The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-06-03

are quite willing to suspend opera
tions until they know more of the
future. Let us hope that they will
continue, and eventually come to-
gether, in the amicable frame OF mind
in which they part"
The New York correspondent OF
the Philadelphia Ledger says:
"The trades union people have to
confront a delicate, if not difficult.
problem in the immense and unin-
termittent additions to the supply of
skilled labor which Europe is now
sending to us through Castle Garden.
AS has been shown from day to day
in this correspondence for the month
or two past, nearly every imaginable
trade and handicraft now has its rep.
resentatives among these new-com-
ers, and, what Is more, they are men
who as a rule, are Thorough masters
of their trade, whatever it may be,
having served long apprenticeship
to it at home. the periods thereof ex-
tending from FIVE to seven years. At
a time when a series of strikes for
higher wages is in progress at nearly
all our great manufacturing and BUSH
ness centres, this extraordinary ac-
cretion of Germans, ScandinaVians,
Italians and British skilled workmen
cannot but exercise ere long, if it does
not already, a commanding influence
upon the industrial situation. The
comparatively insignificant wages for
which this vast army of mechanics
and artisans have been accustomed to
toll in their own country make even
the lowest wages here, against which
our workpeople are striking, very
attractive, and il will be no easy
matter, therefore, to persuade them
to resist that attraction in order simp-
ly to promote strike. Thus far the
Labor Bureau has managed to dis
tribute them pretty well all over the
country, so that the pressure at par
ticular points is not felt, but it is be-
lieved that the time is coming when
they will be concentrated in the cities
and become as it were more CON-
pact power than at present.
Another writer from New York
says:
1.-THE effect of foreign immigration
upon the learning of trades by Amer
leans has not been altogether happy.
Trades demanding skilled labor are
filed by the newcomers, who COM
pete with the adult native Ameri-
can on equal terms, and. by prevent
ing or rendering unnecessary the
training ofapprentices recruited from
the bone and sinew ofthe native pop
ulation, tend to put the learning of
trades in this country at great dis
advantage. The result is that our
youths are compelled to betake them
selves to unremuneratiye clerkships
or unskilled labor, abandoning the
occupations of their parents by reason
of the rules of the various unions,
which limit the number of apprenti-
ces to be received in each establish
ment. Foreigners landing on our
shores, being already possessed of
skill in their trades, are readily adj
mitted to the unions, and, indeed.
take readily to them when necessary
to their interests, since these societies
originated in the Old World.
Doubtless the unions would prefer
that the skilledforeigner would stay
at home, since he is dangerous com
petitor, but as they cannot limit i'm
they say they are compell-
ed to limit the admission of persons
desiring to learn their trades. Their
own sons are thus Disseminated
against"
The Cumberland Mail, which is
friendly to theminers, says that to
any one acquainted with the means
and methods of mining coal in the
Cumberland region. who will give
the situation little reflection, the
movement to introduce new labor
will appear to be fraught with hun
dred difficulties. 1t then rehearses
those difficulties, heretofore publish
ed, including the difficulties exper-
fenced by miners used to operating
in small mines attempting to mine
in large mines safely and successful
ly propping the roofs. &c. The Mail
further contends that the employers
will have to rely for the most part
almost entirely on "green" and in
immigrants, peasants
and farmers from Germany, Austria,
Ireland and Prussia, and that it will
require years for them to acquire the
requisite skill. The Mail concludes |:
"If the companies are to get along
without the aid of our present miners
they must make up their minds to
undergo the annoyance and expense
of literally advocating their new men