New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-03-08


No doubt it is desirable that all workingmen
Of every grade should, receive sufficient wages,
and that the state should set a good example
hv paving such wages 10 those whom ~ en-
ploys But the act requiring that workers on
canals and other public works shall be paid al
least 70 per day has not proved beneficial 10
the worl1ingmcn of the State As body while
il has been a costly one for the public. Inc
estimate OF the Superintendent OF Pubic
Works that the act Is costing the state
S30O 600 yearly may not be strictly accurate
but IL seems 10 be undcniabe that II causes a
large number Of the least efficient and least
worthy persons employed on public works, in
Guiding especially the heelers and strikers for
whom politicians get places, to receive more
than they fairly earn, and more than they could
get in any other honest occupation. II TINS De
So the act operates rs wrong and great IN
Justice TO the great body OF wage-earnerS
Il can do the cause Of labor no good what
over 10 have a small fraction Of the workers, Sc
lcctcd neither for their efficiency nor for any
other merit. paid more than the great majority
Of industrious and faithful men in similar en-
ploymcnt can earn. Example in that case does
harm. and not good. The weight and nlll-
cnce of the State are thus cast into the scale, not
ON behalf OF honest merit, but against II. blt-
tcrncss of feeling toward all employers Is likely
IN lac cnccndcrcd by the knowledge that they
nav GOOD workers not more than the state pays
some who are among the poorest OF their class.
IIos,ility toward wage earncrs generally is apt
to spring from the impression that their po-
Hticol influence secures and uphods such meas
urcs.
There "a rate Of wages every sensible man
will agree, which cannot be prohtably pald' OF
paid with benefit to the community. For II
rude and unsllillcd labor be- paid - per Day
labor of moderate skill and training ought to
lac Maid at least twice as much and the men OF
cNccntional ability or fidelity much more. The
nntcome would be such an advance IN the gen
elal cost of production rs must put the lhdus-
tries of this country at a disadvantage III any
comnetition with the industries OF other coun-
tries and must at the same time cut down to
q minimum the domestic consumption oi pfou-
nets. In the end labor lessons the aggregate
demand and the aggregate reward Tor labor by
every advance in wages which Is inconsistent
with the highest general prosperity, so that the
effort TO obtain any such advance Is always
suicidal harming those it is designed to help.
discrimination in favor of workers who
a,o not the best or most efficient of their several
occupations fayoritism which IS essentially
unjust and unfair, must always involve pay
mcnt OF wages higher than can be PAID con
sistcntv with the general prosperity. IL can
never be good thing for the laborng people
rs a body that the taxpayers OF the state should
hc reouircd TO take $500. 900 "a year, or any
other sum- from tho lings of the most IN
dustrious and capable workers, and to give II
10 some who are less capable or worthy.
In this reasoning it is not assumed, as ST. nc
are perhaps too hastily inclined to assume, that
tbe existing scale of wages must be essentially
right and wise. because adjusted by the opera
ton of natural laws which arc more unerrne
than any human intellect Always the opera
ton of natural laws is being disturbed or dis
toricd by individual efforts. of employers on
one side or of workers on the other, or by tn,
efforts of associations of either The adjust
ment as respects different classes or kinds o
labor is never ideally or exactly just, and tn,
general level OF wages may at any time b,
lower than would be consistent with the highest
public prosperity But it can never do gooc
J to begin BY granting exceptional wages Il