But As To That Matter Of Non-
Payment Of Wages, The Men Must Live; And Here, As Elsewhere, The
Master Who Omits To Pay Once Will Hardly Find Laborers In Future.
The Matter Would Remedy Itself Elsewhere, And Does It Not Do So
Here?
This of course is so, and it is not to be understood that
labor as a rule is defrauded of its hire.
But the relation of the
master and the man admit of such fraud here much more frequently
than in England. In England the laborer who did not get his wages
on the Saturday, could not go on for the next week. To him, under
such circumstances, the world would be coming to an end. But in
the Western States the laborer does not live so completely from
hand to mouth. He is rarely paid by the week, is accustomed to
give some credit, and, till hard pressed by bad circumstances,
generally has something by him. They do save money, and are thus
fattened up to a state which admits of victimization. I cannot owe
money to the little village cobbler who mends my shoes, because he
demands and receives his payment when his job is done. But to my
friend in Regent Street I extend my custom on a different system;
and when I make my start for continental life I have with him a
matter of unsettled business to a considerable extent. The
American laborer is in the condition of the Regent Street
bootmaker, excepting in this respect, that he gives his credit
under compulsion.
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