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[The Newark Mercury says]

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The Newark Mercury says, there are in that city, at the present time, some 8,000 persons who have no employment. Many estimate the number at 10,000, but this, we think, is rather large.

The population of Newark is about 50,000, and when we consider that many of those who are out of work have families depending upon them, we can image to what a state of penury and misery the population of that city will soon be reduced, with so large a proportion of its numbers thrown out of employment. Being in Newark the other day, we met with an instance of meanness on the part of an employer, and endeavor to profit by the distress of his men and scarcity of work, which cannot be too strongly reprobated. When the trade first became dull and money difficult to obtain, this man paid his employees only $3 a week in money, making up the rest of their wages by orders on provision dealers and others who were indebted to him. Finding, however, that the distress was universal, and that there was very little chance of the men obtaining work elsewhere, he concluded that they were at his mercy, and that he could dictate his own terms to them; and he stopped the orders, paying able-bodied men only $3 a week. This conduct of course brought about a strike—and if it had lead the men to lynch the scoundrel, we would not have felt inclined to blame the poor fellows whose he misfortunes he took advantage of to defraud them.

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