New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-02-01
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..

not merely q shelter lOr Tue nlSho, ouV " "'"
itation of his own in which he is content TO
live and resigned to die. Crime is the fruit OF
bomelesspess-of the thousands who crowd our
State prisons not even hundreds owned house
or farm when they sank into felony. III every
family in this country owned its home, the
number annually graduated through idleness
and vice into outright, fragrant villainy would
be RAPIDLY and permanently diminished.
We urgcs no one who has steady, assured
employment, and is doing well, to seek new
field of exertion. TO such, we would only say,
Resolve to save part of your present income
Cor the evil days that must surely come III
YOU have no home and cannot yet afford to buy
one, put part of your current earnings INTO
savings bank, or into Government bonds, OF
into some form of security that may be con-
verted into tho home that you are sure to
need. and at no distant day. Cling to the
City. if you will, while Trade prospers and
Work abounds, but keep ever IN mind the
instability of Fortune and resolve to be soon
settled for life in your own chosen home!
But every city has its hundreds, every great
city its thousands who are not truly thriving
who have some hundreds il not thousands
ahead, yet can no longer increase their hoard,
because their families have grown faster than
their incomes, or because expenses have IN
creased faster than their earnings. These have
nothing TO gain by clinging desperately to
pavements; in fact, many of them grow old
aud infrm, and cannot earn as they once did.
Many an artisan OF small trader could take
5000 ont of the City with his family next
Spring who, should he remain here. will not
be able TO do it thereafter. To oil such, we
most earnestly say, Strike at once for the open
country Land is cheaper now than almost
anything else it will be dearer ten years hence,
though we meantime return TO Specie Pay
ments. Go South-go West-gO East if you
will-for there is much srable land in Yer
mont or Maine that can be bought for less
than the cost of the buildings and fences--go
into the heart of our own noble State-Go
wlthersoever you will, so that the roof over
your head, with some acres of adjacent land,
shall thenceforth be yours-so that your wife
and children may rejoice in the secure posses
sion of a home
Right well do we know that the cit who
migrates TO the country braves many rebuffs
and disappointments-tha he will he tempted
to cripple himself at the outset by buying
more land than he should so as to cripple
him for years-that he will be discouraged by
the necessity of buying animals, implements,
food, seed, &c. 10y blighted crops and sickness
in his family. No man ever yet entered upon
a new career without making frequent miscal-
citations and seeing many dark hours. But
the pioneer CLEANS wisdom from each dis
covered mistake, each days rugged experience,
and is cheered by the consciousness that he is
on the high road to independence for his chill
dren and their children. Of those who embark
in Trade, large majority fail; while of those
who really try to thrive by productive labor,
by far the larger number succeed. Their gains
may seem meaGer, but they are sure; and each
days resolute effort fits them to achieve o
better result on the morrow.
We hear with satisfaction that many from
this quarter are buying lands in the South,
and that much larger number are consider
ing and inquiring with intent to do likewise il
suited. Much is said Of the desirability Of
inducing large emigration from Europe, to
which we make no objection but there is
better work nearer home. If One Million
persons could this year DO drawn out of
our cities and settled on the new lands
of the West or the dilapidated plantations of
the South, the consequent enhancement of
our National prosperity would be incalcu-
liable. There would be people enough left
in the cities to do all the needed work, while
those who left us would add immensely to our
annual product of material wealth. This coun-
try would be vastly richer and more prosperous
if the surplus population of her cities could be
gradually difhsed over her waste places and
her not yet half titled farms. Governments can
do little to promote and accelerate such diffu-
sion, yet several States have entered system
atcally upon the work of making known the
fertility and cheapness of their yet unoocupied
lands, the excellence of their climate, timber,
water-power, &C., respectively, with intent to
attract immigration. If only as an earnest of
the welcome which immigrants are likely to
meet, this action has decided value; and the
information that these State agencies collect
and disseminate must prove useful to thou
sands
Let it be clearly understood that so far at
least as the South is concerned, there is no
present demand for unsxilled labor In each
of the Southern States, there is more labor
already than there is demand for--or rather
more than there are means to pay. The South
did well In 1868; but she is still poor, and her
landholders are generally in debt. Farming
or planting to profit involves the power to
command Labor when it is needed and