The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-06-02
THE QUESTION OF THE HOUR.
Iron the New York Telegraph
THE WAY OF DEVELOPING MOST WEALTH.

THE WAY OF DEVELOPING MOST WEALTH.
Every upcultivated acre of land tends
in some degree to keep wages low and food
dear. 1t is therefore double grievance to
the poor. And every horse kept for plea
sure, or at work which could be performed
by human or mechanical agency, has a
tendency to produce the same two-fold evil
result. If it were possible to till the soil
and draw our vehicles by some mechanical
power, the immediate effect of destroying
our horses would be very considerable,
and the general productive result of scien-
tifc husbandry would be much greater
than it is at present with horse husbandry.
Suppose that X, Y and z possess an
equal amount of money and 1000 acres
each of the same quality of wheat-growing
land that x lets his property in lots of
five acres to two hundred tenants, who
cultivate the soil by manual labor; that Y
lets his in farms Of two hundred and fifty
acres to four tenants, who employ in the
aggregate thirty or forty horses and as
many families and that farms bis own
property in one holding, employs the best
machinery, the cheapest mechanical force,
the highest skilled labor, abundance of
capital, and all the assistance which science
can lend him. 1t would be found that the
latter, besides being able to raise most food
per acre, would also have most available
acres to cultivate. 1t is clear that Y would
require to feed many horses not needed by
q, and that he would be obliged to build
four dwelling houses and four steadings
where one would serve the latter. X
would require to use many acres for
buildings and fences; and though 2
might have most capital floating in the
soil, X and Y would have most sunk, and,
in the aggregate, most invested. q, besides
being able to bring most food to market,
would have most money to spare for other
productive purposes; consequently Us
mode Of cultivation would be most likely
to check pauperism, and to promote the
comfort of large bread eating town pop
ulation. A wine, cotton or tea producing
country may require large rural popula-
ton a country or district suitable only for
growing cereals and the various crops used
as food for oxen and sheep cannot be
densely peopled in the general interests of
labor. 1t is therefore for the interest of
the wage-earning classes that every avail
able inch of land should be cultivated on
the most scientific principles, and that the
forces employed in its cultivation should
be mainly mechanical.
OBSTACLES TO NATIONAL PROSPERITY.
Capital, machinery and skilled labor are
the three requisites for developing the ma
tural resources of country. To endeavor
IN au1fsuata fboco hx, lx-1.~ &c
protective custom-house with its expensive
staff Of unproductive officials is like going
many miles round about to procure an OBJ
ject on the opposite side of the street. To
employ the tariff for revenue purpose is
equally foolish, when less Objectionable
means are at our command. The mercau-
tile profits derivable from legitimate ma
tional establishments, such as the post
Office, public railways and telegraphs,
State land and loan banks, government
life assurance offices, and industrial prisons
and warehouses would so far exceed the
revenues of a custom-house as to enable
nation unburdened with debt to dispense
with all taxation. And the prudent man
agement of public affairs by the public on
commercial principles ought to stimulate
sound private enterprise, and check the
establishment, or growth, of those bubble
companies whose collapse produces so
much general destitution.
But the question arises, what are legt-
innate public as distinguished from legti-
mate private undertakings? On this sub
ject much prejudice and some misconcep-
ton prevail. 1t is not uncommon for the
government and the nation to be spoken Of
as if their interests were separate or OPP
posed to each other, whereas the govern
ment is, or ought to be, the mere arm or
instrument that executes the national will.
Hence, in all cases of mismanaged public
business, the remedy does not consist in
getting private companies or local commu-
mites to do national work, but in dismiss
ing incompetent State officials. 1t is wiser
to encourage private enterprise by develop
ing rather than by dwaring, by stimulat-
ing rather than by usurping the flow Of
public enterprise.
Public undertakings may be divided into
two classes--the national and the NUM-
cipal or local. Gas works, water works,
docks, street railroads, omnibuses &C., are
examples of undertakings which, if in the
hands of a municipality, and prudently
managed by the municipality, ought to
yield revenue sufficient to balance ordi-
nary local expenditure, and to permit
private companies to extract large demands
from them is not only to infict direct in
jury on the community, but to lessen the
force and influence of private enterprise in
more legitimate and more productive d.
rections.
THE FOLLY OF TAXATION AS 1T IS.
Taxation, as generallysundersto is a
political blunder. An income tax operates
unequally, unfairly, unjustly. A tax on
well-managed property restraints enter
prise, and indirect taxes are the most in
furious of any. Scarcity of productive
work is the result of unemployed capital
and unemployed national credit.
Taxation is rendered necessary solely
because many people neglect property,
misuse capital, abuse privileges, and mis-
direct labor, and we contend that as the
proceeds of an adequate tax on the guilty
would be sufficient for ordinary revenue
purposes none but the guilty should be
liable to taxation. A, being innocent,
should untaxed BIS loan to foreign gov
eminent, if not his income, be made to
pay tribute to the national banker, and @
should be heavily taxed for the luxury of