In addition to the foregoing communications the committee has received many others which it has not been deemed advisable to print. Some are incoherent; others urge views that have been repeatedly expressed; and a very large proportion of them are chiefly devoted to generalities upon various points of ethics. But while it has been judged best not to swell the bulk of the report and increase the expense of printing it, by publishing these letters, it has also been thought proper to brief them and present in a table a synopsis of their contents. A list of persons who have communicated in writing to the committee their opinions as to the causes of the prevailing depression of labor and the remedies therefor. Angerer, Mrs. A. W., 75 Defrees street, Washington, D. C. Abbott, L. J.. 624 North Fourth street, Philadelphia, Pa. Babcock, W. A., Smyrna, N. Y. Batory, Ignatius, post-office, Barrows, A., South Front and Bartlett, F. A., Room 12, Ben- Beeman, T., Indianapolis, Ind Proposes the organization of co-operative societies. Capital to be Ten hours Knows what has ruined his trade-harness-making; it is labor saving machinery, with which no competition is possible. Great discon tent prevails in his neighborhood (Smyrna, N. Y.) on this subject. He would close the Patent-Office and tax heavily the machines and their products. be. Advocates the "decentralization of capital" by abolishing usury Recommends that the poor in each State should be worked on "in- Appleton, Wm., Albany, N. Y... Believes the source of the depression is in the faulty and expensiv❤ system of revenue collection. It should be abolished, and all reve nue collected by stamps. Buck, Ed., 111 Manhattan avenue, Proposes that workingmen form clubs of 100 or 200 members. Each Greenpoint, L. I. member shall contribute 25 cents every Saturday night. At the end of the year twenty men shall be chosen by lot, among whos the sum contributed (of $1,300 or $2,600) shall be divided, and with this capital they shall take up in a colony government land to be given them gratis by the United States. Approves and calls attention to bill H. R. 2454 (introduced January 14, 1878) to promote inter-State navigation. After canvassing the furniture manufacturers of Chicago, Cincinnati and Philadelphia, he thinks the majority of them agree that the remedy for the present distress is an eight-hour law. It will break up the tenement-house system, giving employés time to reach their shops from the suburbs: it will destroy piece-work; it will give the workingmen the benefit of labor-saving machinery: railroads should be controlled by the government. He is himself a manu Olberg, J. G., 226 Maryland avenue, Washington, D. C. Beiersdorf, J., Chicago, Ill.. facturer. Blood, James N., New York, City. In a very long communication, points out the evolution of society from separate families up to Roman imperialism-the first cycle-and from Roman imperialism, under a decentralizing tendency, te . Writer. List of communications, &c.—Continued. Blood, James N.-Continued.. Bryce, T. T., Hampton, Va.. Brief. American republicanism—the second cycle. But through all this Believes the causes are, (1) over-production; (2) unstable currency. inde Is an employé. Thinks little can be done by Federal legislation, Brown, H. Byron, New York City. Represents an industrial club. Believes the function of government Boyce, S. S., 1322 Fourth avenue, Carhardt, James L., 169 West Carey, John, Newton, Iowa...... to be paternal; that it should control railroads; that taxation Only wishes to offer limits." Seems to find in protection the rem Thinks the failures of savings-banks have caused much of the Has seen four financial crises: (1) After the war of 1812: (2) 1837; (3) List of communications, &c.—Continued. Writer. Carey, John-Continued Caldwell, J. W., box 102, Webb Curtis, Charles, 87 High street, Creed, Ed., San José, Cal Brief. keeping it as a reserve, issue $3 of paper in dollar notes for every $1 of gold. Let this money be loaned to the States as States, and by them to the counties, and by these last to individuals. The rate of interest to be 6 per centum, and the proceeds to be expended in buying more bullion. The loans to be secured by mort gage. Develop postal money-order system into postal savings banks. Believes the tendency of our financial system is to draw capital away from industrial pursuits to funded investments, and to concentrate it in few hands. Denounces strikes and eight-hour agitation, but suggests no remedy. Believes the cause is machinery, by which neither producer