Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1875 — The New Demand for Labor. [ARTICLE]

The New Demand for Labor.

A few months ago a New York firm ad vertised that they desired the services of a young man, who should be a good penman and have some knowledge of bookkeeping; compensation would be at the rate (Ts eight dollars per week. The advertisement appeared but once, and in only one newspaper, but within spur hours of the publication of the paper the advertiser received more than ICO replies 'by mail, and the total number of replies was about 500. Among the applicants were many collegians, book-keepers and experienced clerks. The hours of labor in the office of the firm in question were nine per day, with frequent night-work without extra compensation. At the same time the hod-carriers at work upon a large building in the neighborhood of the above-named firm successfully'struck for more pay, being at the time in receipt of pay at the rate of twelve dollars per week, the working hours being eight per day r . A few months later another clerk was wanted by the same firm, and a similar advertisement brought similar results; at the same time the ’longshoremen of New York struck because of an attempt to reduce their wages to thirty cents per Jiour, with an additional 50 per cent, for niglrt-work. Similar comparisons might be made without number, yet the fact remains that the labor mar ket, in city and country alike, is over stocked with men wishing to do clerical work.

. The cause of this surplus of clerical labor is not hard to find. Until a comparatively short time ago merchants were almost the only capitalists in the land competition in trade was nothing com pared with what it is now and merchants paid handsomely for clerical service, while manual labor offered almost no possibility of advancement, its bouts of labor were long and its pay was poor. It was, therefore, very natural that young men should prefer trade to mechanics. Now, however, the conditions are entirely changed. There is not, as there once was, a scarcity of men fit to do clerical work, so the competition for the services of able clerks and salesmen has ceased, and the price of such service has inevitably gone down as the competition has lessened and been removed. The profits of trade in proportion to the amount of capital invested have greatly decreased, and with them the rate of wages and the pay of office-work of all sorts has decreased sympathetically. Under the circumstances, it is clearly a hazardous operation for young men to look forward to clerical work as a life occupation. We say occupation, because even in the most promising days not one clerk in ten ever became a merchant. Nor do the professions offer encouragement to young men without means sufficient to pay for a good education and for their own subsistence in the years which must elapse before they receive the public confidence in a profitable degree. On the other hand, the mechanic arts never offered so great inducements to young men of ability and energy as they do now'. Fifty years ago carpenters and masons were mere builders of cheap houses of certain stereotyped shapes and plans: today every builder with any ability as a designer has ffiore work offered him than he can possibly do. Fifty years ago every blacksmith was a mere mechanic: to-day the skilled worker in metal has daily occasion to handle machinery, and has, consequently, unequaled opportunities for devising improvements and for reaping the fruit thereof. At the present time there is a steady need and demand for labor-saving apparatus of every sort, and the inventors thereof, if men of ordinary business sense, are richly rewarded for their ingenuity. Manufacturers of fine machinery of all kinds are seriously crippled by lack of intelligent laborers; the practical details of the mining interests of the country are in the hands of men who have seldom enough intelligence to properly fill their places; our simplest houses are indifferently built, our farms are seldom worked to their full capacity; able men in all these departments come speedily and prominently into notice ana attain wealth and social position, and yet young men shun all these departments of industry. It is a noteworthy fact that at the same time great numbers of rich men are endeavoring to place their sons as apprentices with competent machinists, mining corporations, builders and mechanics in general. These same rich men are the most trustworthy indicators of the business signs of the times, and young men in general will do well to consider the meaning of their action. Christian TJnion.