
us that he sells sometimes as many as
eight hundred New York Hera'ds every
day. and Of other great Northern and
Western dailies in proportion. Three or
four thousand copies of Harper's Weekly
are received regularly, besides prodigious
number Of other publications. IN short,
New Orleans publishers no longer supply
the public here with their principal read
ing matter. The bulk OF it comes from
abroad. No one thinks of publishing a
book here. An author can save money on
a five hundred page octave by taking it to
the East, and paying his travelling expenses
and board while supervising the printing
in one Of the more favored establishments
where skilled labor can be had for, at
most. fiye-sixths of what we are compelled !
to pay here.
A disagreement has recently sprung up
in this city between the Union and one of |
The newspaper establishments, which has |
resulted in the formal rafting" of the |
printing Office. But the anathema seems |
@ have lost its ancient force. 1t has
allen like brutum .fu'men. The assailed !
ournal makes its regular appearance. as
heretofore. and bids fair to successfully |
lefy the Union. How long it will be be-
ore others follow its example we can
lot say. Rumor has it that the indepen-
lent journal gets its composition done for
fifty cents per thousand. against sixty paid
" the Union offices. Of course this will
'rove unsatisfactory. The Typographical
Jnion owes it to itself to see that those
ournals that stand by it receive as favor"
BILE TERMS as any others. for it is obvious
hat the difficulties Of competition are in
reased when one has such decided ad-
antage. Those journals which still
dhere to it are asssailed on one side by
heap papers from abroad. and on the
ther by local rival which has cut loose |
rom the Union and succeeded in making
etter terms for itself with its employees.
We hope the printers will consider this
uestiou carefully, and either reduce the
ates of composition or permit their mem.
ers to make such terms with compositors
5 the more favored establishment enjoys.