The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-02-12
WIDESPREAD REVJLsIoN.

There is mQcn III pCSuhAoAy NhoeAO01, y
the want of employment and the restitution |
which prevail largely in all the great cities of |
the United States, which would seem to have
no necessary relation to the peculiarities Of
the political situation of the country or of the
financial policy of the government All the
great cities Of Europe would seem to be I'M
dergoing q similar revulsion. Whatever may
be the local explanation Of each instance, the
concurrence of all the instances would
forcibly suggest their reference to the same
general causes. b. At least results which are so
widely separated in space, and yet so like in
character, are hardly to be accounted for ex-
cept on the assumption Of an inevitable CO.
incidence produced by conditions which, I'M
der some unknown principle, became COM
mon at the same time to all civilized coun-
tries.
There are some eminent writer's indeed,
who do not hesitate to call the unknown
principle referred to, the law of synchronic
actions and reactions. Surprising such law
to operate, revulsions in business are to be
expected to recur, at stated periods, simulta-
neously throughout the commercial world.
According 10 lulE iuGOigy tACSoo VI bA@AO ehuO
industry, in greater or less degree, are bound
to take place in some direction, attended by
corresponding deficiency of labor and enter
prise in the opposite direction and reyul-
sion is simply an effort of nature, so tospeak,
to establish an equilibrium, which, however,
is never established, because it is no sooner
attained than it begins to give way under an
unceasing tendency to excess.
In Europe and in the United States alike
there has been excessive activity in ways that
we're calculated to withdraw people from the
country and to divert labor from rural occu-
pations, and to congest and choke up the
great cities with surplus population. The
consequence is that supplies of food are short
of the demand in both Europe and America
There would be absolute famine, beyond ques-
! ton. in many places, if commerce did not
| perform the benefcent Office of making up
| for local deficiencies by a system Of trans
portation and distribution which professional
charity could never provide. In fact, charity
appears in some cases only to aggravate the
| evil, as in London where it has VIGOROUSLY
converted thousands of poor, whom it pur-
posed to relieve temporarily, into confirmed
paupers. Like the freedmens bureau in the
South, instead of putting its recipients in
way to help themselves, it has opera
ted as a premium on idleness and
seduced them from productive industry.
The nature of the distress in this country,
and the remedy for it, are thus sketched by
the New York Journal of Commerce:
The truth now enforced by these scenes of
wretchedness is, that in nearly all of our large
cities are copyrighted mass Of able bodied men
wholly dispropOrtiODed TO the ordinary demands
Of industry. Ia prosperous days Especially IN
der the stimulus caused by prOfuse expenditure
of newly made greenbscks for the prosecution OF
var) there was work enough for all. But when
the situation is wholly reversed; when dsburse-
ment ends and retTeDchment begins; when the
people are called upon to aid in paying of
| Old debts instead Of making new ones; then
come the times that try mems souls.
Our laboriDg classes must not fail to heed the
lesson now taught by bitter experience, and see
the necessity of dispensing through the country
end devoting themselves TO agricultural pursuits
! without delay. The sooner this conclusion il
reached the better for all concerned. The culture
Of farm products is always in order, ana the en-
couIaRement to such labor never greater thar
now, when famine stalks through many Of the old
countries of Europe and prices 10 the United
States are maintained at such exorbitant rates.
In the same relation, the Cincinnati GA
zette says:
In many a year the city has known no dis
tres like that which prevails. Business is mea
surabIy Frustrated; manufacturers are curtailinG
tier expenses aud are limiting their operations
to the diminished demands of the hour; auC
hence hundreds and thousands, representing
nearly every branch of business and labor, ar
out If emplOyment-sre compelled to dole on
the life of self and family on the scanty saving
| Of not prosperous summer, or must appeal t
the public for aid.
There is nothing in all this to surpris
rejecting people. The garish and feverisl
extravaganza of both profit and expenditur
which prevailed for some years back wer
| only a stimulation Of money-making an
aftiuence. The brilliancy of the scene wa
that which the confagration of a palac
might throw over a riotous carousal upo
! such of its Injuries as had been snatche
from the flames The glory and the sumptr
business are past, leaving behind the ashes {
desolaton.