Norfolk day book. [volume] (Norfolk and Portsmouth Va.) 1868-1880, 1869-06-25
From the Portsmouth Gazette.
f2Td0q WASTE.

VI O. 4 4-tt Wan LIZ.
Il The great struggle which now en-
cages the attention of the entire civiliz-
ed world is economy in production.
How to make the same number of
acres support all accumulated popula-
ton how to make vegetable produc-
tions, hitherto regarded as useless, add
to the stock of food Or clothing; how to
make fewer bushels Of coal perform the
worlds work-are some of the most i'm
portant questions now under considera-
ton by the scientific world. To these
may be added the constant endeavor to
utilize fragmentary materials, to gather
up pieces and remnants, new and old,
and make them continue to do duty in
the service of mankind.
As a nation we have not excelled in
the fine arts; we are not yet old enough
for that Our effortshave perforce been
directed to subduing the vast wilder
ness which a century since covered
| nearly the entire continent. We have
| had to develop our mineral products
F., andto accumulate wealth, to settle mo-
mentous political issues, and to estab-
fish permanent commonwealth.
In the struggle for material suprema-
cy we have been very successful, but
there yet remains much to be done,
enough to occupy the attention of in
ventors, engineers and scientific men for
a century to come. Meanwhile we are
constantly ''creating wants" at a rate
that bids fair to outstrip the supply.
Liberality and even profuseness in per-
sonal expenditure are on the increase.
We want rich and high-priced clothing
and furniture, luxurious diet, more
splendid habitations, and increase of all
the accessories of refined life. In the
increase of personal expenditures we see
signs of future trouble for this country.
If the production of all the things we
use, or a large proportion Of them, was
domestic, there would at present be no
cause for apprehension, but we are
sending away our gold and our surplus
food, as fast almost as they can be got
out Of the earth, to foreign countries,
for which we obtain large proportion
Of the tinsel and gewgaws, which have
become-though in their nature essen
| TALLY luxuries-n necessities to us. Could
we be at once and wholly debarred
from the use of such things we should
i soon learn to do without them, and
they would cease to seem desirable to
| US; but we do not quarrel with the
| taste that demands them, it is the nat
ural outgrowth of increasing civiliza-
tion. eJt
What we object to is the purchase Of
such things from abroad. If it be an
admitted fact that they must be had
from some source, we ought to make
them for ourselves. There is now room
for the introduction into this country of
many Of the lighter branches of industry,
| profitably carried on in other lands, and
the products of which constitute the
| largest proportion of the exports of
| France, towards which nation con-
slant stream of gold flows from this
| continent.
The main difficulty is that in pro
| ducts of this kind, where material counts
small and labor foots up large, the
cheap labor of Europe gives great adj
vantage to foreign producers. We be-
lleve the remedy for this is in the hands
of our Government, and is that "pro-
lection" against which such an Jutcry is
just now being made. But we have al
ready expressed our views fully on that
subject.
It would seem, then, that the tenden-
cy Of modern civilization is to economy
in cultivation OF the soil, in means of
transit, in time and labor applied to in
dustrial pursuits, in the motive forces
upon which man depends for the per-
Torrance Of work, and in processes
which transform crude materials into
useful products. While personal re-
quirements increase, and when a pro-
duct is cheapened by an improvement
there are more who want it, and more
labor is demanded in its production.
And it is further evident that while
more labor is demanded to supply the
wants Of the world at large, each indi-
vidual Of the mass has greater scope for
the enjoyment of the products of that
labor 1t is hard to predict where this
will end that its present tendency is
to elevate labor no one can doubt.