The New York herald., 1879-02-08
GETTING TO WORK.
The Mechanics Long Struggle with
the Hard Times.
SIX YEARS OF IDLENESS.
Followed by a General Revival
Of Industry.

sure indication of returning activity in trade Is
the dimnution in the number of unemployed me-
chanies. The signs of tine times that general
revival in all branches of industry has fairly set in
Taking the years one by one the great panic of
'73 workngmen have reason now for the first time
to look hopefully the future. Three winters ago
there G0.0OO idle in this city. Thousands
of families had been reduced to poverty by want of
work in the preceding years They were selling
all they had TO buy bread from day to day
Yet the idle and suffering classes recognized the fact
that the merchants and capitalists of New York were
not to blame and the only public action on their
part to petition the Mayor to put men to work
on public improvements. Now that the worst is
lesson of thrift has been learned by the small
storekeepers who have been among the most gen.
eral sufferers by the hard times, their support do
pending mainly on laboring men and women.
DISRUPTED TRADE ORGANIZATIONS
During these five years of distress workingmen's
organizations nearly all became disorganized They
struggled for a time to show solid front and to
ercse q power which they had hitherto believed
would be perpetual but discovered in the end that,
without "the sinews' of war. could not be
maintained They began to learn that the enemy
invisible one and could not be met in open
battle. These societies had been great power
in this city. They dictated terms in the most ar.
bitrary manner, and were, Of course, used by poll
ticans for political purposes They might have gone
increasing in power had not the "hard times'
broken them up. Only few of them still hold out
As the years went on after the panic the question
was not 80 much what the rate of wages
should be how to get any work at all.
Mechanics were glad to work for almost nothing.
and at any kind of employment. The year before
last their condition simply desperate Last year
it improved considerably, but the advantage gained
only such when compared with the state of labor
during the few preceding years. All branches Of in
dustry had become paralyzed In the spring of 1873
there more hopeful signs in lighter industries;
women had better chance to make living; the
large stores of the city felt the confidence which
growing throughout the country; there was more
need for help generally among the men. But the
system Of labor it had been in practice before the
panic was out Of vogue. There law by
which me chanic could put a price on his
days work. He took what he could get.
der the compulsion Of starvation. He had seen
his fellow craftsmen pressed far during
the "hard times" that they appeared in the police
courts asking to be sent to the Island to avoid
dying in the streets It was as bad if not worse.
outside of New York. There not enough spirit
left in the men to hold out in contest with ern.
ployers. nor enough money to be had from any
source to keep them going in opposition. The
'.strike' always ended in abundant supply Of
willing hands to work for as little as would keep
control the imperceptibe laws which were swayng
the fortunes of trade abandoned, and mechanics
finally submitted awaiting the return of better days.
THROUGH THIS WINTER.
The month of February is the dullest of the entire
year for the working classes but it precedes the
opening of the spring trade, and the workingmen
begin to look forward hopefully to steady work in
the future. In the meantime, however. how do the
unemployed manage to live? 1t may be stated q
fact that for the most part the families of idle
mechanics not helped this year by charitable
cieties by private assistance from the well-too
fhyc in
to the families Of idle workingmen. In the first
place private charity does not know how to seek and
people shrink from public attention to their
distress. AS rule they are helped. as in
1t would be difficult to give. in general way. any
explanation of how this mutual help is practised.
though each individual case has history of its own.
Only minority of idle mems families have to lay
their petitions at the doors Of charitable societies.
Happily in the better times that are coming the num-
Der of all classes of men out Of work will be far
diminished that the mechanics of the city will be
able reestablish their benevolent associations and
thus place themselves beyond the necessity of sp-
peang to public charity for relief. The number Of
the unemployed does not now reach $4,000 men.
During the winter of 1873 it was computed that .
increased in 1 until it it reached as high as
To 900, then fell again until last year it only
about ten per cent greater than During the six
years OF this continuous suffering among the
mechanics already observed. the wages of the diff
ferent trades steadily went down. Tradesmen who
getting 81 50 day in 1873 have had to accept
So 50 those getting S3 so were reduced to 81. aud
SO on The mutual aid societies having become for
the part disorganzed, the injustice of compel.
ling their own men to remain idle in the midst of
duh times became apparent. and the 'unionists"
at length scarcely interfered with in taking work
wherever they could get 1t. But the old spirit of
these organizations still turks among the mechanics
and IL opportunity offered tomorrow the would
again appear under their old banners resolute
ENCOURAGING FIGURES.
The following table gives the number of the unem-
poyed in 1873. the first year OF the panic and the
average rate of wages then given, with comparison
of the number of unemployed at the present time
and the existing of wages. II will be that
less than half the number then thrown out of work
are still unemployed and when il remembered that
the present number of idle is not tar in
of the average in ordinarily prosperous years 1t will
be understood how encouraging is the prospect for
the coming spring