258 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 5. 



necessary number of the trade (which was sup- 

 posed to be 20,000,) could have effectually com- 

 bined, or any portions of ihem, to raise wages, it 

 is as obvious as it is certain, that it could not be 

 done when thrice that number had to share the 

 employment and the wages, and were almost 

 starving on the insufficient dividend. Therefore, 

 combinations of women to compel the raising of 

 the wages will be altogether ineffectual, as all 

 such combinations are altogether wrong, and in- 

 jurious in their tendency. 



But the main reliance seems to be, that the 

 persons who pay these stinted wages of labor, 

 may be impressed with the enormity of the grie- 

 vance, and voluntarily consent to increase them to 

 a fair and reasonable demand. Doubtless many 

 individuals are ready to yield to such promptings 

 of benevolent feeling: but however numerous the 

 cases may be, and however liberal may be the 

 advance made on previous prices, the remedy for 

 suffering will be but slight, and no remedy what- 

 ever will thereby be offered for the real evil — that, 

 is, the general and fixed depressed prices for fe- 

 male labor. By possibility, thousands of individ- 

 uals may be induced lo pay double prices, 

 (and double prices would be required at least,) as 

 wages for the employment which their private 

 and personal demands would create — and thous- 

 ands of deserving workwomen might thereby ob- 

 tain a fair recompense for their toil, and an ex- 

 emption from their previous sufferings. But even 

 the occurrence of this rare (not to say impossible) 

 exercise of charity, would not benefit the still 

 greater number, who were not so favored by other 

 employers — and indeed, would rather cause them 

 increased injury. And no confidence could be 

 placed in the permanency of even the very partial 

 relief that would be afforded. It is an established 

 truth, that prices for labor, as for commodities, will 

 always be regulated by the proportion of supply 

 and demand — and that the)' never can be materially 

 affected, nor for any length of time, by any other 

 considerations than the interest of the contracting 

 parties. Laborers, as a body, will always take as 

 high wages as the.}' can obtain — and their employ- 

 ers will give no higher than the lowest which will 

 suffice to command the services required. This 

 general operation of such causes, if properly con- 

 sidered, will show that no relief can be hoped from 

 any voluntary offers of increased wages. 



The remarks which have been submitted, apply 

 more particularly to the state of society in Virginia, 

 and other parts of the United States where "there 

 are few or no factories which call for female labor- 

 ers. When such factories arc introduced exten- 

 sively, they extend the field of woman's labor, and 

 serve to increase their wages — at least in the be- 

 ginning. But it is found, ultimately, that one evil 

 has only been exchanged for others of not less 

 weight. However, it is not intended here to enter 

 upon the consideration of such changes in habits 

 tmd industry — but only of society and habits as 

 existing in a community not much advanced in 

 manufactures. 



Except in towns, it is literally the case in Vir- 

 ginia, that poor females have no employment 

 whatever, by which they can gain wages, but in 

 sewing. Weaving and knitting formerly furnish- 

 ed more employment, but now scarcely any worth 

 naming, on account of the improvements inweav- 

 ing on a large scale, and the consequent reduction 



of price. As the small proportion of sewing which 

 is shared among the many who would gladly be 

 employed, would not suffice for one-fourth of the 

 hands, it lollows that three-fourths of their time, 

 on the general average, these laborers are without 

 employment, and cannot obtain it even at the 

 lowest pittance which is even paid for it. These 

 females are often as respectable and as deserving 

 as any of the more wealthy — and who are indebt- 

 ed to "the kindness of some relative or friend for a 

 home, where if they eat the 'bread of dependence, 

 it is at least received from kind hands. Without 

 such aid, and with nothing but their wages of 

 labor to sustain them, thousands of such females 

 would starve, or be driven to live on public charity. 

 Many among these are the widows or orphan 

 daughters of highly respectable men — many even 

 of men who had enjoyed wealth. And there is 

 not a farmer in Virginia, whether rich or poor, 

 who can feel sure that in two generations, if not 

 in one, that some of his female descendents will 

 not be in the same deplorable situation: a situation 

 to a sensitive mind, which cannot be otherwise 

 than most galling and distressing, however tem- 

 pered and alleviated by kindness and affection. A 

 state of dependence, when not so alleviated, con- 

 demns the poor woman to the unremitting toil of 

 the day laborer, without his wages — to the subjec- 

 tion of the slave, without his treedom from care 

 and mental suffering. This is the situation, in its 

 various grades, in which thousands of the most 

 industrious, virtuous, and deserving part of our 

 population are placed — and the danger of which 

 is pending over as many others, who are now 

 growing up in hope and joy, cherished by afiec- 

 tion, and supplied with every present comfort. 

 And the beings who are condemned to this state, 

 and who succeed each other in endless succession, 

 and increasing in numbers and in wretchedness, 

 form a portion, (and an equally deserving portion) 

 of the "better half of the human race" — who as 

 a class, are flattered, almost adored by men, and 

 yet denied by their usages and institutions, the 

 means of earning honest bread, and in numerous 

 cases, are deprived of all the means of subsisting, 

 except in a worse than slavish state of depen- 

 dence — or in a lite of infamy. 



If we were neither husbands nor fathers — if we 

 cared nothing for the situation of unfortunate fe- 

 males who are not connected with us by ties of 

 relationship — still as members of the community, 

 all men have a deep interest that so much of the 

 country's capital of labor and talent, should not 

 be kept idle and useless, and a source of expense, 

 instead of profit and wealth to the nation. 



July 3rd, 1835. 



I'OLICCON. 



[Deeming that (for the present time) enough of 

 argumentative writing against the policy of the exist- 

 ing law of enclosures, has been given to our readers, 

 we have withheld from publication more than one 

 such communication recently received. A similar 

 course would have been pursued with regard to the 

 following, but for the matters of practice contained, 

 which present a different kind of claim to notice. The 

 experiments would have been of more value as ex- 

 amples, however, if authenticated by the author's 



