Year: 1873

Provide for tho Unemployed.


Until the stringency in the money market
is relieved the present depressed state Of indus
try will remain a growing evil to those who
depend on labor for their bread. The one
thing cried for and prayed for is tho return of
confidence. With it money would again COM
mence to circulate and most of the industries
affected would be able to resume work at
full power. Money once in hand now is parted
with very ~,luctantly, even in the legitimate
channels oftrade, for every one is fearful that
deeper gulf of financial disaster lies beyond.
The great firms which have overtraded, over
speculated and wildly extended their bust
nesses are the most difficult to help for there
is great trouble in finding the places where
stoppage Of the leaks would do any good
They are too often like ships hastily built Of
green wood, that after time become so
honeycombed all over that no amount OF
plugging or pumping would fit them to pass
through q storm. But in all great
tempests even stanch ships will founder, and
this financial one can scarcely prove an excep-
ton. The general indications Of ''slowing
down" all over the country show that all the
industries are carefully and prudently measur-
ing their forces to contend with whatever
hard times the winter may bring. Partial
or complete stoppage Of work with them
will not mean failure but, as we have
said before, the man out of work can
get only prospective benefit from
the ability of his industry to resume work
when money gets easier. In small communi.
ties this prospective benefit may allow Of the
workman's case not being SO very hard, as
credits for necessaries of life may be easier to
obtain; but where enforced idleness exists to
large extent in the great commercial centres
like New York, Philadelphia or Pittsburg, the
situation Of the unemployed could hardly tail
to become deplorable. Our reports from the
Eastern States, published in to-day's HERALD,
are gloomy enough, with, however, few
exceptions. In Boston the merchants COM
plain that demand for home and foreign goods
has fallen off terribly. Great quantities of
imported silks had been thrown back on
the European market This particular feature
of the crisis will not work very injuriously,
for it means that gold will leave the country
in smaller proportions; but thousands are out
of work, and the number, it is feared, will
soon be largely increased. The manufactur-
ing towns and villages of New England,
such as Lawrence. Manchester, Lowell and
Fall River, are meeting the stringent
times by running the mills and factories on
half to two-thirds time. They wisely adopt
this system in preference to reducing their
hands, tor, as the Mayor of Fall River re-
marked to HERALD correspondent, skilled
operatives are of real value to the millowners
and cannot be allowed to wander away under
the stress Of searching for living. AT Pitts
burg the iron trade is under the same diff
culties of scarce money, and many hands are
unemployed. The iron workers have pru-
IDENTIFY accepted reduction of wages, gen.
orally Of fifteen per cent, and further
accommodate their employers by taking pay


ments of half cash and half on promise
to pay when times improve. If labor end
capital all over the country can only thus
accommodate their mutual wants to the cir
cumstances o great deal Of suffering may be
fought off In Connecticut signs of depres-
sion in its varied industries are evident.
From Ohio and Indiana reports Of dulness in
the pork trade are forwarded, with an unusual
number Of men out Of work. All this must be
of serious portent, and in many cases the dan
ger is aggravated by the dismal belief that the
worst has not yet come.


The advance of the Bank Of England rate of
discount, intended, as it is, to check the flow
of specie to this country, may tend to keep
the restoration Of confidence here further out
of sight; and if there is any truth in the
rumor that panic may take place in the
London market it will not help matters on
this side. The banks yesterday showed
slightly improved condition, but the chariness
to extend banking accommodation is kept
up as a measure of self-defence. The
private boards Of currency are still in
their mysterious hiding places, helping
to keep matters at a standstill. The declara-
ton Of scrip dividend by railways may be
very consoling to those who expected less
namely, nothing but wherever 1t occurs the
issue is poor consolation when stocks are
low down and buyers scarce at that A man
would often find it hard to live on the legal
interest Of his expected income, and those
who build their hopes on cash dividends may
in these times be compelled to put up with
that reduction of their expectations - +.


For the unemployed poor Of New York the
winter will be hard one. Our reporters
have ascertained that there are many public
works in this city upon which a great deal of
this surplus labor might be employed to
advantage All that can be done in this
direction should be done and quickly In
the Brooklyn Aldermanic Board motion
will be introduced at its next meeting direct
ing the Mayor to confer with the Comptroller
and the Board Of Works to find all possible