Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-10-19

D AAllEE LlAOusAlu lOuG huuuIEuF GreaL
Britain twelve thousand, while the
coal fields Of the United States cover
two hundred thousand square miles of
our territory.
Consider our navigable waters, ex-
elusive of Alsaka: We have thirty-
seven thousand miles of sea and lake
shore coasts, and eighty-five thousand
miles Of navigable river line, making
one hundred and twenty-three thous-
and miles Of navigable waters. besides
over forty thousand miles of railroad
and hundreds Of thousands miles Of
telegraph line, which are the nerves
| running along the vast muscles of this
gigantic body.
There is one characteristic of this
domain more striking than any other.
/ The decree is written all over il in
signs and letters which cannot be mis-
understood, that it was made TO be the
home of one people. Its unity is
| proclaimed in every plain, and re-echO-
ed from every mountain, and the de-
! cree is borne along with the resistless
I sweep of her great rivers.
Who shall estimate the influence of
/ the Mississippi river on our national
| policy and destiny?
When the French obtained the ter
/ ritOry of Louisiana, the President
wrote to our minister at Paris these
remarkable words:
'TFere is on the globe one single
/ spot, the pOssessOr of which is our
natural and habitual enemy. 1t is
/ New Orleans, through which the pro-
duee Of three-eighths Of our territory
must pass to market, and from its fer.
| tility it wall ere long yield more than
half our whole produce, and contain
more than half our inhabitants
France, placing herself in that door,
assumes to us the attitude of defiance.
And also these: The exclusion of
the Mississippi is a state of things in
which we cannot exist. Our circum-
stances are so imperious as to admit of
no delay as to our course, and the use
of the Mississippi is so indispensable
that we cannot hesitate one moment
to hazard our existence.
The great Napoleon said when he
signed the treaty that gave US Louisi-
ana: This accession nstrengthensfOr-
ever the power of the United States,
and l have just given to England
maritime rival that Will sooner or Ia
ter humble her pride"
Who shall say how great a power
in saving the Union existed in the
great lesson Of unity taught by the
Mississippi river to those who dwell !
on its shores? Such is the vast and
wonderful territory, the body of the
republic, whose living soul, whose in |
spring life, is the forty millions of
free people that inhabit and adOrn it. [
To make this soul large and luminous
and pure, and this body its beautiful |
and fitting abode is national greatness |
is the highest glory to which human |
society has aspired. This great result |
can be achieved only by such institu- /
tiOns and laws as allow the fullest and /
freest play of every muscle and brain |
upon all the forces and elements with /
in our national domain.
We must make labor honorable |
the labOrer free and intelligent, and /.
the fruit of his toll must be made safe /
and secure under wise and stable laws. /
And what is this American popula- /
tiOn doing? How is labor distributed /
among the various industries?
Unfortunately, our statistics a-s |
meagTe and unsatisfactory and will 1
be cause of regret throughout the |
world that the census now being ta- /
ken is not a greater improvement on /
that of 1860. The statistics of other I
countries, however, aid US in solving |
the general question of the distribu- /
ton Of labor. BY the French census /
OF 1862, ii appears that, out of thirty /
eight millions sOfinhabitantsOfF of France,
twenty millions, or five-ninths of the 4
whole, were engaged in agriculture
Even in great Britain, a country Of /
CrrnoI1 a roo danco r,opr1offnn anA
nOwned for her commerce and manu-
facture, one-third of her population
are agriculturists. The best attaina-
BILE data show that three-quarters of
the people of the United States are en-
gagged in agriculture. To know the
condition Of agriculture, and the peo-
pie engaged in it, is therefore to know
the situation and tendencies of three
fOurths Of the nation. And now what
has this nation been doing in regard
to agriculture since they began the
settlement of this territory?
The wealth that had been brought
into and produced in this country up
to 1860 was estimated at S14, ,1S3, ,OOO,-
900, exclusive of the value Of slaves, /
of which eight billions, four sevenths
ofthe whole, was agricultural wealth
thus distributed: Il
Value OF farm ........ 60 $50 900 900
implements.-.-.-. 2T7.O00.000
ss.OOlOOO.OOO
In other words, place in one scale
the wealth Of all our cities, shipping,
railways, telegraph, mines, manufac-
tories and our agricultural wealth,
placed in the other, will outweigh
them as four to three.
The great destruction of property
north and south during the war, the
consumption of products of
industry, the loss of labor and its di-
version into unprOductive channels,
have been estimated at nine billions
of dollars; but even with this fearful
it is estimated that the
national wealth has so increased that
itnOw amounts tOtwenty-four billions
Of which agricultural wealth still con-
largely, more than half
this volume and distribution {
Of capital is interesting and impor- !
tant, il is far more important to know {
what the labor of the nation is achiev-
ing year by year.
The latest estimate shows that. the /.
labor of the nation is annually pro- /.
ducing 6,S25 millions, and of this !.
amount S,2S3 millions, nearly one :
half, is the direct raw produce of our
farms. The value of farm products
not only unmeasurably greater than !
any other, but are nearly equal to all !
others combined. According to the :
report of the Department Of Agricul- !
ture for 1865, the ten leading crops of :
that year, vegetable products Of the :
farm, were valued at nearly one thous-
and nine hundred millions of dollars. :
In this list cotton is not king, but
corn, hay and wheat is much more
valuable
Consider, also, the part that agri- /
culture plays in our foreign trade. I
The official report for the year end q
ing June 80, 1870, shows that the ag- I
gregate value of our exports during \
the year, exclusive of gold and silver, q
was S4S6, 900, 900, ofwhieh S349, 900, ,O59 :
Isl per cent were the unmanufactur- ?
ed products of the farm. i
Indeed, our part i'm the work of feed g
ing the world was never more stri- Z
king exhibited than in a report of the C
of the Universal Expo e
5ition at Paris in 1867, in which it was e
shown that the annual cereal product
Of twenty-one kingdoms of Europe 4
was sixteen bushels per head Of the S
while the annual cereal 4
product of the United States was over L