THE LABOR MARKET IN THE UNITED STATES.

Grey River Argus, Volume IV, Issue 264, 21 September 1867, Page 3

THE LABOR MARKET IN THE UNITED STATES.

The American correspondent of the " Times " says : — " There are at present but few labor strikes in any portion of the United States, those that were in operation a few weeks since having in almost every case resulted in the triumph of the employers and the discomfiture of the ' strikers.' There are so many people out of employment that it is almost impossible for laboring people now to procure either an increase o: wages or v reduction of the hours of labor. Mills in all parts of the country are running on diminished time, and the enormous price of materials interferes with building, so that hundreds of thousands have been turned out of employment. Nor is this alone the case with the working classes. In all the large cities there are hundreds of young men unsuccessfully seeking employment as merchants' clerks, Early last week, a New York merchant, engaged in but a small business, advertised for a clerk. The salary was small, the work required close attention, and the inducements to seek the place were but few ; yet in two days he had 209 applications . for the clerkship, many of them coming from persons who could speak several languages, and possessed other valuable accomplishments. A similar case occurred in Philadelphia, a person having advertised in one of our newspapers for a 'cashier.' The advertisement appeared about ten days ago, and over 600 applications have already been received, and scores of them are still coming in. The 'New York Times,' referring to these circumstances, considers them to be. one of the many proofs of the widespread stagnation of the business and the redundancy of labor^in n\any departments of activity. • It will be admitted that times like these are not favorable to labor strikes, nor is it to be wondered at that nearly every one of the twenty, and more trades in Philadelphia and New York that have recently struck for higher wages closed their strikes much worse off than when they began. With regard to wages, it is reported that one of the largest Western railroads has adopted the principle of paying its common laborers the price of a barrel of flour every week, finding this to be a more just and satisfactory mode of measuring the value of labor than' to pay a fixed sum in paper money. It is assumed that the cost of living is more likely to follow the price of flour, than the fluctuations of the currency. In New York the working men are deliberating upon the proper course to pursue to secure the advantages of the "Eight-hour.Law" passed by the last New York Legislature. Employers have taken no notice of this law, and the hours of labor continue as they were before its passage. "Warned by the failure of the laboring

classes in Illinois and Missouri in their eight-hour strikes, the New York working men are proceeding very cautiously; but it is evident that they medibite a. general strike throughout the State at the end of June to secure the benefit of the law, and only delay it in order to procure the co-operation of the greatest' possible number of trade unionsf In Chicago, the few laborers who secured the eight-hour system at the recent strike* were mostly employed by the Board of Public Works, and they secured the reduced time, only by submitting to a proportionate reduction oi wages. It is now reported that they have petitioned the Board to allow them to go to work again for ten hours, with a corresponding increase of wages.''