The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-27

ductive power of this, and the farm-laborer
has no excuses for revolt, when his employer
is so little better off than himself.
We believe this to be true, so far as it goes
but 1t is by no means a complete account of
the matter, nor will it remain true long The
inventiveness which brought necessity to bed
Oh power-loom Is equal to the production OF
8. practical steam plough when the time is
ripe. And that time cannot be far off. AS
the World set forth some time since the ten
ddency OF things is the same in agriculture as
IN other pursuits, and the farms of the future
are to be to the farms of the present as the
colossal factories of to-day are to the novels
III which ilax was spun and wool woven CEN
tury ago. When that time comes farm la
borers will be as subservient to the land
owners who employ them as operatives are
now to manufacturers, and the necessity for
combinations and ''trades-unionsn among
them will be quite as urgent.
This is the tendency of things, and, whether
we deplore 1t OF exult in it, is equally newt
apIe. But we quite agree with General But
Ier IN thinking that there is no need at all of
an artificial acceleration of it. Such accelera-
ton is undoubtedly furnished by the special
legislation i'll favor of individual or corporate
capitalists, which General Butler Justly
deprecates. In fact, the statute-books of
New York as well as of the New England
States give evidence that our Legislators do
NIUE else than to aggrandize interests which
least OF all need aggrandizing, seeing that they
are already predominant and sure to attain a
sun more exclusive predominance in the
future. But it is as useless to try to check
the course of events by statute as it is unwise
to hasten it by the same device And the
suggestion of General Butler, that there
ought to be some way of looping such over
shadowlng fortunes as that of Commodore
vanderbilt, is bid for the enactment of such
law, agrarian or sumptuary, as history shows
to be precisely most destructive of it's own
end.
We do not know either on what ground
| General Butler is entitled to pronounce that
| agriculture can never be ''the most lucrative
| employment of men, In certain states of
| society it unquestionably has been, and there
| is no reason why the conditions which made
| it so may not recur. In the South before the
| war, cotton-planting was the source of the
| largest fortunes, and may be again when the
place of the patriarchal planter is filled by the
| plutocratic planter. The splendid and daz-
zling fortunes made by speculation are to be
! excepted, to be sure. But if such fortunes
| swell like bubbles, they burst like bubbles
too. And among the Legitimate" businesses
| which seek to supply the real wants of men,
as agriculture is sure to be always the fore
most in importance, so it will remain, on the
WHOLE the most gainful in results. And as
farming is carried on more and more on the
great scale, it may probably become the most
| profitable to the individuals concerned in it.
General Buffers address is well worth
everybody's reading We are happy to have
the opportunity of saying SO, inasmuch az
there is seldom anything of his that we car
conscientiously commend. His change o.
topics is at least praiseworthy. And if, during
| the coming session of Congress, the Doctor
feels especially ''cut up" by the castigations
it will doubtless be our duty to administer to
| him
| 'Iet him come back and cut smoother reed
| And blow a strain the World at last shall heed.p