The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1883-06-28
From the New York Tribune.l

tFrom the New York Tribune.1
Two or three weeks ago q careful in
qlury WAS instituted in Philadelphia, the
largest manufacturing city in the coun-
try, as to the relative number of for
eigners and native Americans engaged
IN trades and as skilled handicraftsmen
of every kind. The result was startling.
Foreigners, especially the Germans and
Scotch-Irishmen, had she ldered our
own people altogether on; of almost
every snch occupation. The American
boys could be counted on the fingers
who were learning the trade of weaving
in the great woolen and carpet factories.
The same story WIS told in the cotton
mills, ut the stocking looms. Yet the
wages paid to these skilled workmen are
nigh and steady. The Scotchman or
per week in Philadelphia, owns his COM
Portable dwelling, and brings up his son
to the same trade which his own father
most probably, followed in Glasgow or
Londonderry. The American boy has
not learned this surc slow road to COM
fort from his father. There was the
same report from manufacturers of pa
per, soap, shoes, clothes, furniture, ship
builders, cutlcrs--cvcry industry, in
short, but two. The American boy of
the class which docs not enter the pro-
fcssions is not found in the trades part
ly because he is barred out by the trades
unions, but moro because he does not
choose to go into them. TO this general
rule there are, however, two notable ex-
""nti"ns: printing aid machine shops.
l."ch of these trades is crowded with
native American apprentices. "We turn
away" said tic superintendent of n great
"n.,inc works, "hrmtlrcds Of applicants
~ year, for whom we can find no
place."
Now here is 6 significant hint of ma
thl.M character. We are perpetually
| t"ll that, til" American lad of the par
tinl'y educated class refuses to learn n
traIc and becomes salesman or clerk
| on miserable salary, from the snobbish,
vulgar desire to be considered gentle
man. Yet the same Young fellow in "A
printing office or rmarlinc-foundry works
harder and comes out of his daily
drudgcry moro glimy and shabby than
any other mechanic.
It is no ambition for gentility that
moves him to these pursuits. But they
open to him possible short roads to sue
cess; they give his inventive faculties
some play, IT is only one man in hun-
drcd who out Of the composing or press
room becomes tditor or publisher; or
who turns ont to be lucky Harrison or
Winans III the machine shop.
But each boy is confident that he will
he that man. When he "gocs into bust
ness" as salesman ut So per week, lie
knows he will some day be an Astor or
Stewart. When he goes out to Colorado
| rs cowboy he secs in vision his own
cattle grazing on 4 thousand hills.
Hence he turns his back on the trades
! in which there is no chance for sudden
success, and by which the plodding
| German or Irishmnn, generation after
| Generation, secures steady limited COM
potency. Our lad must put on seven
league boots to 20 to his fortune, or he
will not go ut all. In certain sense,
therefore, there appears to be no remedy
10Y this present condition of affairs. The
leopard cannot change his spots nor the
Ethiopian his slim, and the vivid, invcn-
tive, sharp-eycd American, fond of earn-
Ing and squandcring money in bulk, will
never be brought to plod and save and
enjoy life a pcnnyworth ut time like
his European neighbor, who was not
born prospective heir to great estate
A certain grade of our skilled trades will
always remain, it is probable, in the
hands of foreigners.
But one lesson OW American Ind mr"t
| learn before he succeeds. 2..tt rs he is cx-
| crptionally sharp lie generally does lcn"n
| it when 10 finds he does not succeed
without it. That is steadincss OF aim.
| Instability is our national defect. The
| American of twenty. four who has made
| ny his mind rs to his business, his poll
tics and his religion, who abidcs by them
for the next ten years, is n marked and
wcighty man. Take the crowds of for
tune-scckcrs pouring now into Colorado
o" Dakota and you will find that each of
th"m has tried two or twenty methods of
CrruinG living before he fell back, like
Aut;cus, on the bosom of Mother Earth
to Snthc" strength. Two or three names
III each profession, in trade and invention
would complete tho list of living Ameri
cams who have made great and signal
success; and they nro invariably y men Of
int"Xiblc singlcncss of purpose. The
American lad, educated or half educated,
is too apt to scatter his shot and hit
nothing. He would be suddenly rich, he
would be known as politician, he would
be Il man of society. Hence, with O heri.
tagc of natural abilities above mediocrity,
| with keen perceptions, fine tastes and Il
| limitlcss estate waiting for him to claim
he fails. 1t is n story as old as the world.
| 'Rnubcn," said tho seer thousands OF
wears ago, sis the first-borm the excel.
| !cnry OF dignity and the cxccllency OF
power. Unstable as water, he shalj
not exec"