Curtailing of Wages of National Armories

FOR THE FREE PRESS
The Curtailing of the Mechanics’ Wages at Harpers-Ferry.

The proposed reduction of the prices at their place, is a subject that has enlisted the deepest solicitude of every member of our highly respectable community, and if carried into effect, it will certainly compel many of our most worthy and respectable mechanics to abandon that service in which they have, with honor to themselves and the public, been employed for years. We cannot, however, think that the heads of our War Department would be so hasty in carrying into effect, without proper investigation, a proposition so malicious, so vastly void of reason, and which must, without failure, prove futile in the extreme. It is well known that for several years past discharges have frequently occurred, and that a thorough revision has been made, so that none but the best hands have been selected and kept; and it may well be asserted, that a more steady, respectable, and experienced collection of mechanics cannot be found. We are of opinion, that if government would have the local disadvantages of this place thoroughly investigated, they would, in justice to us, add to that small pittance which they are so strongly recommended to curtail; and it cannot but be known to some of the officers that compose so honorable a body as that of the Department at Washington City, that the local situation of this place is, in many respects, of the most discouraging kind: our town is destitute of a regular or fixed market– we are generally supplied by the produce of the adjacent country– by country people, who transport it from door to door, and for which they exact a price almost bordering on extortion– they are not destitute of the knowledge that we must be supplied with these necessaries, and for which they levy upon us the most extravagent prices. We are obliged to pay to government a heavy (and I must think an unjust) rent for houses which government some years ago provided free for those employed under her at this place. We are also liable to the effects of the unhealthy situation which we are placed in, and visited annually by those diseases common to the localities of the place. We would ask if these are ties that would be sufficient to bind the restricted mechanic to a climate thick with the dangers of disease? No! We cannot think otherwise, than that government will have a thorough review of the subect, to which we most cheerfully submit.

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By the following article it will be seen that a reduction of wages is also contemplated at the Springfield Armory.

From the Springfield (Mass.) Gazette.
ARMORERS’ WAGES.

This is a subject to which we have repeatedly alluded, and in which we, as well as every other inhabitant of Springfield and the county ought to feel a deep interest, in common with the laborers. If the reduction of the pay for labor should go into effect, as was proposed, on the first of July, the tendency will be to drive many of the respectable and industrious laborers heretofore employed by the United States, to seek other more profitable employment elsewhere. It has often been remarked by our citizens and by strangers who have visited the public works, that so large a body of respectable and intelligent mechanics could not be found in any other manufacturing establishment, and as citizens we should deprecate an exchange for an inferior and less respectable class of laborers. The new tariff of prices, if we are rightly informed on the subject, is most manifestly unjust and edious in its operation. Material reductions are made in the wages of the operatives, and in some cases such as to render it out of the question for them to gain more than a bare subsistence, while in other cases good pay is to be made doubly good.

It would seem that these prices for labor were fixed by those who perhaps know more of the manual exercise after the gun is finished, than they do about wielding the sledge, the hammer, or the file. We are in favor of liberal salaries to competent officers, and equally in favor of giving to the operative a prompt and liberal recompense for his labor. We have been quite sure that the whole truth was not known to the proper authorities at Washington, for we believe that the Secretary of War would be the last man to sanction anything like an oppression of the workmen. The policy of our government should be liberal, both to the laborers and to those in the higher grades of the public service.

We are informed that representations of the effect of the new scheme of prices, have recently been made to the Secretary of War, to which he has given a full and patient hearing, and that there will probably be a re-investigation of the whole matter, which we earnestly hope will result to the mutual advantage of the government, the laborers, and our community.