The daily gazette., 1875-02-23
The De.psslsm ar rr.ae- ua.s-..
STRIKES THAT ARE MIsCHIEvoUs.

STRIKES THAT ARE MIsCHIEvoUs.
lFrom Thurlow Weeds letter to the New
York Tribune of Saturday.
While l agree and sympathize with
you in all possible efforts TO promote
the welfare of the laboring classes by
securing TO them steady employment
with remunerative wages. / am quite
sure that you will agree with me in
reprobating the combinations and in
iluences which seek TO extort through
trades unions the largest possible
amount of money for the smallest pos
sible equivalent in labor. Ten and
eight hour systems, and the STRIKES
consequent upon them, have been q
most prolific source Of mischief and
evil pecuniarY and social, to the la
boring classes. The despotism OF
these unions" has become unendur-
able. Master Mechanics are not per
mitted to labor in their own work
shops Less than half the number OF
bricks formerly laid by journeymen
are now arbitrarily held TO bea days
work. And the number Of apprenti-
ces by whom trades are TO be learned
Is limited and fixed, not by master me-
chanics, but by the unions" In a
few years, therefore, we shall be
wholly dependent upon foreigners,
subject to the control Of trades unions,
for our mechanical labor.
Meantime thousands of boys who
ought, and but for the evil influences
just referred 10 would have been
learning trades, by means of which
they would become useful citizens,
are either variously seeking precari-
GUS support from temporary employ.
ments, or by unavoidable idleness ac-
quiring habits which consign them to
our houses Of refuge and peniten-
tories. There are at this moment
hundreds OF fathers and other hundreds
of widowed mothers looking in
anguish and despair upon the fate
which awaits their sons--a fate which
BUT Tor the tyranny of unions in pre-
venting boys from becoming appren-
tices might be averted. Heretofore
the intelligence, enterprise, public
spirit, patriotism and virtue, personal,
political, social and moral, Of the
mechanical classes have been our
boast and pride. Through these agen-
cies villages have grown into cities,
and our cities developed into wealth
and power. knew nothing in early
life bf those miserable eight and ten
hour systems, and / owe whatever l
have since enjoyed of success and
consideration to the habit, as an ap-
prentice, u journeyman, and small
beginner on my own account, of de-
voting from eleven to twelve hours a
day diligently and cheerfully to ac-
tiyeland healthful physical labor.
What we want first is governmental
policy, State and National, which will
place the necessaries of life within
the reach of the laboring classes ut
prices that ranged through the forty
years preceding the breaking the
out Of the rebellion. Conse-
quent upon such change, labor would
be In free demand at rates which
could not be injuriously affected by
the exactions OF capital on the one
hand, or by pernicious trades union
despotism on the other Letit be re-
membered always that the real pur-
pose of these combinations--for which
we are unhappily indebted to the
worst specimens of English, French,
and German Radicalism is, first as
Socialists" and then as '-commu-
nists." to SOW the seeds of agrarian,
ism and inidelity among US. These
insiduous enemies to all that is good
and virtuous and hopeful effect the
welfare ofthe laboIing classes. And
yet not one of these agitators is found
laboring himself or seeking employ
ment for others except through agen
ciesithat derange and embarrass the
industries upon which the mechanical
and laboring classes must ever
rely for employment and sup
port.