nor consumer profit, but only the middle men. The government should buy all machines and throw them into the sea. This would prove cheaper in the end than a war, just as it would have been cheaper to have purchased the slaves than to have fought the war of the rebellion. Chinese immigration should be stopped, and some scheme of colonization adopted. The colonists should be loaned $500 by the gov ernment. Dance, Abel, 158 Joy street, Brook The cause is our vicious financial system. There are too many sinelyn, N. Y. cures in the public offices. We need a system of convertible bonds. Upon the old bonds we should stop paying interest and “cry quits." All fortunes should be limited to $100,000. Any amount above that should be gathered by taxation into a "United States Frontier Settler Soldiers' Relief Fund." Downs, James, Philadelphia, Pa.. Is a hand-loom weaver. His trade has been ruined by machinery so Daggett, J. S., Boston, Mass.... that he can barely keep together soul and body; yet he is about as well off as most of his craft. He does not believe eight-hour laws or the issue of paper money will afford relief, but thinks that colonization will. People of good character should be chosen as colonists. Those of the same religious beliefs should be settled together. The government should advance to them the things nec essary at the outset, branding its property, the price of which should be gradually repaid. Sends advance sheets of his work on co-operation. The world has outgrown a metallic currency. Our cotton alone is worth more than our coin. We need paper money based, not on a handful of gold, but on the country's wealth and the national honor. The volume of the currency should be regulated by the needs of the country and wise legislation. We should then have no panics. He gives a graphic picture of what is accomplished by labor-saving machinery as compared with hand work. Dayton, Charles, 10 Waverly Place, Incloses a paper, read before the American Social Science Associa New York City. Dougherty, Jno., Mt. Union, Penn. Eifert, A. F., 900 Third avenue, tion, upon the effects of labor-saving machinery. Labor, he thinks. should be equally distributed among all persons (but he does not show how it is to be done). The hours of labor should be short ened. Incloses a platform of the People's Progressive Party. Incloses the "Idea-Real" plan of colonization. Believes alcohol to be the cause of three-fourths of our pauperism. The amount of grain used in the manufacture of intoxicating liquor would supply every man, woman, and child in the land with thirty, five bushels of corn. He offers no other suggestions and no plan of relief. The causes are (1) "the monopoly system "; (2) the custom of large firms, like that of Lord & Taylor, dealing in various sorts of ar ticles whereby they can sell cheaper than those who deal in but one kind of merchandise, as the profit on one sort will balance the loss on another; e. g., jewelry he believes can be bought cheaper at Lord & Taylor's than at a jeweler's. Ford, C. W., Philadelphia, Pa..... Thinks that whatever the cause of decreased consumption may be, Folin, C. V., Fordham, N. Y... one thing is certain, that decreased consumption is the cause of our present distress. Let all employers raise wages 15 cents a day; this would increase the annual expenditure by $3,000,000; CODsumption being thus increased would react to raise wages, and high wages would again act to increase consumption. This method would hold good in all times of depression. Government should furnish statistics of wages and prices in all parts of the world. Employers then, knowing what the rates of living were, could pay their hands properly and the employed, knowing the prices of prod ucts, might be reasonable in their demands. It is not the fus tion of government to arrange the terms of employment; but it is one of its duties to prevent either party to a contract taking advantage of the necessities of the other. Thinks the credit system ruinous, and believes the Constitution should be so amended as to make United States money issued in proportion to property as two is to one; the property of the country to be the basis of the money and its value to be determined by annual estimate. The cause is extravagance; the remedies patience and frugality. More money is spent in New York for liquor and tobacco than for bread and meat. When, in an area no larger than a Westchester Writer. Folin, C. V.-Continued. List of communications, &c.