St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-03-31
Our New York Letter.
New YORK, March "A. 1882.

New YORK, March "a, 1882.
Business is becoming brisk and yet
people find time to pay good deal of
attention to other peoples business.
Where politics come in, too, however
remotely, every one is sure to be in
terested. Like the old gentleman and
his wife, who came across the story of
the last prize fight in their newspaper
and fell to fierce denunciation of its
brutality, but managed to read it right
through, Notwithstanding from title to
finish, our staidest abhOrrers of the
muddy pool of politics never fail to
step up with their little vote Oh election
day, and do good deal of amateur
housing around every day, and pretty
well all day besides. After ii contin-
ued howl for series of years against
the "Railroad Kings" for their manage
ment of the transportation lines by
which they are so quickly absorbing IA
large percentage of the earnings of the
people, there has been, if possible, ii
louder howl, in the most inconsistent
style, against Il movement champiOned
by Mr.. f. B. Thurber, the anti-mOnOp-
oily leader, and purveyor of pure pro-
visions, who has elaborated scheme
for peoples railway which would by
its strenuous competition knock the
underpinning from the combined cor
morants of the day. The absurd state
ment is made that he is Il mOnopolist
himself.
Among other of its provisions is one
to give work to all unemployed labor
ers who may temporarily prefer to earn
even bread and water rather than
starve, while they wait for bigger wa
ges, at 81 day. If the strikes now
going Oh all over the country are to
continue, it might be better in the long
run for the strikers to get right to work
on a road which will, by low freights,
cheaper the cost of what they eat,
drink and wear, even at 81 day, rath-
er than hang around the scenes of their
trials and discomfort with their wives
and children fading into paupers'
graves before their eyes, and being
decimated by the occasional arrest and
possible execution of the more fiery
spirits among them whom despair may
drive to crime. There are strikers and
strikers and we deprecate strikes, but
when corporation which distributes
L.,
huge surplus for the purpose of eX-
tending the scope of its operations by
building more factories, or acquiring
more or changing existing machinery
cuts down the pay of its wOrkpeeple 80
per cent, it would appear to be Il per
fectly legitimate rebuke if the outraged
sufferers were to shake the dust of such
inhospitable tOilshopmasters off then
feet and start West to dig on railroads,
or hoe their own potato patch, or any
thing rather than submit to such cruel
slavery. An exodus of this kind, il
generally participated in by the ag-
grieved, would bring the most sOulless
of corporations to their senses, for the
immediate effect would be great rise
of wages, both in order to retain those
about to go and as a necessary conse-
quence of the depletion of the labor
market. Nor could foreigners be i'm
ported to fill the vacuum. The fact OF
the exodus would shine forth as bea-
con of dangers to be avoided, and if
Lawrence, Mass, or any other manu-
! featuring town, is once branded as I'M
| fit for free men to live in, it will be
ruined. No one will go there while
there is room i'll any other part of the
continent.
But some strikers are merely hogs,
and very brutal and treacherOus swine
too. When skilled mechanics are kept
busy at large wages, and ought to feel
good, it is the quintessence of sOrdid
treachery for them to wait till their
employers have made contracts and
then strike, so as to wipe out every
possible margin for the men whose
brains and business tact have secured
work that supports them i'll luxury I'M
known to the artisans of other lands,
and which enables them easily to accu-
mulate comfortable bank accounts.
The values of real estate have i'll
most parts of the city, and in less de-
gree everywhere in the vicinity, been
going up fast, and but for the uncer-
tainty as to the attitude of the various
workmen of the present day, when q
multitude of what may he almost call
ed new trades come into requisitiOn
there would be boom in building I'M
precedented since the labors of the He
brews in Egypt; but people are afriad
of strikes, and capitalists button NJ
their pockets when they consider the
prices they may have to pay. 1t is
quite possible that within month
hOd-carriers who can't read or write
may get S5 day, but if they get LOG
days year at that rate it will be the
very outside. Wouldn't it be better
if they worked 300 days at 81 day
The Trades Union demagogues say
not, but even a small boy in the pri-
mary class can { CURE out that 5000 is
more than $500, and there isn't SO
much time for the man who works 300
days to get drunk and sQuander his
money as for the man who works 100
and lOafs the rest of the year.
Easter will soon be here, and being
luckily rather late, the lingering OF
winter in the lap of spring will not af-
feet the budding out of beauty and
fashion in gorgeous style on that great