The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1874. AN AMERICAN VIEW OF EMIGRATION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 292, 10 December 1874, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1874. AN AMERICAN VIEW OF EMIGRATION.

We will no- conclude our extracts irom this paper. Taking it np at tbe point at wbich we yesterday left it, we find the writer undertaking to show that the especial disadvantages of American labor more than counterbalance its especial advantages. In support of this assertion, he says :— "A high tariff robs American labor. It swells the price of almost everything the working man buys. Ia return, it sometimes provides him with work for a short time in the manufactories started to meet the unhealthy demand it fosters. But the time is very short The inevitable reaction comes. Oaah go the manufactories. Out goes tbe working man. The tariff bears especially hard upon our agriculturists. It taxes them on every thing and gives them nothing. (The. high railroad freights, of which they complain, are largely the result of the high

tariff It has swollen the cost of rails and rolling stock by JSO or 60 psr cent The interest on the increased Btock is paid by increased rates of freight." "A fluctuating currency plunder* labor. When gold falls, wages are usua ly tbe first to fall wrh it. When it rises, washes are usually the last to rise They generally rise less and fall more than the prices of commodities other than labor. Thus every great fluctuation up or down is an evil to 'the working man. Moreover, when a currency fluctuates, every trader must cbarge the gold price of his goods, plus a profit, plus an insurance to cover the possible future depreciation of the money in which he is paid. Suppose an article coat bim 1 dol gold. Put his profit at 10 per cent. When gold is at 10 per cent premium, he cannot afford to sell the article at 1 dol 21 cents currency, which is the paper equivalent of I dol 10 cents gold, for in a day or an hour gold may be at 25 per cent premium. Then his I dol 21 cents will represent only about 97 c^nts, and he has lost. He charges something more than Idol 21 cents in order to cover this risk. As every dealer exacts this insurance, its gross amount grows greater aa the thing sold passes though more hands. The working man generally boys of tbe last of a long line of traders, and so finilly pays the insurance charged by tbe whole line." Another reason given why labor ia at a disadvantage in America is that in that conntry there is practically no co-operation. Ameri- | can working men have not the spirit of association. The feeling of individual sovereignty which their institutions create is I hostile to union. Frantic jealousy is the bane of their few co-op?rative societies. The men who elect one of themselves manager or superintendent cannot bear that he, their creature, should give thera orders. " They refuse to obey, and the society goes to the doga." In the South labor is lookei down upon and despised, being made ignoble by the traditions of slavery. Immigrants are certainly wanted at the South, but, as the South Carolina Tax Payers' Convention frankly confessed, they are wanted only for their vote. They are hoped for as the only means of overcoming the negro majorities. They are looked upon a<« voti -g cattle " Impjverished soil, beggared communities, social monarchy, grinding taxation, a conflict of races, a scorn of manual toil," — thi. is the pictu'O drawn by the writer of •' our uuhappy South," and. as he says, it is not an inviting one for the English working man. The few advantages to counterbalance these peculiar evils of American labor are thus summed up :— "The immigrant will have somewhat more politioal power here than at home. This is not an unmixed good, and may be a positive evil. He will have mnch religions freedom, and this, in cases of persecution, has great weight. His children will have better chances to rise, providei he himself does as well here as at home, but this is an important proviso. He can more easily become a landowner. This haa now become a valueless privilege, useless, indeed, the new comer is a member of a colony." This, the writer considers ia a just balancesheet and, in drawing it up, he repudiates any de-ire to decry his country. " America," he sayp, <: is very dear to Americans. We think the Republic is solving one of the greatest of all problems, but we believe that there are too many factors to that problem now, and we, therefore, in all honesty, oppose, for our sake, and their sake, the coming of more." The next aud last portion of the paper comes nnder the heading, •* The relative comfort of English and American working men." It consisis principally of extracts fr >m newspapers and letters from working men showing that the nominally high wages of artisans are "a glaring sham " when contrasted with the purchasing power of a dollar in America and in England, one correspondent stating that, when expended in rent, c'othing, and provisions, a dollar in Chicago is only equal ia purchasing power to 33 cents in Yorkshire. One of these extracts we will give in full. If was prepared at Mr Mason's request, by a skilled carpenter born and trained in England, but an American citizen of a few years standing, an 4 most certainly tends to show tbat the English workman possesses advantages which are denied to an American: — "Number of hours worked per week in England. 51; in tome English cities, 54; in America, 60. In England work ceases at tw elve and sometimes at one o'clock on Saturday. Here it ceases at six. There, wages are paid every Saturday. Here, they are paid from time to time, when the employer likea, sometimes not till a big job is finished. In England a man, when di-charged, has to be paid his wages then and there. Here, men are always discharged on Saturday, and then have to lose time to go and fetch their money oi Monday. In England we work by the hour system, while here we work by the day. This makes a great difference, lf a man has to leave work there, he loses an hour cr perhaps only half an hour. Here he is docked for at least a quarter of a day. There, in suing for wages we get them at once. Here, we get them when we can. In all probability we get them wi hin twelve months, that is, if it is a very clear case. Aud then it is nearly all swallowed up in costs, and in attending at the courts waiting for the case to be tried. Whereas in England we have all the costs allowed and paid. A steady job is a very rare thing here. One that lasts a week is an exception. Good mechanics are not appreciated here, for work is generally done very slovenly. Here, a man has to be at his job with too's in his hand at the time to commence work iti the morning, no matter how far from the centre of the city or the shop. If it is a distance of six miles it does not matter. He his to work his ten hours. In England, men have an allowance fpr the time of getting to work when it is a long distance off. In working on buildings, work in America is very unsteady. We oft n have to stop our work. First we have to stop for a day o* two for the bricklayers, then work four more days, then stop two more. Then in plastering we often have to stop for a week at a time. In the winter we have to work eight hours a day, that is, while we do work, and wages are always cut down in the winter." The paptr, the main features of whioh we have now placed before our readers, concludes in the following words:— -"A colony may succeed now : a single man cannot. The latter miy live on the money he brings from home, but not on the money he can earn here. The ju igaient of the vast majority of Americans v, lio have studied the question miy be sumiiiul up thus ; — Save under very exceptional circumstances, chief among which is the iio3sessirn of considerable cipital, the working man who comes to the United States now, comes to sure and speedy pauperism."