THE LABOR MARKET IN THE UNITED STATES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4998, 31 March 1877, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE LABOR MARKET IN THE UNITED STATES.

Accounts that have been received in England from New York represent the industrial classes in the United States as in anything but an enviable condition, and it is impossible to help contrasting their position with that of the working people in the Australian colonies. The Nev> York World lately stated that in New York alone 50,000 men were out of employment, _ representing an aggregate of 200,000 beings without means of support beyond those furnished by public and private charities. The Board of Apportionment had a resolution before it authorising an expenditure of 100,000 dollars for outdoor relief, but that would be a mere drop in the ocean for the purpose. In the coal regions in Pennsylvania, &c., thousands are described as being on the verge of starvation, and a letter from Scranton, P.A., of the 14th December, says that through the canal regions hundreds know not where to get food, and men who at the opening of the centennial year were in receipt of wages varying from 2ldol, to SJdol. per day would indeed bo glad now to earn 50c. A letter from Mr. Thomas Conolly, from Philadelphia, which appeared in Thu Tima a few days ago, gave a very full resume of the trades in operation in that city, and fully conI firms the accounts of the general depression. Ho said that at present the only emigrants re*

quired in America are agricultural laborers and persons wbo would purchase land and settle oh it. The Times,' in' referring to the letter in a leading article, took occasion to point out that much of the mischief was consequent upon the system of protection. Truth, which is the name of a new weekly which has appeared, and has been brought but by Mr. Labouohore, who took a leading part, in the establishment of the IT ‘orld, ' had a leader on the same subject. It wound up by saying, witli regard to the different- aspect of affairs uow to what it was a tew years ago for the working man in tho States —“ But whatever may be the effect of this change upon the mind of the British workmen, it is evident that a fruitful opportunity is offered to our Australasian colonies. Those rich lands are stunted for lack of population, and while America has ceased to attract emigrants, a generous policy ought easily to turn the stream to the southern hemisphere.” The advice is good, but how far it will be followed is another question. ______________