-Continued. Fitzgerald, M., 195 Eldridge street, N. Y. Franke, C. L., Louisville, Ky. Fox, Samuel, Quincy, Ill Brief. County farm, and chiefly inhabited by the poor, there is a grog-shop for every 250 souls, counting women and children, it is not wonderful there should be want and suffering. He is one of 5,000 New York bartenders who work on an average A financial plan involved in statement, but accompanied with a great Farris, N. R., Philadelphia, Pa.. Proposes (1) that a tax equal to his passage-money be imposed on every immigrant; (2) that the United States negotiate a loan equal to $10 per capita of population to serve as a fund from which money may be lent to colonists; (3) that to every head of a family so desiring 160 acres of land be granted and a sum of money to be repaid by annual installments within 10 years, no payment being made the first year. That in this way colonies should be formed, the government having a lien on the land and stock for its advances. All land held by corporations under government grant and now unoccupied should be redistributed. Fulton, M. A., Hudson, N. Y...... The acts of March 23, 1867, and July 25, 1868, should be revived, and $500,000,000 issued in 3 per cent. compound currency loan certifi cates of $10 and upward in value, to be held by the banks in lieu of the reserve now required; $50,000,000 of legal-tenders should be issued as a fund for their redemption. Let $1,000,000,000 be issued in 50-year 3 per cent. coin bonds for sale at par in legal-tenders, to be a basis for national and State banking. Let all banks depositing this class of bonds at the rate of $1,000 for $900 of circulating notes be free from Federal taxation. Pay United States expenses out of the new loans and buy up the five-twenties, ten-forties, sixes of 1881, and the new 5 per cent. bonds. Repeal the resumption act, tax incomes, and gross receipts of railroads and canals. Take off three-quarters the duty on sugar and molasses, and increase the tariff on silks, diamonds, &e. Reduce the Army. Withdraw all subsidiary silver coin issued since 1853, substituting frac tional currency and coins of the weight prescribed by act of 1837, chapter 3, section 9. Griffith, N., Covington, Ky. Griffin, R. M, Albany, N. Y Gibson, Walter, 239 Broadway, Gilmer, G. A., Mathews, Ala Farm colonization. He proposes, in order to settle 1,000 families, to give each family 100 acres of land. This will require 12 miles of territory. Upon this he would build 1,000 houses divided into nine villages, each house having an acre of land attached for a garden, besides 39 acres in the village; the remaining 60 acres to be without the town. The government should furnish the neces sary tools and animals to begin with, for which it should be repaid in ten years without interest. No judges in the United States should be elected. The rate of interest should be limited by law to 4 per cent. Proposes to increase the greenback circulation to $1,000,000,000, the surplus issue to be spent in cutting ship canals around Niagara Falls; from the Hudson to Lake Champlain; from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, and from New York Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. A narrow-gauge road is also desirable, he thinks, to unite the Atlantic seaboard with the great Western rivers. Believes much is due to the feeble execution of the laws protecting property There should be a school for policemen similar to those at West Point and Annapolis for officers. Laws against gaming and liquor selling should be repealed; they are hardly ever enforced, and are temptations to corrupt municipal officers. Cause: The violation of the ninth and tenth commandments by those living north of Mason and Dixon's line, from whom God “has withheld the light of his Spirit." Remedies: Repentance; abolition of tariff'; reduction of salaries; lowering the gold dollar to the silver standard: paying those "you have injured;" imposing a direct ad valorem tax on all persons and things" protected by the govern Believe that the working classes derive no benefit from labor-saving machinery; they are idle in times of depression; in busy times they work as long as ever they did. Relief would come from an eight-hour law and the prosecution of government improvements Hubbard, Ch. E., Elmira, N. Y... A straw-worker, twenty-five years old. He pictures his distress and the difficulty of finding work at his trade on account of the introduction of machinery. He would tax the machines proportion ately to the amount of labor saved. Hunt, J. C., Wilson, J. H. H., Nic. olson, J., Boston navy-yard. ment. |